Nokia Corp. and Accenture plc have finalized theiragreement for Nokia to outsource its Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture. The plan to outsource Nokia's Symbian activities was first announced last April.
Under the agreement, Accenture will provide Symbian based software development and support services to Nokia through 2016. Approximately 2,800 Nokia employees located in China, Finland, India, United Kingdom and the United States are expected to transfer to Accenture at closing, which is expected to take place in the early part of October this year.
"We look forward to partnering with Nokia as they continue to support Symbian and transition to the Windows Phone ecosystem," said Marty Cole, chief executive at Accenture communications and high tech group. "The highly skilled group of technologists and engineers transferring to Accenture will complement our current mobility skills and enhance the breadth, depth and scale of our capabilities, allowing us to meet the growing global demand for mobility services across many industries."
The agreement calls forÿAccenture toÿsupport and further develop Nokia's Symbian platform and to becomeÿthe preferred supplier to Nokia on their transition to Windows Phone. Accenture will seek opportunities to leverage transferring employee skills and capabilities to provide mobility software, business and operational services around the Windows Phone platform to Nokia and other ecosystem participants. Accenture will also seek to retrain and redeploy transferred employees.
"Our collaboration with Accenture allows us to meet our ongoing commitment to support our Symbian smartphone customers and continue to leverage the talent that has the deepest experience on the platform," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president for Smart Devices at Nokia. "As we move our primary smartphone platform to Windows Phone, we will look to explore potential opportunities to tap this talent pool as they develop and expand their knowledge and capabilities beyond Symbian."
Accenture will also work with Avanade, a technology service company that is majority-owned by Accenture and focuses on Microsoft technologies, to provide further services to Nokia.
The definitive agreement includes customary closing conditions.
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