Ericsson transitioned its network maintenance center (NMC) team for Vodafone Germany from Dusseldorf, Germany to Bucharest, Romania over a period of six months. The transition involved knowledge transfer phases where Romanian colleagues traveled to Dusseldorf to learn processes from German colleagues. There were obstacles securing remote access to tools, delaying the transition. Eventually a remote vendor access solution was setup, and the last team left Dusseldorf in February after building telephone infrastructure. Now the entire NMC staff performs tasks from Bucharest, allowing synergies within Ericsson's division that performs managed services worldwide.

1. Transition of Ericsson SRAN / Zugspitze NMC from Germanyto Romania
One part of the SRAN / Zugspitze contractforthe SRANisationof customerVodafone D2network in
Germanyis totake overthe Maintenance of the sites duringthe swapactivities. Therefore we buildupa
NMC teamconsistsof 14 service engineers.Theywere basedatcustomer’spremisesinthe NMC
Vodafone CampusinDüsseldorf.
As Vodafone decidedtomove theiroperationalteamtoRomaniawe thoughtwhyshouldn’twe dothe
same?
Togetherwiththe GTT a newprojectwas established inJune 2013. All the activities,processesand
procedureshave beendevelopedanddrivenbyMarcinKaszubain deepcooperationwithourcolleagues
from/// Romania.
Firstideawasto have the transitiondone inJanuary 2014. It includesdifferentKT(Knowledge Transfer)
phases. Beginningof May firstcolleaguesfromRomaniacame overtoDüsseldorf to getfamiliarwiththe
processesandwaysof working.The KT was performedbyourcolleaguesfromthe GSCswho were
involvedin thisworksofar.
As usual everyprojecthastostruggle and overcome some obstacles.The mainproblemwastosecure a
remote accesssolutiontoall neededtools. The delayof the promisedsolutionbyourcustomerhadan
impacton our projectas well. Afteralotof sessionsbetweenourandcustomertool experts we finally
managedto setup anothersolution viaRVA (RemoteVendorAccess). Thusthe KT/ handoverprocess
frominitial 8 weeks tookuptosix months.
Thisdelay wasthe cause of the disadvantageswiththe availabilityof workplaces.We hadto
accommodate 13 engineersat six work places.
In additionto VFEtoolsremote access we had to buildupa fixedECN telephonytrunktoenable our
sub-contractorstoreach the NMC Romaniavia Germanphone number.
For KT purposesthe travel and handoverplanwasdeveloped.We dividedRomanianresourcesinto6
teams,theytraveledtoDüsseldorfaccordingtothe schedule agreedwithSteeringProjectGroup.
Unfortunatelythe lastteamwasnot able tocome to Germany due to lackof workplacesinVFNMC,
theywere trainedlocallyinBucharest.Atthe endof October2014 we learnedaboutRVA solutiontobe
readysoon.The planto returnto Romaniaforthemwas againdeveloped.The lastteamhad leftNMC
VFCampusin Düsseldorf on14th of February.
Currentlyentire NMCstaff executesthe tasksfromE///GNOCBucharest.

2. That E/// divisionperformsthe ManagedServicesfordifferentoperatorsthroughoutthe world,so this
waythe synergies canbe achieved.
It isgood to network because togetherwe shall overcomeobstacles,save time andmoney,be able to
share problemsandthinktogetheraboutmore variedandelaborate solutions.
Thanks a lot to all involvedpartieswhich made thisstory to a final & great success.