Nokia are kissing Symbian goodbye in the light of Windows Phone 7 development really kicking off for the arrival Mango. They have now finalized the development and support outsource for Symbian to Accenture who will hold it through 2016. Nokia will move 2,800 employees from around the world over to Accenture through the outsourcing, while their WP7 team remain hard at work for a rumoured October 26th launch.
Accenture will also work closely with majority-owned Avanade, a technology service company, to aid Nokia in the future with a Microsoft technology focus.
Check the press release after the break.
Nokia and Accenture finalize Symbian software development and support services outsourcing agreementNokia CorporationStock exchange releaseJune 22, 2011 at 09:00 (CET +1)Espoo, Finland - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) have finalized an agreement for Nokia to outsource Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture. Plans of the agreement were first announced on April 27, 2011.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, 2011."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, 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 for Accenture to support and further develop Nokia's Symbian platform and to become the 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, 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.About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of USD21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.Accenture is focused on enabling its clients to achieve breakthrough growth throughout the rapidly changing mobile ecosystem. The Accenture Mobility Services group offers five mobility services including consulting, software services--applications, software services--devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services. These are designed to help organizations embrace business to employee (B2E), business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B) and machine to machine (M2M) business opportunities. Accenture offers mobility and embedded software services across a wide range of industries and platforms, including Symbian, WinMo (Microsoft Windows® Mobile), Windows Phone, Android(TM), Blackberry®, iPhone®, Java(TM), Linux, Meego(TM).
Source: Engadget, via Pocket-lint
