Today at GSMA's Mobile World Congress 2016, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported significant progress in all areas of their next-generation strategic partnership, announced in November 2015. The companies' sales forces have successfully engaged with customers across the world on business deals spanning networking, mobility and cloud technologies, IP transformation and managed services agreements, resulting in new and expanded businesses opportunities.
With a joint and complete end-to-end offering, global market presence, unparalleled market position and strong cultural fit, the partnership was developed to drive growth, accelerate innovation and speed up digital transformation. In the three months since the partnership was announced, close to 200 customer engagements have resulted in multiple recent customer wins, including agreements with operators for mobile IP backbone network transformation, transformation of TV proposition and cable network, modernization of mobile backhaul leveraging Ericsson's systems integrations and global services capabilities.
In addition, Cisco today announced a collaboration with Ericsson and Intel to develop a next-generation 5G router for business and residential services. Together they will begin to develop and trial what is expected to be the industry's first 5G (fifth-generation mobile networks) router. As members of the Verizon 5G Technology Forum, Cisco, Ericsson and Intel are partnering with Verizon within an ecosystem to accelerate the pace of critical 5G innovations.
The two companies have accelerated work on their joint go-to-market models and sales force training, and are making progress with their tactical planning and global resource build-up. Further solutions and collaborations are being pursued in parallel in six strategic areas - IP core, fixed cable broadband access, business VPN, mobile backhaul, IP transformation services and IP & IT managed services - as well as smart cities, with the potential to collaborate on Internet of Things (IoT) technology development.
Ericsson also introduced today the Ericsson Dynamic Service Manager, a new product for real-time management of network services via multiple technology and vendor domains. The result of a collaboration and encompassing intellectual property from the two companies, the Dynamic Service Manager will initially focus on multi-vendor mobile backhaul, IP core, and enterprise VPNs. It brings together Ericsson's leadership in OSS and Cisco's expertise in IP and optical for the cost-effective management of complex network services. General availability of this product is expected in second half of 2016.
Beyond these partnership developments, the two companies have also signed a joint intellectual property rights agreement, as well as a professional services agreement. The latter will leverage a combination of 66,000 Ericsson and 11,000 Cisco services employees to provide consulting, systems integration, support and managed services across IT and networks in 180 countries.
Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson, said: "I'm excited about the feedback from the customers and from the sales force when we present our joint capabilities. It is clear that our two companies approach this partnership with the same commitment and will to execute. With rising network complexity and performance requirements the strategic partnership offers a clear value to our customers."
Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco, said: "In today's fast-paced world, next generation strategic partnerships allow us to innovate and move with greater speed. Since announcing our partnership with Ericsson in November, we have great momentum resulting in cost-effective solutions, improved experiences, and faster time to market for our customers. Our complementary portfolios and intense customer focus make me more convinced than ever that Cisco and Ericsson's unique partnership will drive even greater growth for our customers and faster innovation for the industry."
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