Nokia to shed 7,000 jobs, outsource Symbian to Accenture

by Janani Krishnaswamy on 27 April 2011, 11:04

Tags: Nokia (NYSE:NOK)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa5pq

Add to My Vault: x

Pragmatic pruning

Nokia today announced plans to transfer its Symbian software activities to outsourcing giant Accenture. Accenture will also get 3,000 Nokia employees to provide mobility software services to all its future smartphones. The two companies expect to complete the agreement during summer this year, and expect transition of employees by the end of calendar year 2011.

Nokia also plans to reduce its global workforce by about 4,000 employees by the end of 2012, with the majority of reductions in Denmark, Finland, while the UK is expected to lose around 700.

Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO, said: "At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions. However, with this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce."

Nokia said employees, located in China, Finland, India, United Kingdom and the United States, will initially work on Symbian software activities for Nokia. The two companies might find opportunities to retrain and redeploy these transitioned employees in time. But it's hard to view this news as anything other than a further move away from Symbian by Nokia.

According to Accenture, approximately 165 Nokia professional services engineers and consultants in the United Kingdom, Finland, Japan, Korea and Australia are expected to transfer to Accenture as a result of the agreement. The company also expects to consolidate its research and product development sites. It might expand some of the sites and contract or close down a few others.

"Mobility is a key area for Accenture," said Marty Cole, chief executive, Accenture Communications and High Tech group. "This collaboration with Nokia will enhance our ability to help clients across multiple industries leverage mobility to advance their business agendas. It is a real win-win for Accenture and Nokia".

"This collaboration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to enhance our Symbian offering and serve our smartphone customers," said Jo Harlow, EVP for Smart Devices, Nokia.  "As we move our primary smartphone platform to Windows Phone, this transition of skilled talent to Accenture shows our commitment to provide our Symbian employees with potential new career opportunities."

 

HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Posted by 3dcandy - Wed 27 Apr 2011 12:13
Bet Nokia are chuffed that WP7 already seems to be losing ground rapidly to ios and android. Jump from one sinking ship to another eh?
Posted by aidanjt - Wed 27 Apr 2011 12:55
More like jumping from a sinking ship, onto the titanic.
Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Wed 27 Apr 2011 13:10
Nokia is a major employer in Finland so it is not very good news.
Posted by TheAnimus - Thu 28 Apr 2011 00:04
3dcandy
Bet Nokia are chuffed that WP7 already seems to be losing ground rapidly to ios and android. Jump from one sinking ship to another eh?
Sorry but that is fan boy nonsense.

It can't be loosing ground, it has none to loose!

The thing for WP7 will be price point and Ux. Its not going to go after the high end market just yet, they are still going to be using snapdragon in a years time, this means Nokia should be able to make a handset in high enough volume for £100 that isn't a pile of junk, which has a better UI than the iPhone and better overall experience if your not doing anything considered out of the ordinary than the Android.

iOS is really going to be numbered if Apple don't come out with an iPhone 5 that people really want (my guess is they will build the aerial out of some form of chewing gum, which all dogs will instinctively love to chew, whilst heralding this new design mistake as changing everything. Again.)
Posted by 3dcandy - Thu 28 Apr 2011 09:54
figures I've seen somewhere are in USA and it has already lost market share. Digging deeper into the figures I'd guess it's actually not selling well at all but with the increase in smartphone sales it has just sold badly from the start. I'm sure Nokia will increase WP7 sales, but as you said there are none to speak of as yet so any increase will look good. Symbian is taking a huge hit aswell, my point is that Nokia seem to have taken a safe approach (again) which already looks like the wrong approach (again) and there is only so many monumental mistakes a company can make before it goes tits up! Apple, well they look increasingly screwed over time as people move away from their latest shiny toys because they don't actually make enough shiny toys to keep everyone happy (in regards to price points/performance and different markets). I know their performance generally has been pretty good for years, but as the iPod is in rapid decline because of iPhone, and Macbook in decline because of iPad if they don't bring out another defining product it could hurt them. I'm not a fan of Apple, I don't think I ever will be, but I can see their appeal. Nokia however is the Titanic, slow to avoid an obstacle, and one it believes will do it no harm anyway when it hits it.