HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. — Motorola has faced several challenges that would have spelled the end for most other companies. At one point, Motorola was losing more than $1 billion a month, forcing the company to make tough decisions, sell off its less-than-profitable divisions and return to its roots as a solutions-based company.
In the end, Motorola Solutions rose from the ashes of the old Motorola as a new iteration of a company that had its roots in radio communications and governmental technology. Now, the company is engaging the enterprise to grow its business, provide solutions and build new partnerships.
However, one rather large challenge remains, and that amounts to stemming the tide of the consumerization of IT resources.
As many IT shops already know, there is an onslaught of consumer-level devices which are penetrating the enterprise at all levels. These range from the iPad in the hands of the CEO to Android smartphones used by the company s sales force. The idea of the consumerization of IT stems from the notion of BYOD, or “bring your own device.” This practice allows employees to bring their own devices, such as laptops, smartphones and now tablets, into the corporate firewall. At the same time, the IT department is charged with allowing employees to access company applications and other corporate resources from their personal devices.
While many companies and IT shops are embracing BYOD, Motorola Solutions is looking to derail those BYOD efforts with innovative technologies that not only meet the needs of the user but also fit into the IT department s ability to manage and govern equipment and operations. The company is setting the stage for IT departments to take back control of devices, applications and security with an extensive knowledge base of why vertical market solutions are a better fit for most business entities, as opposed to the consumer-level devices that many organizations are trying to shoehorn into their IT environments.
This approach comes down to two factors: ROI (return on investment) and TCO (total cost of ownership). For its customers, Motorola Solutions is trying to demonstrate the hidden costs of consumer-level devices, while highlighting the operational savings of using enterprise-level products, which can be more easily provisioned, customized and managed by IT.
Simply put, Motorola Solutions has placed the focus back on IT enablement that services the user, while increasing productivity and lowering total costs.
Currently, Motorola Solutions has a dual-prong approach to IT enablement, with some 35 percent of the company’s solutions going into the enterprise space and the remainder going into the government sector.
For the enterprise side of the business, Motorola Solutions is focusing on mobile computing, advanced data capture, wireless networking, and services with products, consulting and an active partner ecosystem. The government side of the business focuses on radio systems, radio devices, Integrated Command and Control, and of course, services. While there is overlap between the enterprise and government solutions, these products and services are not limited to specific silos. That cross business unit pollination has created a wide array of solutions that fit well into hundreds of vertical markets.
At a press event here, company executives highlighted several technology solutions that are arriving on the market that promise to shift the focus from consumerization back to IT-delivered solutions. Sheldon Safir, Motorola Solutions director of Global Product Marketing, said Consumer-level products are becoming increasingly difficult to manage in the enterprise and lack the ruggedness and customizability that IT departments need for their vertical market applications
To read the original eWeek article, click here: Motorola Turns Away From BYOD, Consumerizaton of IT
