Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) is planning to invest approximately SEK 7 billion in the coming five years to build three global ICT Centers. Two will be located in Sweden, in Stockholm and Linköping, while the third one, in North America, will be located in Canada, in Montreal, Quebec.
The centers will be located close to Ericsson’s main R&D hubs and will be the new platform for more than 24,000 Ericsson R&D engineers around the world, supporting their lean and agile ways of working. Team of experts will be able to collaborate beyond borders more easily and efficiently. Ericsson’s customers will also be able to connect remotely for interoperability testing, trials and will have early access to innovation on new business services in real-time from the comfort of their locations. The three ICT Centers combined will be up to 120,000 square meters, approximately the size of 14 football fields. The new centers will house the company’s complete portfolio, enabling the R&D organization to develop and verify solutions, creating the foundation for the next generation technology and cloud-based services. Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “The new ICT Centers are examples of Ericsson’s passion for driving the development of the industry. Great ideas come from collaboration, and at these centers we will push the boundaries of possibility on next generation technology and services. Flexibility enabled by new ways of working will realize innovation faster to the market and to our customers. The centers will have a leading-edge design, built in a modular and scalable way, securing an efficient use of resources and space adaptable to the business needs. Ericsson estimates that the combination of architecture, design and locations will reduce energy consumption up to 40 percent. This significant reduction in carbon footprint is instrumental in Ericsson’s vision of a more sustainable future. The two ICT Centers in Sweden will begin initial operations from end of 2013 and from end of 2014 respectively and the North American ICT Center from early 2015. The new hardware design building in Stockholm, Sweden, will provide similar benefits as the global ICT Centers in use of equipment and energy savings. It will enable R&D hardware design activities in Stockholm to consolidate into one modern creative environment. Ericsson has its biggest R&D hub located in Sweden with more than 9,000 employees. Other bigger R&D sites are in China, US, Canada and Hungary. In 2012, Ericsson’s R&D expenditures were SEK 32.8 billion, reflecting around 14 percent of sales.
