Intermec Acquires Lifecycle Services Firm Enterprise Mobile

Intermec on Wednesday acquired Enterprise Mobile, a firm that offers mobile handheld users lifecycle services including deployment, training, help desk support, replacement and repair.

Intermec says the acquisition will allow Intermec’s customers in the enterprise space to take advantage of these servers and reduce the strain on their resources by providing the entirety of their device support and management needs. Under the terms of the deal, Enterprise Mobile is now part of Intermec Global Solutions (IGS) business unit led by Intermec Vice President Larry Klimczyk. In an interview with CRN, Klimczyk said Intermec’s additional capacity from the acquisition will contribute to the strategy it has pursued for the past year, which is aimed at becoming the leader in rugged mobile business solutions.

’In the past nine months, we’ve been working on providing the total customer experience,’ Klimczyk said. ’There are a number of things that are needed to complete this whole solution. Enterprise Mobile focuses on lifecycle mobility -- helping them with deploying managing, supporting, and obviously migrating those services throughout the device’s whole lifecycle.’

In addition, Intermec says the addition of Enterprise Mobile’s assets solidifies Intermec’s commitment to its channel partners, through whom it will offer the additional services. All of Intermec’s enterprise mobility services are available through Intermec’s PartnerNet program, which the company rolled out in February at its annual partner conference in Orlando, while adding ISVs to its partner community.

’PartnerNet launched just over a year ago,’ Klimczyk said. ’It won a number of awards across industry, which we’re very proud of. Intermec has about four thousand partners worldwide, in its Platinum down to its Gold and Silver levels. PartnerNet includes market benefits, training benefits and, the key thing is, we have a deal registration process that’s industry-leading. We will stand side-by-side with our partners when they register those deals, gaining loyalty by standing by them.’

Of Intermec’s total business, Klimczyk said, 80 percent is sold through channel, while 20 percent is sold direct. ’What we’ve also done is establish a hard deck of accounts, we have about a 130 accounts globally in which working with customers directly and our commitment to all of our partners is that number will never increase. So we have a tight commitment to our partners and to the channel model.’

Klimczyk called Intermec a partner-centric company and said that the addition of enterprise mobile services is particularly of interest to Intermec’s channel partners. ’A variety of our partners are looking to provide these kinds of solutions, in fact they’re demanding it,’ he said. ’Whether the partners invest in these services themselves or leverage Intermec’s investment, we’re giving our partners another choice in order to increase their market share. Just in the last 24 hours a large number of partners have contacted us to ask how they can serve our customer base. I think that’s a real testament to our commitment’

Next: New Platforms And Non-Rugged Environments

Intermec said Enterprise Mobile offer its professional and outsourcing services across multiple mobility platforms. In addition, Intermec says it will now extend its hardware, software and lifecycle services to the non-rugged market.

’Traditionally, even today, Intermec is purely in the rugged space, purely on Windows OS,’ Klimczyk said. ’However, Enterprise Mobile is both device agnostic and OS agnostic, and we will continue that. It also provides insight as to how to manage and support not just rugged devices, but the customer’s full mobility needs.’

Klimczyk said Intermec took steps in this direction five years ago when it launched InControl, the company’s integrated management service. ’That allowed us to manage all of our customer’s mobile devices, even if they were running another OS like Android or iOS,’ he said. ’It’s opening our eyes to a lot of different opportunities.’

Klimczyk said the first area Intermec focuses on is the deployment environment -- which he said includes direct store delivery, warehouse, transportation, logistics, and field service. Though rugged devices are more expensive, he said, they enjoy a significant advantage in these relatively harsh environments, as their total cost of ownership will ultimately be significantly lower due to possible breakage, theft and downtime.

’Having said that, not everybody needs to have a fully-rugged device,’ Klimczyk added. ’That’s why we’ve entered parallel markets such as in-store areas. Our first semi-rugged device, the cs40, has been launched at a much lower price-point. Users can still get semi-ruggedness as well as other features such as imaging. Does a salesperson really need a rugged device? Unless there in a specialty area, probably not. We’re getting exposure to those customers with Enterprise Mobile, which addresses their concerns.’