Telia signs six new agreements for managed services
Within a short period of time, Telia has been awarded six new multi-million-kronor contracts in Sweden for managed services. In the agreements, customers are integrating their fixed and mobile telephony services within a single solution that will be leased from Telia. The combined value of the agreements is approximately SEK 180 million*. New customers include SCA Packaging and the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen).
In 2006, Telia’s Managed Services offerings dashed to the finish line in December, wrapping up a good year. During the month, Telia signed six new contracts resulting in a three-year or five-year managed services agreement for fixed and mobile telephony. The customers are CSN (Centrala studiestödsnämnden), the national authority providing financial aid to students; SCA Packaging, the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen), the Örebro County Council (Örebro läns landsting), Swedish Meats, and the Cydonia Group, which includes the Bra Böcker publishing house and Nationalencyklopedin, publisher of the Swedish encylopedia.
“This is the new way to purchase communication and IT services,” says Juho Lipsanen, Group Vice President and Head of Business Area Integrated Enterprise Services, TeliaSonera AB. “More and more companies want to purchase entire functions that are simple to implement and use, instead of buying individual products and having to be responsible for the integration process themselves.”
A few of the customers will only use mobile telephones in the new solution. In some cases, they have also chosen to purchase the mobile phones from Telia, which means that the agreement also covers service and support for the phones.
*Of the SEK 180 million, approximately SEK 120 million is for three-year contracts and about SEK 60 million for five-year contracts.
About Managed Services
The agreements are part of TeliaSonera’s initiative to focus on managed services. Simply described, managed services mean that TeliaSonera assumes total responsibility for the technology behind the communications service and the customer purchases a managed function, such as telephony, data communications or IT workstations.