Ericsson signs pact with SAP to sell business software

European telecom equipment maker Ericsson today said it has signed an agreement with SAP AG to jointly market and sell cloud-based, machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions and services to enterprises through operators around the globe.
The solutions will be based on a combined software- as-a-service (SaaS) offering from Ericsson and SAP within M2M.
"The global M2M service revenue is estimated to reach more than USD 200 billion by 2017. This partnership gives us a chance to unlock some of that potential," Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg told reporters during the Mobile World Congress here.
The solutions will be provided by operators as a service to enterprises, and Ericsson and SAP are already discussing the model with operators.

Along with the solutions, Ericsson will also lend its consulting, systems integration and managed services and applications testing, as well as verification services.
The new solutions and services will also help enhance enterprise efficiency in key business processes such as maintenance, remote service, inventory, logistics and road transport management, vending and customer experience management, he added.
"Today's announcement is a first step toward delivering on a shared vision that SAP and Ericsson have for co-innovating with our customers worldwide...Enterprises will benefit from an offering that provides them with everything they need to connect to machines, and helps turn high volumes of data into real-time knowledge and decision-making," SAP AG Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe said.