Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced its intention to enter into a cooperation with SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) to securely deliver network-enabled cloud solutions, which shall provide users with secure access to their business apps and content on mobile devices. For the growing Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) market, which is expected to reach $2.1 billion by 2016 (Radicati Group), this joint offering is envisioned to help businesses across all industries to better manage and secure organizational effectiveness and employee productivity. Ericsson plans to offer SAP® Mobile Secure, a set of cloud-based solutions, combined with an IT managed service offering, expanding its portfolio of services available for its 400+ mobile network operators.
This offering intends to combine the power and simplicity of SAP Mobile Secure with the stability and scalability offered by Ericsson IT managed services and service delivery capabilities. Worldwide, Ericsson manages networks that serve 600 million subscribers and additionally provides managed services for networks that serve further 1 billion subscribers.
With this offering, an enterprise of any size is expected to be able to, within minutes, bolster its overarching mobile strategy with a comprehensive EMM solution that helps promote, publish and configure apps for all stakeholders – both on non-managed and managed devices. As these employees, business partners and consumers will benefit from the apps, the integrated mobile device management (MDM), mobile app management (MAM) and mobile app security components will protect the data and provide valuable analytics that enable the enterprise to continuously optimize its mobile strategy.
“With its heritage in mobile security, SAP is known for its ability to develop flexible offerings that can be tailored to the needs of any enterprise,” said said Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson. “With the increased focus of mobile workforce productivity, this future solution is planned to enable fast deployment using the software-as-a-service delivery model. By using this model, we can serve both small enterprises that might not have expertise in IT security, as well as the Fortune 100 companies with complex needs that require more customization.”
“As mobile network operators (MNOs) strive to support the changing mobile needs for enterprises, the planned EMM solution from Ericsson and SAP will allow them to better address these needs with faster time to market and minimal infrastructure cost,” said Rick Costanzo, executive vice president and general manager, SAP Mobile Solutions. “While demand for mobile traffic is increasing, controlling the costs of their network and driving innovation will be the keys to success for mobile network operators. Through Ericsson's long-term relationships with every major telecom operator worldwide and SAP's proven ability to deliver the most complete and scalable cloud-based mobile security solution, this collaboration is intended to provide MNOs with new service offerings, new revenue streams and stronger ties with their customers.”
The Ericsson and SAP cooperation plans to deliver a solution that addresses the security needs of today’s enterprises, which are increasingly going mobile. Furthermore, it is aimed at enabling operators to enhance their end-to-end offering and capture new revenues from their existing base of enterprise customers.
