[Solutions to be manageable "out-of-the-box" and will be supported and updated remotely.]

Companies combine mobile telephony and technology management strengths to help service providers and enterprises ease introduction of mobile Internet and mobile e-business services.

Ericsson and Tivoli Systems Inc. today announced an alliance to jointly develop a comprehensive set of mobile device management solutions. The solutions will enable General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or third generation (3G) mobile communication devices to be manageable out-of-the-box as well as be supported and updated remotely.

By providing mobile operators, service providers and enterprises with mobile device management systems, the alliance will enable consumers and professional users to start using their new mobile devices, services and applications immediately after purchase, without delay or configuration by themselves. The alliance will also focus on support and helpdesk services, which will enable remote monitoring and configuration of devices as well as software and program updates.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will incorporate Tivoli device management technologies into Ericsson's next generation of mobile communication devices. The solution from Ericsson and Tivoli provides mobile operators with a complete view of the subscribers, services and user devices, and the tools to manage those devices and services.

In addition to collaborating on mobile device management solutions, Ericsson and Tivoli are working together to propose a set of international standards for managing the next generation of mobile devices. The companies have developed a mobile device management technology initiative that plans to deliver standards proposal during the first half of 2001.

Ericsson and Tivoli intend to work with other leading vendors to establish these open standards. "Ericsson's and Tivoli's combined strengths create powerful synergies that will help service providers and enterprises deploy and maximize the significant revenue potential of mobile services," said Jan Ahrenbring, Vice President Marketing and Communications at Ericsson Mobile Communications. "Ericsson is dedicated to driving rapid expansion of the mobile Internet to offer personal freedom and convenience for consumers and professionals. This alliance will be able to deliver solutions that provide new efficiencies for corporate IT departments and new revenue streams for resellers, operators and service providers." Consumers and professional users of the managed devices will have "instant service" and the ability to modify or add services without the need for complex and time-consuming configuration changes. Device and service management makes it possible for new services (e.g. stock trading or remote medical monitoring) to be enabled on compliant devices. Those new services can be established more quickly thanks to the ability to remotely reconfigure device settings or download new software to the mobile device. Retailers and dealers of mobile devices and phones will also benefit from mobile device management solutions. Sales will be simplified since the phone is manageable out-of-the-box, creating a "pay and play" situation. The managed device automatically configures itself to the services that the customer has selected. Sales and support costs will be reduced due to the automated configuration and initialization. "Our mobile device management solutions will enable mobile operators, service providers and enterprises to quickly introduce new revenue services, reduce their costs for customer support, reduce the time to set up new services and improve service levels to end-users," said Jan Lindelow, Chairman of Tivoli Systems Inc. "Solving the issue of device management is fundamental to the introduction of new mobile Internet and e-business services. In helping to establish global standards for mobile device management, our companies are taking huge steps towards simplifying the introduction of enhanced mobile services." The mobile Internet market is expected to have strong and rapid growth. Ericsson expects that by 2003 the mobile Internet will overtake the fixed Internet in number of users, reaching one billion mobile Internet users in 2005. In addition, corporate spending on mobile services will increase dramatically as businesses increasingly rely on mobile technologies as a key productivity tool.

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