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September 16, 2003 | Comments: (0)

Nokia's enterprise play

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Cell phone giant Nokia is after some big enterprise dollars. On October 1, the company will officially launch Nokia Enterprise Solutions, according to Nokia's VP of Communications, Kari Tuutti.

I caught up with Tuutti late yesterday as part of the Espoo, Finland-based exec's current US tour and asked him about the strategy. The company's theory is that enterprises are looking to tightly integrate back-end applications and infrastructure with mobile devices like cell phones or smartphones.

For Nokia, the term "enterprise mobility" means integrating IBM's WebSphere, Oracle app servers and databases, and RIM's email servers with next-generation smartphones. (By the way, Nokia reckons a smartphone is not a Microsoft-proprietary term. It refers to any cell phone with rich data processing and multimedia capabilities, Tutti claims.)

On the plus side, the new division will be able to leverage Nokia's existing relationships with the Fortune 1000 customer set. However, the challenges ahead appear daunting from where I sit, for the following reasons:

* Nokia is in the process of recruiting VARs (Value-added Resellers) and distributors in the traditional IT channel. This is essentially a completely new strategy for the company. Unlike the simple world of retail cell phone sales, the IT channel is a complicated animal.

* A strong channel takes a lot of work, and money. Tutti was not able to clearly explain to me how all the components that make up a Nokia enterprise solution would fit together. If I don't get it, a VAR won't either.

* IBM, Oracle and RIM partnerships are good. But what about Microsoft and Sun? Those guys have huge channels. You don't want to go excluding yourself from business with Microsoft or Sun-savvy VARs. Tutti responded to my questions about this by saying Nokia's mobile infrastructure is "fully compatible" with Microsoft's Exchange Server, as an example. He also hopes Nokia will be compatible across the Microsoft server stack: "You would hope .Net is open." Well, yes, you would. But if you don't have a signed deal with them it could get tricky.

* Which leads me to my next point: Nokia and Microsoft will always have partnership problems because Nokia's Symbian OS is increasingly under attack by Microsoft and its own mobile ambitions. So if we are to believe the hype, the mobile OS wars are only just beginning. Add to that the complexity of Nokia's mobile infrastructure inside the enterprise and the situation looks murky for enterprise IT buyers.

* Last point: I'm curious - what sort of demand exists for Nokia's style of mobile infrastructure anyway?

More reading: The Reg talks about mobile email usage.

Posted by Mark Jones on September 16, 2003 03:35 PM

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