Protek, IFS forge commercial partnership

Customers to benefit from increased return on investment

Telecommunications companies will now Be able to increase revenue and make significant capital cost savings, thanks to a strategic business alliance between Protek, a leading supplier of Business and Operational Support systems (B&OSS), and IFS, the world`s fastest growing supplier of ERP II, Enterprise Resource Planning applications.

The agreement will provide fixed-line and mobile operators with a seamless integrated solution, which combines Protek`s real-time inventory, network management, mediation and billing systems with IFS` strong suite of business applications, which include CRM, finance, logistics and asset management. Customers will benefit from having lower set up costs and a substantially reduced installation lead time, resulting in an earlier return on investment.

Hans Eriksson, Product Marketing Director, Vertical Solutions at Protek, commented: "Protek has seen a growing market requirement for the seamless integration of finance, logistics and asset management with its B&OSS solutions. Given the strength of IFS`s products and its global coverage, it rapidly became very apparent that a joint Protek/IFS would offer the market a highly differentiated solution.

The partnership between Protek and IFS has already been proven when earlier this year MTN Nigeria requested that Protek`s customer care and billing system was integrated with IFS` point of sale and finance solutions for an application at its site.

"We have had an increasing number of requests from operators wanting an integrated solution for both financial business applications and customer care and billing solutions. In the past we have had to pass up these opportunities. Following discussions, it became clear that, Protek`s and IFS` individual offerings are totally complementary and both are built on an open architecture, therefore seamless integration of the products has proven remarkably clear-cut and timely. We are now in a position to approach customers together and offer them a complete package. For this reason, our partnership with Protek is of great value to us," concluded Anders Wilhelmsson, Director Strategic Alliances Telecommunications, IFS.