Nexign: Celebrating 28 Years of History

Companies are like people. They live their own lives, full of achievements, failures, and hopes. They have their own destinies. Some have gone and are no longer remembered by anyone. Others take pride in their inspiring 100-year histories, their well-known brands deeply integrated as part of our everyday lives.

Nexign is turning 28 today. The company is more than just an employer to me: I started my personal journey here almost 20 years ago and have held a variety of roles within the organisation; I left the company and came back again. We have come a long way, and as we celebrate our corporate birthday, the official anniversary of our founding, this is the perfect opportunity to reflect on the path we have travelled.

The company’s history dates back to 1992, a pretty challenging time here in Russia, in every sense of the word. Back then, a few St. Petersburg engineers pioneered something new and developed the first billing system for Russia’s first mobile operator, Delta Telecom. This success was an important milestone, and marks the point at which Peter-Service (an earlier name for Nexign) was officially born.

Between 1996 and 2000, the telecoms market experienced rapid growth and many new operators came onto the scene, literally ‘queuing up’ to install a billing system. We were growing fast alongside them, at a rate of 30% annually. In 1999, Kuzey Kibris Turkcell asked us to transform their billing system; it was our first project outside the CIS.

In the early 2000s, the subscriber base of all Russian telecom operators grew significantly. Communications service providers needed a complex and flexible OSS/BSS solution that met the specific needs of their customers, so we started work on a convergent billing solution for prepaid and postpaid subscribers.

Our products were evolving in line with the market’s requirements and based on the scale and complexity of our projects with major telecom operators. In 2014, our BSS solution was certified to serve 100 million subscribers. Throughout this time, the company significantly solidified its leadership position in its home region, being consistently ranked as one of the top 10 IT companies in Russia.

Three years ago, a new chapter in our history began. We adopted a new corporate development strategy and embarked on a radical transformation, both internally and externally. After 25 years as Peter-Service, we entered the global market as Nexign – a new player with extensive experience, ready to compete with the leading global vendors. We started to educate the market – customers, partners, analysts and the media – about our new brand and our vision. We launched a set of core corporate values shared by all Nexign employees. We secured our spot in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and received positive feedback about our products from other leading analysts. Last but not least, we moved to a modern office in St. Petersburg and established the MEA headquarters in Dubai. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that this was all done in less than three years.

Our team expanded significantly. Now there are 1,800 of us – some joined the company back when it was known as Peter-Service, while others started their journey with Nexign.

Today, Nexign is still a fresh brand in the international market. However, we believe that our unique expertise in large-scale projects combined with our partnership-based model has plenty to offer telcos the world over.

So please, come and join us as we celebrate our anniversary and look back at the brightest, most inspiring milestones in the history of Peter-Service and Nexign.