Vodafone agrees multi-million euro deal with Ericsson
Vodafone has today selected Ericsson to manage the supply and distribution of spare parts for its mobile networks across several of its major European operating companies in Germany, Spain and Portugal.
Under the multi-million euro deal, Ericsson will assume responsibility for the logistics, warehousing, repair and replacement of multi-vendor spare parts in the selected operating companies.
According to Vodafone, this will deliver greater cost efficiencies to the mobile phone giant through lower average prices for the management process of spares, as well as enhanced service levels.
“This initiative is another example of how Vodafone is looking for more and more innovative ways to deliver on its cost reduction strategy in Europe,” said Vodafone’s global director for supply chain management Detlef Schultz.
“By agreeing this managed services contract with Ericsson, we will be even better placed to focus on our customers and give them an even better mobile experience.”
The agreement will cover the end-to-end management of spare parts for 2G, 3G and transmission equipment in the selected European operating companies.
The initiative forms part of Vodafone’s cost reduction strategy as each Vodafone operating company currently runs its own spare parts operation.
The deal will be effective from April 2007 and the service will be implemented in the participating Vodafone operating companies in the course of this year.
During that time, Vodafone will also have the option to further extend the agreement to additional operating companies.
“Vodafone has truly been in the forefront demonstrating their innovative approach which has been a key success factor when developing this solution,” said Ericsson’s executive vice president and head of business unit global services Hans Vestberg.
“This agreement will bring further benefits from leveraging on economies of scale and skill across several countries.
“This is an evolution of Ericsson’s managed services capabilities, enabling operators to outsource their entire supply chain of spare parts. This is also to date one of the biggest contracts for multi-vendor spare parts management.”
