Ericsson have worked hard to secure this extremely valuable order for MD110 upgrade. It should add considerable confidence to the User community throughout the UK as it represents a big vote of confidence in the Ericsson convergence platform and its capability to supply to the client a fully integrated solution to meet the current and future demands of business communication.
What is at the heart of this upgrade is the Ericsson MD110 IP capabilities as it has been recognised that the platform offers Global Crossing and their Railnet customer a full range of IP capabilities full integrated old and new.
Soneric based in Scotland have bought out the ACAD systems business activities based in Watford. Soneric will be taking over full responsibility and retain all the ACAD systems personnel. Soneric will be expecting to increase their focus on Ericsson products and services during 2005.
ACAD will be concentrating on their infrastructure cabling business and still serve the Ericsson client base with those services directly and indirectly (through organisations such as Damovo UK).
A new reseller partner has been recruited to the Ericsson UK sales channel for MD110. DV02 are based in Portsmouth and have been working with Ericsson in various guises for over 3 years. They have a current client base of MD110 customers they serve with a range of products and services throughout the UK.
The final pieces of the high touch strategy are now in place with the recruitment of two new members to the Ericsson business team. I say new but these two recruits are both very experienced with Ericsson and MD110; Paul Johnson ex Damovo and previous to that Ericsson will head up the sales activity and Mike Wheeler ex PNM, Damovo and Ericsson will join the channel support team.
Jon Smith the head of the UK Enterprise indicated that he was extremely pleased to have recruited such highly experienced and also highly regarded individuals to the team.
From an end customer perspective you will not see the benefit directly, however, the intention is to better serve the channel and work more closely with them in complex deal management and support.
The UK has been a decining market for Ericsson in the last 4 years in enterprise terms. The main reasons for this downturn are twofold, the marketplace shrinking combined with the entrance of new players and IP, and the selling off of the direct business activity to APAX partners in 19 countries. The sell off was to intended to enable Ericsson to create increased re-seller channels but this strategy failed in the medium to large enterprise market in the UK especially. All it succeeded in doing was to alienate the customer ....... I am sure you can all testify to that!
Ericsson Strategy going forward
Ericsson Enterprise in the UK under the direction of Jonathan Smith is to recruit a high touch team that will help the saleschannels by providing direct support to the cuistomers.
Will it work?
Well it might if more channels are to be created.
What does it mean to you the existing customer?
Well you might see more contact from Ericsson directly however you will still be required to place all your orders and receive all your offers through the sales partners. If you want to see who they are currently please click here .
Should you care?
Well if they are successful it will mean more potential choice.
How things have changed in the marletplace! The BBC, one of Ericsson flagship contracts for MD110 has come under the management of Siemens in the second quarter of 2004. Siemens have been looking to find a service partner to look after the Ericsson MD110 estate of some 72,000 ports. Damovo were the previous owners of the contract and after deliberations on both sides Siemens decided to retain Damovo as the first and second line service partner.
Confirmation has been received that a new framework contract has been agreed between Global Crossing and Ericsson. This in a nutshell will allow Global Crossing to upgrade the existing customers of MD110 (estimated to be in the order of 55,000 extension ports). Global are oblidged to undertake this on some accounts as part of the old Freenet agreement with many of the existing customers reaching the end of the 5 year agreements originally signed. Ericsson are hoping this will open the doors for new business with Global Crossing now that the operator seems to have come through it's business restructuring.
We will seek full confirmation during November that the new contract is formally signed.
Formally announced at the user group, Premises Networks are now a full sales partner of Ericsson Enterprise in the UK. This will not have any impact on customers currently although it may indicate that PNM might be looking to put more focus into sales activities.
Logicalis have lost their sales partner status however they still remain a service partner. This relationship has not blossomed as was hoped by Ericsson. With the departure of the sales team and disappointing sales performance the outcome was inevitable.
Andy Starnes has now been confirmed as the UK & Ireland channel director. Andy has worked for Ericsson for approximately 7 years and prior to that at British Telecom. He has a good understanding of the MD110 portfolio and the customer, having been an account manager selling MD110 solutions to medium and large businesses in the UK. Andy has a team of 5 based in the UK supporting the channel activities. We will be looking to improve the contacts between UK customers and Ericsson, we will be encouraging Ericsson to keep a close eyer on our information forums to ensure they do not lose further sight of the end customer.
BT have become a full service partner for MD110, re-visiting their roots once more. BT were the exclusive maintainers of the MD110 in the days of the post office monopoly. This move is an interesting one, perhaps geared toward a new initiative? We will look to explore the BT strategy in more detail and keep you informed.
Jon Smith having resigned from Damovo has now taken up a position with Ericsson in the UK responsible for Enterprise and Innovation. Jon was the guiding force as MD of Ericsson Enterprise in 2001 who managed the takeover by APAX partners. He has a long association with the Ericsson in the UK and with the MD110 and Managed Services development.
Steve Jarvis has resigned from Logical and joined Improcom as Sales Practice Director. This does put a question mark over the position of Logical as a Ericsson Sales partner. Steve effectively headed the small team that focused on MD110. We will be keeping an eye on the situation at Logical to see if their commitment to Ericsson remains.
Changes at Damovo continue to bite deep. The latest changes have seen the dismantling and closure of the global group. These spell an end of the global strategy for Damovo. The new CEO Michael Collins brought in by APAX to tightly manage Damovo is continuing to cut away all the support functions built by the originial management team in an effort to reduce costs in line with revenues.
The head of Ericsson Enterprise Lars Svensson has been replaced by Mats Dahlin. Svensson has taken up a position in Poland and remains with Ericsson. Is this a sign of a new Enterprise initiative from Ericsson......that can only spell good news for the customer in the UK! We will look to find out more over the next month.
Jonathan Harden having been let go by Damovo in the recent Job cuts has been snapped up by Siemens to head up their managed service unit. Johnathan was well know to a number of managed service clients with large MD110 systems. Watch out for some new Siemens initiatives in managed services.
Michael Collins is appointed new CEO of Damovo. The appointment signifies that Apax having lost confidence in the previous management, are going to look right across the global business in an effort to improve performance. The starting point is getting the costs under control...
Pearce Flynn leaves Damovo and an interim APAX team are put in place. Despite all the talk of numbers and increase in business the group is clearly in trouble. APAX are looking to manage the business and undertake a comprehensive review.
Ian Cooke leaves Damovo and takes over at Logical as CEO of the UK operation. This move is nothing to do with Ericsson or MD110, it is coincidental that Logical are one of Damovo's rivals for Ericsson MD110 business.
Tell us what you would like know and we will look to include it as long as it benefits the user, dont be bashful give us feedback.
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