Ericsson announces integration of Marconi’s government unit
Ericsson this week announced the expansion of its government solutions business unit with the full integration of recently acquired Marconi Communications Federal to form Ericsson Federal.
“[Marconi employees] bring the competencies [Ericsson employees] lack,” said Doug Smith, vice president and general manager of Ericsson’s government solutions unit. “They are very heavy on wireline and enterprise [communications], while we are much more focused on wireless and tactical systems. And they also bring top-level security clearances, which enable us to compete in that arena.”
With the new security clearances and expertise, Ericsson can compete for government projects that were out of its reach before, said Smith, who will serve on the Ericsson Federal board of directors. Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security named Ericsson one of a handful of vendors being considered for the strategic border initiative project.
Ericsson announced plans to buy Marconi last October and the deal closed earlier this year. Given Marconi Federal’s extensive customer base in the defense and intelligence community, it was important to announce the complete integration of the companies’ government-solutions units under the Ericsson Federal name, Smith said.
“We wanted to make sure that the customer base for Ericsson and the old Marconi Federal is aware that they are now a part of Ericsson and have all of Ericsson to draw on,” he said.