CenturyLink will enhance customer experience with Ericsson Service Agility
- Ericsson delivers Service Agility based on Service Innovation Framework, a catalog-driven OSS/BSS software suite
- Service Agility will enable CenturyLink to quickly deliver new enterprise applications
- Significant milestone in Ericsson's mission to support operators in becoming agile and successfully differentiating themselves in a competitive marketplace
CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) have signed an agreement for a next-generation OSS/BSS solution. Through this joint development effort, Ericsson will utilize its Service Innovation Framework to help enhance the CenturyLink customer experience, giving enterprise customers more control over their services and helping reduce service delivery times.
This new solution, which will begin implementation at the end of 2014 and continue through 2015, will enable CenturyLink to simplify its business processes through the use of a single platform for delivering next-generation products such as Global Ethernet, Internet, Virtual Private Network and Optical Wavelength services to its enterprise customers. As part of this effort, CenturyLink will implement an open Application Program Interface (API) structure, allowing quicker delivery of new products and features.
"Ericsson's Service Agility will help support our goals to simplify our business and better serve our customers by enabling faster product delivery, enhancing service capabilities and providing back office support for the software-defined network and virtualized environment we are creating," said James Feger, CenturyLink Vice President of Network Strategy and Development. "We recognize the value of Ericsson's thought leadership and innovation and are excited that our collaboration on this new OSS/BSS solution will provide our customers with an enhanced service experience."
Ericsson is utilizing its OSS/BSS and Service Enablement portfolio to provide its customers with a unified, end-to-end framework to support new business models, enable rapid introduction of new products including M2M and digital services, and help transition from legacy to consolidated next-generation systems and business processes.
Global providers must be more agile than ever in addressing changing market needs. To meet consumer demand, operators need to improve the customer experience, capture new revenues and drive business efficiencies. Ericsson is enabling these efforts with a comprehensive, unified OSS and BSS product suite that combines business, IT and network capabilities.
Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson, says: "We continue to build upon our wide and deep portfolio to bring pre-integrated solutions to the market for faster time-to-market and lower total cost of ownership. CenturyLink is leveraging these next-generation advancements with the full integration of the former Telcordia and ConceptWave products into the Ericsson portfolio. With Service Agility, CenturyLink will be in the next wave of solution owners delivering the best customer experience in the enterprise space."
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and is recognized as a leader in the network services market by technology industry analyst firms. The company is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprise customers. CenturyLink provides data, voice and managed services in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers for businesses and consumers. The company also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink® Prism(TM) TV and DIRECTV brands. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations. For more information, visit www.centurylink.com
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E-mail: stephanie.n.meisse@centurylink.com