HMD Global has been marketing Nokia phones for several years. However, the strongly Europe-focused company wants to look beyond the consumer market. It also has an increasingly clear strategy for the enterprise market. Today that strategy becomes a little clearer again, with two new partnerships.
The focus of communications from HMD Global around the enterprise market is on IoT, which of course includes the company’s Nokia phones. In addition, HMD Global is also active in the M2M market and has joined the ioXt Alliance. The latter is a new certification program for IoT security. We discussed these and other matters earlier this year with Stefan de Clerck, HMD Global’s General Manager for Benelux and France.
There is a strongly increasing demand worldwide for (5G) devices and the associated connectivity solutions, we learn from HMD Global during a pre-briefing. HMD Global wants to be able to offer this in the best possible way. Alone this is not possible, but with the right partnerships it is. Today the company let us know that it has entered into two such partnerships, effective immediately. One with Nokia, the other with CGI.
Nokia WING
The partnership with Nokia is not very surprising. After all, Nokia has been an investor in HMD Global from the very beginning. The ties between the two companies are still close. In addition, Nokia has a globally functioning managed service for IoT in its portfolio. This service is called WING, which stands for Worldwide IoT Network Grid. Operators and MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) can use it to serve their customers worldwide. WING serves as the backbone for an organisation’s IoT environment.
In practice, the partnership with Nokia means that HMD Global’s business solutions are now supported by Nokia WING. One of those solutions is HMD Connect Pro. This, according to HMD Global, allows businesses to manage “up to tens of thousands” of connected devices through a single management portal. This should make managing globally distributed IoT assets a lot smoother.
Part of CGI offering
The second partnership announced by HMD Global today is with CGI. This system integrator and consultant will offer HMD Global’s enterprise offerings to customers. This includes the already mentioned HMD Connect Pro, but also HMD Enable Pro. The latter is HMD’s EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) offering. It allows you to centrally do things like onboarding of new devices and also general smartphone management. Of course, CGI is also going to carry the Nokia devices themselves in their portfolio.
HMD Global’s enterprise offering will become part of CGI’s entire range of services. This means that there will also be a link between HMD Global’s products and services and those of CGI itself. This should also further improve things like security (an important spearhead for HMD Global). The idea is also that the integration of the products and services of both parties will also lead to greater efficiency in the ultimate IT environment of clients.
The partnerships with both Nokia and CGI show that HMD Global is serious when it comes to the enterprise market. Whether it is enough to stand up to the big boys in the market remains to be seen. Steps like this, however, which increasingly make it a one-stop-shop experience for customers, are crucial.
11 hours ago
