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25 February 2004 - Forging a tighter bond between the
worlds of IT and communications, IBM and Nokia today
announced that they will jointly deliver mobile solutions
that enable greater workforce mobility.
The combination of Nokia's Communicator platform and
IBM's mobile software offers increased functionality,
such as instant messaging, increased personal productivity,
ubiquitous connectivity and superior user experience
of enterprise applications into the hands of mobile
workers worldwide.
Initially targeted at sales and field force automation
in the pharmaceutical, insurance and government industries,
early implementers will include Pfizer, Ricoh and Daimler
Chrysler. This will allow, for example, field personnel
and sales representatives to access work orders and
sales manuals from their company servers via Nokia communicators,
provide faster and more efficient service, and reduce
their cost of sales and services.
The solutions are powered by a mix of IBM software products
optimized for the Nokia Communicator platform running
on the Symbian Operating System. These include WebSphere
Everyplace Access Client, WebSphere Everyplace Connection
Manager Client, WebSphere Micro Environment, IBM Tivoli
and Lotus Sametime Instant Messaging Client for the
Nokia Communicator. These provide access to a wide range
of enterprise backend systems, enabling users to maintain
a seamless connection to critical information, and enable
enterprises and service providers to securely extend
a new class of high value applications and services
to mobile users. IBM Global Services will provide system
integration services for these solutions.
"IBM is committed to supporting a range of devices
- on multiple operating systems. The Symbian OS is proving
to be a robust enterprise platform for deployment of
enterprise class devices," said Gary Cohen, General
Manager, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. "Today's
announcement with Nokia not only underscores the importance
of Java in the device arena, it also reflects the importance
companies are placing on wireless technology to help
extend access to their enterprise applications and infrastructure."
Together, Nokia and IBM have developed the extremely
comprehensive Java (TM) environment for the enterprise
mobility including J2ME MIDP 2.0 and CDC Personal Profile
1.0 and several other mobile and wireless Java APIs.
IBM WebSphere Micro Environment for the Symbian OS will
provide a J2ME Personal Profile runtime environment
in the new Nokia 9500 Communicator to enable middleware
integration and the extension of enterprise services
to the mobile space. Developers will be able to use
a desktop Java Development Kit, which is compatible
with the Java environment in the Nokia Communicator.
This will enable them to extend their existing Java-based
applications to the device by using the skills and resources
they already have.
IBM is also tuning its WebSphere Studio Device Developer
software tools to create an environment tailored for
efficient development and optimization of enterprise
applications that will run on the Nokia Communicators.
In addition, IBM Tivoli mobile device solutions allow
enterprise customers to extend the same system management
software used to manage desktops, laptops and servers
to mobile devices on demand through the Tivoli Provisioning
Manager and Tivoli Configuration Manager products. This
improves the efficiency of managing the business as
mobile devices will be able to receive configuration
setting and software application downloads on the fly,
without relying on a hard-wired connection to a server
or desktop.
"Pfizer has been a long standing customer of Nokia
and IBM, utilising the previous Nokia Communicators
with sales force automation tools developed by IBM,"
said Elina Jaakovlew, Sales Director, Pfizer Finland.
"We have been very pleased with lean functionality
and increased productivity, as our sales force no longer
needs visits to office for reporting or updating their
sales data. This has also resulted in more effective
customer contact. We are eager to explore the new Nokia
Communicator platform and to port our solution on it.
With enhanced functionality and easy-to-use security,
we believe that the new Nokia 9500 Communicator will
become an even more popular tool for our sales force."
"Efficient maintenance service is essential to
success in our business. Ricoh has discovered that equipping
the photocopier field service personnel with the previous
Nokia Communicators and field force automation tools
from IBM has resulted in faster responsiveness to maintenance
calls and more efficient routing and work scheduling.
Our staff in the field gets their assignments sent directly
to their Communicators, which they also use to report
accomplished tasks and receive further instructions.
We look forward to working with Nokia and IBM on the
new Communicator family of products to further improve
our efficiency," said Claude Duvernay, Marketing
and Communications Director, Ricoh.
This enterprise mobility platform gives enterprise software
vendors, such as Siebel Systems, an opportunity to create
more value for their clients in a mobile environment.
For example Siebel Pharma, the pharmaceutical industry's
market leading sales force automation solution, can
take an advantage of the unique capabilities and ubiquitous
network connectivity of the new Nokia 9500 Communicator,
launched today.
"The IBM software solutions for this platform enable
organizations to give their employees a pervasive access
to their Siebel CRM applications using IBM leading capabilities
in wireless e-business. " said Marty Sunde, Vice-President
of Alliances at Siebel Systems. "We are delighted
to extend our alliance with IBM to deliver this new
breed of mobile CRM solution that will be key in an
increasingly untethered world."
"Nokia and IBM are a very complementary match when
it comes to extending mobility into the enterprise,"
said Niklas Savander, Senior Vice President, Nokia Enterprise
Solutions. "We have a long-standing alliance that
capitalizes on our respective strengths - Nokia as the
leader in mobility and enterprise voice, and IBM as
the leader in e-business solutions. We are very pleased
to see that the joining of forces of IBM and Nokia brings
a broad variety of applications, tools and solutions
available to businesses worldwide. Together we have
a compelling value proposition for mobilizing business
critical processes and freeing workforces to reach new
levels of productivity."
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