Samsung Eyes Enterprise With Solutions Exchange Launch

Samsung has begun a heavy marketing campaign in the United States to highlight its ambition to grow in the enterprise space.

To this end, the company announced the launch of the Samsung Solutions Exchange, to help developers port or create apps that service the needs of Samsung’s enterprise customers. And the move is sure to add to the stress levels over at BlackBerry.

Enterprise Focus

With Samsung Solutions Exchange, the world’s top-selling phone maker plans to do something “extremely unique,” said Tim Wagner, vice president and general manager of Samsung’s Mobile Enterprise Business Unit.

“If you think of all the things our devices can do, we have very unique, consumer-focused features,” said Wagner. “Think of Exchange as a very unique and first-of-its kind engagement model that is completely focused on end customer engagement and success, and that leverages our ecosystem of solutions providers and end channels.”

Samsung’s approach to this is three-prong. First, said Wagner, you have to offer “highly desirable” products – a task that Samsung, given its sales figures, has clearly accomplished.

Second, those devices need to be secure. In 2012, the company introduced Samsung Approved for the Enterprise, or SAFE, with the Galaxy Note and then the Galaxy S III. SAFE includes on-device, 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, virtual private networks (VPNs) and mobile device management solutions (MDMs).

This February, Samsung also unveiled Knox, a container platform that separates business content from personal.

“With Knox and SAFE together, we have support for more than 460 IT policies. Our closest smartphone competitor,” said Wagner, not acknowledging Apple by name, “has less than half what we have today. We’ve really gone above and beyond.”

Holistic Approach

The third and final piece of Samsung’s plan is to offer a holistic approach, providing value in a way that its competitors can’t match.

The standard model for tech adoption in the enterprise has been for users to present a problem and IT to go look for a solution. During that looking process, device manufacturers have been at the mercy of all the other players involved, said Wagner.

“The model we’re moving to is one where Samsung goes out and embraces the entire value chain,” he explained. “Now, Samsung’s sphere of influence will be over the IT department, line of business owners, software companies and the carriers.”