Enterprising move from Fujitsu

Becomes integrator of Nokia mobile enterprise products

Fujitsu has become an integrator of Nokia's mobile enterprise products in the UK and the nordic region.

The deal, involving Nokia's handsets and platforms, will see Fujitsu offering the solutions to the rest of EMEA and Asia Pacific, possibly as early as the first half of 2004.

Damian Stathonikos, a Nokia representative, said the firm is working with software vendors such as IBM and Oracle to tie mobile terminals into IBM's WebSphere platform and Oracle's Collaboration Suite.

"We are approaching enterprises with our own mobile device expertise, but we need a company such as Fujitsu that has the integration knowledge," said Stathonikos.

Although Nokia is believed to be preparing a string of announcements regarding integrators, resellers catering for SMEs will not benefit in the short term.

"SMEs will look to operators for solutions, while larger companies will look to us and to integrators for the development of bespoke services," Stathonikos added.

Fujitsu will initially offer applications as a managed service over Nokia's business Symbian mobile terminals. The service will be provided using Fujitsu's existing service centre operations.

Kazuo Murano, corporate vice president of Fujitsu, said his company wanted to build long-term relationships with customers.

"This collaboration with Nokia marks an important new initiative and will enhance enterprise customers' ability to leverage mobility to become more competitive in business operations," he said.

But despite the fact that European mobile operators have touted businesses rather than consumers as early adopters for third-generation technology, none have provided a channel offering so far.

However, specialist firms such as Data2Hand and Logica CMG do cater to enterprise customers.

Nokia and Ericsson have both developed business products. Ericsson's offerings are built around its existing fixed-line telephony products, such as the MD110. Nokia's products, such as the Nokia One UMS platform, are aimed at driving mobile use.