Food Company Sara Lee chooses Nokia Lumia over Blackberry, Apple and Samsung

Sara Lee has announced that they are standardising their smartphone plans around Windows Phone with a roll out of Lumia 800 devices.

After considering alternatives from Apple and Samsung, the company chose Nokia Lumia as a clear winner, even citing Windows Phone as offering a stronger enterprise solution.

Good news indeed for Windows Phone and we’re sure Nokia are more than pleased to be supplying the company with fresh new handsets. They say that to date 70 Lumias have gone out with more expected to reach their workforce of over 500 people, everyone from execs to factory floor are in line to get them.

Here is what Sarah Lee IT program manager, Michael Holt, had to say about their decision:-

"We considered alternatives such as iPhone and Samsung, however, Nokia Lumia was a clear winner The Windows Phone platform offers a stronger enterprise solution, which provides better back and front office integration for the Sara Lee business."

It’s clear the company has been sold on the benefits of Office integration and Nokia’s own specific apps such as Drive get special mention:-

"We have effectively been able to utilise our own enterprise telephony solution directly from the mobile device.”

Holt also liked how the phone connected to Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, and the inclusion of Nokia apps like Nokia Drive. Staff are now able to access and edit documents on the fly and exchange sales collateral with customers.

Nokia Lumia 800

Even more positive spin comes when Michael gives some kudos to what is arguably Windows Phone’s greatest strength, those Live Tiles. Saying this:-

"Feedback about the live tiles has been particularly positive, staff can get the most fundamental tasks done much more quickly and there is more information available on the home screen compared to the static Android or iOS set up"

With many companies fleeing the ailing Blackberry solution for business needs, there is real opportunity for the likes of Nokia, Samsung and HTC to start pushing the often superior features of Windows Phone. Sara Lee have begun their roll out using Windows Phone 7 devices but have plans to move things to Windows Phone 8 when they start appearing. With the improved security and app deployment that the new version of the OS brings we could see much more uptake for the operating system in the work place.

Well, with words like these starting to revolve around Windows Phone, things could be looking up!

"Microsoft and Nokia have also provided us with excellent direct support, including hands on training sessions by Nokia at our two major sites in Gordon and Lisarow, which was very well received by staff. This support has made the transition from a less sophisticated fleet of handsets much smoother"

We’d like to hear your take on this, can Windows Phone start making a dent in the business market? Know of any other companies that are ditching Blackberry for Windows Phone? Let us know in the comments. 

Source : Delimiter

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webOS GBU to become quasi-independent cloud and UX company: meet GRAM

If you've been wondering where HP's webOS Global Business Unit was going under the leadership of HP Chief of Staff Martin Risau, you're not alone. For a while now we've been wondering what the next steps would be for the webOS group after finishing out the roadmap to Open webOS 1.0 next month. Coming soon will be a new page in the saga of Palm, with a new rebranding and product focus as GRAM.

It was introduced in an all-hands meeting with the webOS employees late last week. The name Gram (we're going to use traditional capitalization standards from here on out) is an interesting choice, with the tagline of "Potent. Light. Nimble. At the core of all things big and small.", which we guess is technically true on some level if we're talking about the unit of measurement gram (0.035 oz). The logo for Gram melds the 'g' and 'r' into a stylized line butterfly, as if to symbolize the metamorphosis the webOS team is about to undergo. Going heavy on the symbolism here.

What's more interesting is the stated focus for Gram. Unsurprisingly, Gram is dropping any pretenses of producing consumer hardware. Instead the company is going to focus on software, user experience, the cloud, engineering, and partnering. If you're wondering exactly what that means, you're as in the dark as we are, though apparently webOS and Enyo, as well as the webOS group's own cloud services team (said to still be quite large with respect to the overall size of the unit), will play some sort of role. As the description above says, Gram will leverage "the core strengths" of those products, with the end goal of building "a technology that will unleash the freedom of the web." Again, we can only speculate as to what that means, but it seems to us that webOS will be playing a smaller role in the overall mission of Gram.

What's even more interesting is the structuring of Gram. While the webOS GBU is currently a business unit within HP, Gram will be a new company, that while under the HP funding umbrella will be a separate entity. HP's purse strings are pretty tight right now, what with the $8 billion write down that came from EDS just last week, so there might be some question as to how willing HP will be to continue funding a project like this. Though, as a technically independent company, Gram would have the ability to seek outside funding should HP fall through.

Weirdly, Gram is taking an odd 'start-up' attitude (where have we heard that before?) and not really talking about what they intend to offer the world. webOS employees - soon to be Gram employees - are being advised that they can talk to friends and family about Gram, but strangers are to be told that "Gram is a new company. We are in stealth mode on our product offering." Which to any outsider says "I can't talk about it, because we don't have anything to talk about right now." In the meantime, don't be surprised if you see webOS GBU employees walking around sporting the Gram logo on shirts or bags and not talking about what it means.

The public roll-out for Gram hasn't been given a timeline, but we've been told to expect it relatively soon, possibly by the end of next month. They've been busy remodeling Building 3 of the Palm Campus for Gram. Buildings 1 and 2 are the more photographed curved glass and concrete structures bearing the HP logo on the south side of Maude Ave, Building 3 is a more traditional single-level office building across the street. This is a change from February's plan to move the webOS group out to Cupertino, but then again it seems a lot has changed since February.

We're trying to find out more about Gram, specifically what this means for the development of Open webOS, but given that they're supposedly in 'stealth mode', we aren't going to get your or our hopes up just yet.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all of your enthusiasm at yesterday’s new brand announcement: GRAM.  We hope you will fall in love with the brand just as lots of us have already.

Please note that our Mission, Values and Plan of Action are the same. We are continuing to march forward on our timelines as usual—nothing new there.

We have much work to do, and, again, I solicit your help.

Yes, this is a new brand—it is just the beginning, and there is so much more to do. And yet unveiling the new brand is also a Call to Action:

Try it on. We don’t expect you to love it overnight. We are no longer a consumer hardware brand, we are a different company with focus on software, User Experience, Cloud, engineering and partnering. This change in identity will take some getting used to and that’s normal.

Stealth mode. We are an incubation company, and we are trusting you to keep this company name and product under the radar to give it time to take root and grow. You can wear the logo, help build the momentum of the new identity, talk to your families and friends about it. If someone from the outside asks, you can say, “GRAM is a new company. We are in stealth mode on our product offering.”

Tap your network. Help us hire the best and the brightest, refer your friends and help us in our shared purpose as we continue our rise to the top. You can use the name to help us to recruit.

Be the culture. Spread our Values:  People Matter. Integrity and Trust. Deliberate Innovation. Act small, deliver big.

For those of you who could not attend yesterday’s unveiling – we really missed you.  Please be on the lookout for the gift bags with our new cool branded items, which we be mailing out to you this and next week.  All of you should get one, if not – let me know.

Best

Martin

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