Finnish handset maker Nokia is working to get into the offices of India Inc., a space traditionally dominated by BlackBerry and Apple, in a move that could further the enterprise acceptance and market share of Windows Phone software.
The company has added nearly 100 companies, to a list that includes corporate biggies such as Cognizant and Wipro, in the last six months. Most of these companies are switching to the Nokia-MS combine from their traditional enterprise mobility provider. “In the olden days, enterprise deals would work only on the CXO level, where executives would want bulk deals and some sort of an after-sales component. Now, employees themselves decide what device they want. It’s very democratic,” said Raghuvesh Sarup, Director-Sales, Nokia India, in an interaction with The Hindu on the sidelines of the company’s annual strategy share summit.
In light of this shift, the mobile maker now has a separate sales team that holds ‘roadshows’ in the companies’ offices, where it showcases the Lumia portfolio and software such as the Microsoft Office suite.
“In our roadshows, we pitch to the whole employee base including those people at the CXO level. For instance, after one of these roadshows, we suddenly got an e-mail, placing an order for 2,000 of our devices,” he added.
According to Mr. Sarup, when companies switch, usually a strong majority of their employees switch at the same time, as it “is usually preferable if all employees use the same type of mobile and mobile software.”
In the last two years, nearly 400 enterprises, including the GMR Group and Tech Mahindra, have opted for the Windows Phone-based Lumia portfolio.
“With IT budgets shrinking, CIOs are looking for simple direct access solutions that connect with existing enterprise solutions without any additional investments. Microsoft helps in sometimes training some of our sales staff who go on these roadshows. We get enterprise-specific training,” Mr. Sarup said.
(This correspondent is in Panaji at the invitation of the company)
