Ooredoo Group has announced it has engaged Ericsson as its next-generation digital transformation partner for Business Support System solutions.

The two entities have signed a five-year group frame agreement that will see the deployment of the latest Ericsson BSS solutions across several Ooredoo Group operating companies, giving Ooredoo a new set of capabilities across the customer, product, revenue and service management domains of its business operations. Ericsson BSS solutions will enable Ooredoo to serve any type of customer or partner, network technology or chargeable event.

In the partnership - aimed at driving the Group’s digital transformation strategy, business operational excellence and customer experience transformation programmes - the deployment of Ericsson Business Support Systems (BSS) solutions will enable digitalisation of, and innovation within, the Group, shortening time to market and increasing business opportunities. The agreement will also facilitate greater operational flexibility and enhanced efficiency.

Ericsson Digital Monetisation Platform (DMP) – a convergent charging and billing solution to monetise all network technologies (including 5G), business models and customer types – will be one of the strategic target solutions for the most evolved operating companies of the Ooredoo Group.

Designed to meet communications service providers’ increasing demand for end-to-end best-in-suite solutions that combine powerful business performance with cost efficient operations, management, and deployment, Ericsson DMP will drive Ooredoo’s digital transformation by enabling convergence, providing cost efficiency and minimizing time-to-market for new Ooredoo customer offerings, as well as promoting innovation.

Indosat Ooredoo is the first of the Ooredoo operating companies to transform its full BSS stack with Ericsson DMP. Ooredoo Tunisia, Ooredoo Kuwait and Ooredoo Oman have also recently selected Ericsson Charging to improve their customer digital experiences.

In addition to Ericsson Digital Monetisation Platform and Ericsson Charging, the frame agreement also includes Ericsson Billing, Ericsson Catalog Manager, Ericsson Order Care, Ericsson Dynamic Activation and Ericsson Mediation to support Ooredoo’s digital transformation and monetisation programmes.

Nigel Thomas Byrne, Group Chief Technology Information Officer, Ooredoo, says: “Ericsson’s Business Support Systems portfolio provides a holistic view and roadmap for Ooredoo’s goal of digital transformation and enables us to provide seamless connectivity and innovative services to our customers. Ericsson’s end-to-end solutions will support Ooredoo’s requirements of delivering best-in-class services to consumers and businesses in record time, and leading technology performance. We are confident in Ericsson’s technology leadership and ability to maximise 5G opportunities.”

Jan Karlsson, Head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson, says: “Digitalisation is transforming the entire Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry and opening up a whole host of opportunities with it. Today’s agreement confirms our position as a major partner to the Ooredoo Group and we are proud to extend the relationship into the future and across Ooredoo Group operating companies. We are looking forward to working together to accelerate the Ooredoo Group’s digital transformation goals and enable their Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) strategies.”