Nokia announced at the end of September a shift in its strategy by discontinuing development and marketing of its own behind-the-firewall business mobility solutions. The company no longer offers its Intellisync software and instead said it would work with leading enterprise vendors.
Gig Harbor-based Perlego Systems Inc., which developed a competing software suite called Horizons, said following the announcement that it would offer former Nokia Intellisync business customers and partners a seamless conversion to its system.
Nokia’s discontinuation of its Intellisync business solutions and services forced many customers and solution providers to find an alternative provider. To quickly fill this need, Perlego is extending Horizons, a multi-platform mobile device management solution that allows organizations to manage deployed smart wireless devices regardless of platform or carrier, to Nokia’s displaced customers at a discounted price. The offer includes free domain setup, first three months free on device licenses and discounts on other support.
Perlego has been based in downtown Gig Harbor since 2003, and has expanded the number of staff from 20 to 30 within the last year, as well as recently adding an office in Europe and one in Boston. The company also received its first round of venture capital funding in the last few months. Mark Foege, one of the company founders and executive vice president, declined to disclose the amount of VC funding received but said it was more than the company anticipated. Last year, he told the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal the company hoped to secure $8 million in investments.
The Nokia move allows the company to significantly expand its customer base, and Foege anticipates Perlego’s sales force to grow. “This is a huge David opportunity when a Goliath decides to focus elsewhere,” he said. “We anticipated to grow the company organically — this is one of those acceleration moments.”
Horizons provides businesses and solution providers with an easy-to-use system for managing the entire lifecycle of mixed mobile devices, from issuance to retirement. With Horizons, administrators can easily deploy applications, issue patches and disable devices all over-the-air . The software suit is offered on a subscription basis.
Also in October, Perlego announced Horizons will support the Open Mobile Alliance Device Management protocol. By supporting this specification, Perlego ensures its customers broad interoperability and consistency when performing device management practices, including provisioning, device configuration, software upgrades, and device examination. The OMA membership represents nearly 200 companies, including many of the world’s leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies, and content providers. The group establishes specifications that ensure interoperable mobile services and solutions across countries, operators and mobile terminals.
