The size and length of the deal were not disclosed but the move will see 56 employees transfer to Ericsson which will take on responsibility for remote maintenance and change management for traditional and IP-based PBXs used by Elisa’s enterprise customers.
Elisa announced plans to outsource large chunks of its business earlier this year in order to improve its profitability. It is aiming to raise its operating margin to above 35% by the end of 2009, up from a level of 29% in 2006.
Ericsson said the contract is its first deal in Finland to manage a multivendor network. Operators are increasingly looking to consolidate multiple maintenance contracts to support equipment from a number of different vendors in the network estates into deals with a single supplier.
Last week, Ericsson won a six-year managed services deal with Deutsche Telekom which saw it take on 600 of the operator’s staff responsible for running its microwave network.
