Ericsson sees bright future in professional services

Magnus Mandersson may only have a day under his belt as the new head of Ericsson's Global Services unit, but he's confident that professional services will continue to be a growth engine for the company.

While it won't reveal total growth of the unit for 2009 until Jan. 25, in 2008 Ericsson's generated $10 billion in services revenues: $7 billion from professional services and $3 billion from network build out services. Boosted by major professional services wins such as its contract to run [1] Sprint's wireline and wireless networks, Ericsson's services segment grew 20 percent in the first nine months of 2009.

Of course, Ericsson is not alone in its professional services desires. It faces two sets of competitors that are fighting for a piece of professional services pie: traditional telecom vendors (Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks) and IT service companies (IBM Global Services and Hewlett Packard).

To further the division's growth, Mandersson said he'll focus on looking at possible acquisitions of other smaller professional services shops. Proof of that mission came last week when Ericsson reached a deal to acquire [2] Italian professional services company Pride Spa.

For more:
- LightReading Europe has this analysis [3]

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