Telcordia partners with T-Systems for Central and Eastern Euro market

In a carefully worded agreement called a teaming partnership, Deutsch Telekom’s information and communications technology group, T-Systems, became the tip of Telcordia Technologies spear into Central and Eastern Europe this week.

The companies will target the wireline, mobile and professional services markets with products and services that address DSL provisioning, inventory and activation, IP network support, prepaid, quality of service, number management and portability.

“The DSL opportunity in Central and Eastern Europe is tremendous…and we’re trying to model [the agreement] so they become a channel partner of ours as well,” said Graeme Verroken, head of alliances in EMEA for Telcordia.

The number management solutions will include a prepaid service bureau for professional services. The prepaid solutions are centered on Telcordia’s ISCP platform.

T-Systems has approximately 41,000 employees in over 20 countries and did around $10 billion Euros in business last year.

T-Systems will be one of several partners Telcordia has entered into relationships with to help their international growth plans. Other partners include IBM, CGEY and Dimension.

T-Systems provides services across the IT and enterprise spaces and has strong experience in the parts of Europe that Telcordia wants to address.

Regarding T-Systems telecom legacy, Doug Fantuzzi, group senior vice president of portfolio management at Telcordia, said “We speak the same language. We know the same business.”

Verroken said T-Systems and IBM do compete in some areas, but that IBM is not sharply focused on Central and Eastern Europe and that the relationship between T-Systems and IBM is strong. “We were looking for a partner who could be proactive in that market,” he said.