Polish IT company Comarch announced that it has signed a deal with Ukrainian telco Kyivstar to help modernize and update its field service maintenance activities.
Kyivstar is faced with the challenge of ensuring the smooth running, maintenance, and preventive upkeep of equipment serving 1,1 million apartments and more than 32,000 objects in its RAN network across Ukraine – and all that in the midst of the ongoing invasion by Russia.
According to Comarch, the scale involved made it unfeasible for Kyivstar to rely on existing field service maintenance procedures in order to effectively achieve its goals.
Comarch said its field service management product will enable Kyivstar to streamline and automate processes, and optimize maintenance and route planning for technicians. It can also track tasks in real time and collect the data necessary for the timely and accurate analysis of tasks.
“With more than 24 million subscribers, we have responsibility for a huge portfolio of telecommunications and IT services,” said Vitaliy Gubenko, head of operational support at Kyivstar. “It is even more important during wartime. Comarch will lead us through the process of streamlining and automating the processes behind our expansive and geographically wide-ranging field service management activities, while providing a product that was designed specifically to meet the challenges faced by Kyivstar in this area.”
Tymoteusz Wrona, head of Telco BU Consulting at Comarch, said the two companies have been in discussions for two years before the contract was signed in January. “We listened carefully and actively to Kyivstar, ensuring that we understood their requirements before tailoring a field service management offer using Comarch FSM.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine commenced almost two years ago on February 24, 2022.
In December 2023, Kyivstar was hit by a massive cyberattack that successfully knocked out voice and internet services for all of its 24.3 million mobile subscribers and 1.1 million home internet subscribers. The attack also damaged IT infrastructure, silenced air-raid-alert systems in some parts of the country, and made shops unable to process credit card payments. While voice, data and roaming services were restored quickly, it took Kyivstar several weeks to fully recover from the attack.
Last month, Kyivstar’s parent company Veon said that the attack would have no material financial impact on its consolidated results for the year ended 31 December 2023 due to service disruptions, or due to costs associated with additional IT capabilities required for restoring services, replacing lost equipment, or compensating external consultants and partners.
However, Veon said it could see an impact on its consolidated revenue results for the year ending 31 December 2024 associated with revenue losses of at least US$95 million arising from the customer loyalty measures taken by Kyivstar to compensate for the inconvenience caused during the disruptions.
