Beeline will reduce IT staff by 10 times and outsource back-end

    Vimpelcom continues to cut operating costs. This time, the turn came to the IT departments of the company. According to its shareholders, the staff of relevant specialists is overstated by more than ten times, and the current IT systems are outdated.

    In this regard, the head of the LetterOne telecommunications division, Alexei Reznikovich, said that Vimpelcom (its Russian subsidiary Vimpelcom operates under the Beeline trademark ) needs to review its IT strategy. LetterOne is Vimpelcom's largest shareholder; Alfa Group's telecommunications assets were transferred to this company .

    Vimpelcom IT systems are outdated, they consist of many levels and cannot adequately work with increasing volumes of information (big data), Mr. Reznikovich explains. He also said that Vimpelcom will cut IT budgets, trying to bring sales and customer service online. As a result, in some Vimpelcom business units, instead of the current 600 IT professionals, about 50 will remain.

    Russian Vimpelcom will divide its IT systems into two types, Alexander Popovsky, vice president of operations for the company , told CNews. The first type of systems - commodity - will include billing, IM-platform and other products that are not visible to the user.

    The second type of system - front-end - will combine the products with which the user works directly: content systems, self-service systems, mobile applications and various future products. Vimpelcom intends to develop them independently, Popovsky explained.

    Outsourcing of billing will reduce the cost and staff of IT professionals.

    “For example, we have good billing from Amdocs , but it has been installed for a long time and needs updating,” says Popovsky. “We intend to outsource the maintenance of such systems, after which the partners themselves will be engaged in updating them.”

    On October 22, Megamind wrotethat Vimpelcom put up for sale 50 thousand towers for base stations of cellular communication in Russia and neighboring countries. The company plans to get $ 5 billion for them.
    Vimpelcom is ready to sell towers in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia. According to interlocutors of Bloomberg, the operator is thus trying to compensate for its losses.

    On Friday, October 6, the RBC publication reportedthat the Russian Vimpelcom sent potential proposals to potential investors. The company is considering various options for selling this infrastructure: the full sale of towers, the sale of pillars only, the sale of infrastructure in cities and on roofs, and so on. But if an adequate proposal is not received, VimpelCom will not agree to the deal. Within a month, the operator expects to receive “specific offers” from investors.

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