EDS is latest Orange squeeze

Big players seal a number of large voice and data deals

Corporate resellers could be missing out on winning large voice and data deals following a number of agreements between big players.

Last week Orange and EDS agreed to co-operate in offering large enterprises mobile applications.

The deal means that Orange will offer services through EDS's Extended Connected Office (ECO) product, a managed service for big multi-nationals.

"[EDS and Orange] will mobilise whatever applications the customer has," said Richard Hanscott, Orange's vice-president of business solutions.

Under the terms of the deal, Orange will supply connectivity and EDS will make corporate applications, such as ERP and customer relationship management software, accessible for mobile devices.

ECO's architecture is open, so the offering is platform independent. The applications can be used on PDAs, mobile phones and more conventional computing devices.

Bill Crawford, EDS mobility services' global offering executive, said: "ECO is about supplying voice and data through wireless networks to our clients, but with service level agreements. A master agreement means we can deliver data services over a wireless infrastructure."

He added that Orange was the first provider of its type to sign up, helped in part by the two firms' existing relationship.

Hanscott said the relationship had now been formalised. "We have a Wireless Centre of Excellence that we have put time, money and people into," he said.

However, this deal and other joint ventures, such as the one announced recently between Nokia and Fujitsu (CRN, 14 July), could mean resellers are missing out.

But Crawford said the opportunity for VARs was still there. "This is not a reseller agreement. You have to ask how you'd package a data service for that end of the market. This will come from the top down," he said.

Hanscott added that Orange recognised the need for partnership but agreed that resellers would need solutions packaged so that they could be sold.