VEON announced a revised deal with Ericsson to upgrade its core IT systems in several countries.
Ericsson, as per the new contract, will not manage the development and delivery of the Full Stack Revenue Manager Solution.

VEON will receive $350 million from Ericsson during the first half of 2019 as a result of the new contract.

This revised deal enables VEON to continue upgrading IT infrastructure with new digital business support systems (DBSS) using existing software from Ericsson which is already deployed in certain operating companies.

Yogesh Malik, chief technology officer of VEON said: “This upgrade is expected to support the creation of a more personalised, richer experience of VEON’s services for customers and, over time, reduce overall operating costs.”

Ericsson has supported VEON to digitise the core of its operations in Algeria and Georgia during the past year.

Ericsson BSS strategy

Ericsson, the third largest telecom network maker, earlier indicated there will be a negative impact on its operating income in Q4 2018 by SEK 6.1 billion, mainly impacting gross margin, due to a revision in its BSS strategy.

Ericsson earlier, as per the earlier BSS strategy, pursued large transformation projects based on pre-integrated solutions, including development of the full-stack Revenue Manager, a next generation BSS platform.

Ericsson admitted that the strategy did not work well. Ericsson did not generate any revenue from the full-stack Revenue Manager.

Delays in product and feature development have also made the full-stack Revenue Manager less competitive, Ericsson said.

Ericsson presented a revised BSS strategy, including increased investments in the established platform, Ericsson Digital BSS, and refocusing the full-stack Revenue Manager to fulfilling existing customer commitments only.

Baburajan K