NICE, France — TM Forum Live! — Orange CIO Pascal Viginier had to address board-level concerns that lack of IT sophistication would be the downfall of the Essentials2020 strategy the operator unveiled in March 2015.

Under Essentials2020, the French telecom incumbent aims to generate about €1 billion ($1.14 billion) in revenues from Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile banking services by 2020. (See Eurobites: Orange Plans €15B Networks Upgrade.)

Speaking at a Huawei breakfast briefing at the TM Forum Live! event earlier this week, Viginier revealed that Orange’s Board members were initially worried IT shortcomings might derail the Essentials2020 project, which calls for the digital transformation of the operator’s entire business.

“When we chose the strategy the board of directors was worried that IT would be the thing that blocked it, and we had an emergency meeting so I could report on what we are doing,” he told an audience of service providers and other industry executives. “At the end of that session, though, the board was confident we could deliver.”

Viginier disclosed details of seven internal initiatives that appear to have reassured board members and now represent building blocks of the digital transformation strategy.

Those cover the areas of customer experience, security, skills, big data, APIs, IT excellence and the internal environment for Orange employees.

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