World-leading telecom company Ericsson’s implementation of Microsoft’s Power Platform has yielded highly impressive results and helped promote user engagement across the whole organization.
By integrating Microsoft’s Power Platform, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson is achieving results few would have imagined possible at the outset. Development lead times have been slashed, they have enjoyed a threefold adoption over the last 18 months, and currently have over 10,000 makers in the platform.
No wonder Richard Richtoff, Ericsson’s Head of Product Line Productivity & Collaboration, is proud of what has been achieved. Asked to choose one standout achievement, he points to the reduction in software development timeline from 380 days to 70. This improvement, combined with the business context of “makers,” has produced outstanding results, not least in the case of Apps developed in as few as 10 days saving over 44,000 production hours. Richtoff says that he finds seeing all the great examples highly energizing. “The diversity and volume of great use cases being built on Power Platform is a testament to the innovative culture within Ericsson. The numbers speak for themselves, and our target for 2025 is to save one million hours,” he says.
Results beyond expectations
Mats Hultin, Group CIO at Ericsson, sees the partnership, initiated in 2020, as both a significant step forward as well as a base for future implementations. “The Microsoft Power Platform is one of the major areas where we have seen really good traction. We’ve already created great applications and automations, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what the future can bring.”
Hultin’s sentiments are echoed by Ryan Cunningham VP, Power Platform Intelligent Applications. “Ericsson’s vision for Power Platform is ground-breaking, and the close partnership between Microsoft and Ericsson is helping shape the future of the platform for both companies – we are excited to be working together to re-imagine a new era of intelligent business applications.”
Building blocks for the future
The Microsoft Power Platform is collection of tools that allows users to build custom apps, automate workflows, and analyze data. It serves as a base for Power Apps to then be built upon, rather like building blocks, Richtoff explains. The Power Apps are designed to be accessible and simple for users with different levels of technical expertise. Among the many things users can do is use prebuilt templates and drag-and-drop functionality, while keeping a strong central governance model through the managed environments capabilities.
A workforce of “makers”
Central to the Microsoft platform is the concept of “makers” – employees, often without any prior programming experience. “We don’t call them developers,” says Richtoff, “Many of these employees have never written a line of code, yet they’re generating real impact. We’re seeing applications for everything from financial management to mentorship tools, all created by individuals who intimately understand their departmental needs.”
Marcus Andersson, product owner for Power Platforms at Ericsson, adds, “It works so well because it’s directly integrated into the tools that employees already use daily – Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and so on. Key to our approach was to focus on non-developers to bring innovation to areas traditionally not supported by IT. We’ve seen lawyers building applications to support our legal processes, solving problems that only they fully understand, without needing IT’s intervention, and doing so in days or weeks, instead of months.”
Overcoming Challenges Together
Beyond the numbers, all involved agree that this success is largely due to the collaboration between the various teams at Microsoft and Ericsson. While Ericsson’s technology team plays a central role, Richtoff emphasizes that “the heroes are in the business. Together, we’ve accomplished something exceptional, the heroes are local. They’re the ones who bring this innovation to life.”
Microsoft, meanwhile, advise on best practices to help avoid pitfalls, and take in and act upon feedback. “We’re building this together, and Microsoft is genuinely committed to helping us succeed,” adds Marcus Andersson.
Despite the Power Platform’s success, challenges inevitably arise from time to time. However, here again, the close partnership with Microsoft has helped smoothen the process. “The partnership has never been stronger,” says Richtoff. “We work together to solve issues as they come up, and they need us as much as we need them. This mutual partnership ensures we create the best possible impact for Ericsson.”
Organic growth in Power Platform usage within Ericsson has been remarkable. “We didn’t actively promote the Power Platform at first, but as soon as we enabled it, it just kept growing, employees were quickly finding ways to build applications that improve our bottom line and boost productivity,” Marcus Andersson adds.
Beyond the time savings, Richtoff sees the Power Platforms work not just as an initiative for Ericsson; more, an evolution. “This doesn’t have a stop date. It’s about giving every Ericsson employee the chance to shape our company’s future and make a meaningful impact,” he says.
Eyes set firmly on the future
Such has been the success so far that Ericsson has ambitious goals for the future, with a target of one million hours of lead-time reduction by 2025.
“With emerging AI technologies, soon, employees will be able to create applications simply by writing in plain English, further lowering the barriers to innovation,” says Richard Richtoff. “Ultimately, our ambition is to be the best in the world at this.”
