Consumer electronics giant Samsung has announced plans to offer large customers a one-stop shop of support and management for devices and services across the board, pitching itself as the single service provider enterprises will need for help with everything from smartphones to printers.
Samsung's first entry into services, dubbed '360 Services for Business', is aimed squarely at the partnership signed in July between Apple and IBM, which sees IBM support and manage Apple's consumer-popular products for its enterprise clients.
Samsung has taken the approach one step further and offered to use its worldwide workforce to help businesses deploy devices, troubleshoot problems, move to new software and integrate systems, regardless of whether the products involved are made by Samsung.
"We’ve listened closely to our customers when they talk about their pain points. They struggle to manage the complexities of BYOD and mixed-device environments,” Robin Bienfait, chief enterprise innovation officer for Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.
“Through Samsung 360 Services, we can provide ‘one hand to shake’ as a technology collaborator with unmatched global reach, a worldwide network of talent and a drive to innovate that is in the very fabric of Samsung.”
The company opened its enterprise business in 2010 and has pushed strongly into the market since, launching its Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE) product, which builds smartphones and tablets to certain enterprise management and security criteria; and more recently its Knox mobile security platform.
The new range of services position Samsung as the single point of contact for businesses experiencing problems with technology across any platform, operating system or device. Samsung plans to also work with the provider of the technology in question to find a solution when necessary.
The 360 Services for Business bundle will offer technical support and service desk, application support, security support, deployment support and Samsung's MobileCare for Enterprise product.
Samsung is currently piloting the offering with a number of Fortune 1000 companies in the US for a global launch in early 2015. It has not revealed any pricing.
Samsung's enterprise push comes as the company struggles in its core mobile business, yesterday revealing that it expected operating profit to fall by 60 percent in the third quarter - its weakest quarterly profit since Q2 2011.
The company blamed higher market costs and lower device sales, while analysts say the company is being pressured by Apple's iPhones at the premium end and Chinese rivals like Lenovo and Xiaomi at the low end.
