Nokia in management reshuffle
Former HP vice-president joins Finnish vendor
Reorganisation continues at Nokia, as the Finnish vendor looks to appoint a new leader for its Nokia Enterprise Solutions group (NES) and address channel concerns.
Nokia, which usually promotes internal staff to management positions, has for once appointed an external candidate. Mary McDowell joins the company as a senior vice-president on 1 January 2004.
McDowell was previously senior vice-president of corporate development at Hewlett-Packard.
It seems McDowell could have a lot to do. VARs have already raised concerns about NES's channel strategy because Nokia Internet Communications (NIC), part of NES, sells its products through traditional data resellers, while handsets and some software goes through operators and the telco channel.
Claire Backhurst, a Nokia marketing manager, said: "We want existing resellers of NIC to be able to sell everything else produced by NES."
NES was created in July, incorporating firewalling, virtual private networks, mobile business handsets, spam filtering, remote access and virus protection, and the Nokia One unified messaging product, which was originally marketed by Nokia Ventures.
Backhurst said: "NES is not about point solutions; it's more about resellers being able to talk to enterprise customers. Cross-selling will be absolutely crucial."
However, one reseller, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed caution. "This all sounds great," he said.
"But I'm a little worried that Nokia has been quiet about the Nokia Networks business. It hasn't said what is going to happen to that."