Nokia completes transition of Symbian activities to Accenture

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Nokia has completed the 'transaction to outsource its Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture'. The original announcement was made in April and the agreement finalised in June. As a result, approximately 2300 employees of Nokia will transfer to Accenture, 700 less than originally envisioned. Accenture will provide Symbian-based software development and support services to Nokia until at least 2016.

The transitioning employees will remain in place at their existing Nokia offices. Approximately 1200 are in Finland, with the remaining split between the UK, USA, China and India. Around 650 employees have found new positions in Nokia or moved on to other companies.

Accenture will look to maintain the existing Symbian expertise within the workforce, but is also likely to begin a gradual retraining program as it positions itself to provide Nokia with support for its Windows Phone activities.

As we noted in our original story:

In effect, this an out-sourcing agreement that will see Accenture become Nokia's preferred partner for external smartphone development and service support activities. Accenture will take over responsibility, from Nokia, for transitioning a number of software engineers from Symbian to other platforms. 

This should allow Nokia to focus more of its efforts on executing a successful transition to Windows Phone for its smartphone device portfolio and services. It further underlines Stephen Elop's determination to switch Nokia to its new strategy as quickly and as efficiently as possible in order to allow a concentrated focus on Windows Phone. 

The impact on Nokia's Symbian software activity, such as the support of phones and future software upgrades, is likely to be minimal (in the context of current plans)Nokia has already put in place a time-line for its remaining future Symbian devices and software updates and much of the work for these has already been carried out. While the amount of Symbian-related software activities will decrease over the next few years, as Nokia undertakes its transition to Windows Phone, it will continue as long as is necessary.

The Accenture press release notes:

Under the agreement, originally announced on June 22, 2011, Accenture will provide Symbian-based software development and support services to Nokia at least until 2016 and also become the preferred supplier for Nokia in its transition to Windows Phone.  Following the close, approximately 2,300 employees from China, Finland, India, the United Kingdom and the United States are transferring from Nokia to Accenture.

We are focused on growing our business in mobility and embedded software. The addition of these highly skilled technologists and engineers to Accenture will strengthen our capabilities in these areas,” said Marty Cole, chief executive, Accenture Communications, Media & Technology operating group. “We look forward to supporting Nokia in the execution of its strategy.”

Accenture will work with Avanade, a technology service company that is majority-owned by Accenture and focuses on Microsoft technologies, to provide further services to Nokia.