Expanding connections with industry leading vendors to meet private wireless customers’ demands
As we prepare for Mobile World Congress 2024, where we’ll show how we are expanding the possibilities of private wireless & on-prem edge technologies for our enterprise customers, we are beginning with an exciting new type of vendor collaboration. We’ve recently joined forces with device manufacturer Handheld Group and connectivity provider Askey, so that we can manage the more diverse use case requests coming from our industrial customers.
We know that each industrial segment and each enterprise have many varied use cases and connectivity needs that they want to fulfil. So, we’ve long been committed to partnering with vendors offering best-of-breed solutions that complement our one platform for industrial digitalization portfolio and reseller partners that can help implement and do the needed system integration. With this new approach, we can help take the guesswork out of choosing which connectivity solutions, devices and applications will work for our customers. And we can offer our partners more opportunities and elements of solutions they need to do the full integration of OT use cases.
A business model to benefit all
Through this collaboration we’re also embarking on a relatively new business model to offer these products. It’s not entirely new from Nokia’s perspective as we’ve already been using it to offer third party applications over our Mission-Critical Edge (MXIE). How it works is that we act as an agent for our third-party partners, who we refer to as ‘merchants’ and our enterprise customers can purchase merchant offerings which complement the Nokia portfolio through us.
This provides many benefits for customers with a trusted relationship already in place with Nokia. From their perspective they will have transparency around where the products come from, but they will be working with one vendor cutting down the admin associated with dealing with a new company. One of the greatest benefits though, is that by buying through us as an agent, we can reduce reseller mark-up costs and potentially offer more favorable terms.
As the agent, to use the terminology IFRS 15 has defined for such business model, we work on a commission-based agreement with the merchants while primarily those merchants manage customer fulfillment. By selling their products this way, our merchant partners will gain greater exposure to our expanding base of industrial customers – as a market leader in private wireless connectivity, we’ve already implemented thousands of networks and have over 710 private wireless customers – and we’re building a rich ecosystem of partnerships for Nokia MX Industrial Edge.
Meeting the diverse use case needs of enterprises
We’re launching this model with two product offerings. The first is a device from Handheld Group that customers can start using with Nokia private wireless . The device – a ruggedized 5G tablet - will allow workers in the field to benefit from a large screen, as well as high-performance and lightning-fast connectivity. Handheld Group manufactures devices designed to satisfy niche industry requirements and they also include, for example, a lightweight scanner that can be worn as a ring, to keep warehouse workers hands free and afford them greater dexterity in tight spaces as well as a print and scan device.
In close collaboration with Askey, we’re also offering a new indoor enterprise Wi-Fi access point for the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) WiFi solution. Most industrial sites have complex connectivity layers with multiple technologies and networks operating in the same premises – which is why we are now offering DAC WiFi and through that the ability to operate Wi-Fi networks and private wireless 4.9G/LTE and 5G within the same solution. This significantly reduces operational complexity and taps into different network technology supporting different OT use cases: the robust mission-critical needs such as automated vehicles, worker safety and robots on 4.9G/LTE and 5G, and Wi-Fi for the less critical operational technology (OT) applications.
Customers can also go a step further and tap into multiple radio technologies at once with MX BOOST, thus benefitting from legacy Wi-Fi (or new Wi-Fi) to augment private wireless network capacity for example for high UL capacity applications like any camera-based use cases.
This is just the beginning for Nokia as we count on expanding the agent model to more partners and solutions.
Find out more by visiting our stand (3A2L) in Hall 3 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona during 26-29 February. Here you can experience the Nokia Team Comms application over a Handheld Group device and see how enterprises will benefit from industrial digitalization using OT edge and generative AI. You can also see the indoor enterprise Wi-Fi access point at Askey’s booth in Hall 5 Stand 5C11. We look forward to meeting you there! Read also a press release from Handheld Group.
