Huawei, the Chinese provider of information and telecommunications technologies has announced to develop a Smart Workspace@Mobile solution in cooperation with their strategic partner IBM Global Business Services (GBS) in China.

Their ambitious plan would provide clients with a secure, intelligent mobile solution, ushering in a new era of the 'smart mobile worker'.

 

"We believe this collaboration builds on the strengths of two great companies and will address the changing needs of the workforce within enterprises," said Mr Wan Biao, CEO of Huawei Devices. "Today, enterprise mobile office will not only need automation but also need to drive new service channels, enhance asset and logistics management, offering customers additional business-oriented services. The launch of this new Smart Workspace@Mobile solution will redefine a new era for the enterprise mobility market in China." The solution aims to provide an 'anytime, anywhere professional secure office environment' on smart devices that are integrated with tailored industry applications. Each device is enabled to be cost effective, efficient and secure.

The Smart Workspace@Mobile solution addresses the growing demand in China for smart mobile office solutions which integrate effectively with Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and inventory management delivered within a cloud environment.

IBM Global Business Services in China will provide the overall consulting to support the enterprise foundations for ERP systems. Huawei Device will undertake the solution integrator pilot, providing the convergent smart devices based on the operating platform - Mobile Device Management (MDM). This will ensure that companies can have their back end management systems extend to smart phone and tablet devices tailored to a specifically customized industry process.

"With their strength in smart device technologies and the expanding operator [broadband] coverage in China, Huawei's collaboration with IBM Global Business Services to provide consulting and enterprise platform integration will ensure that work moves securely and efficiently from a PC-base to a mobile office environment." said Ms. Shirley Yu-Tsui, General Manager, Global Business Services, IBM Greater China Group.

This solution will integrate entire cross-business processes including market sales, channel management, store management, mobile sales, customer service, devise management, inventory management and office management all in one device. The solution will further support three industries; the consumer goods sector with solutions developed for inventory optimization, synchronized distribution and shop management. The energy sector services will be developed to enable asset management, secure access, equipment testing and remote positioning. In the retail sector, the Smart Workspace@Mobile solution will provide applications to accelerate product exhibition, store operation, market information collection, customer management, channel visit and office automation.

Huawei and IBM deal with a huge amount of defined requirements, which are generalized, but basically serve the needs of mobile workers. However, new and innovative ideas have not been announced, so it remains to be seen how IBM and Huawei envisage the new era of smart mobile workers. Their risk of getting bogged down is certainly high. Besides, it remains unclear what devices or operating systems are supported and further technical details and a release date were not disclosed, yet.

By Daniela La Marca