Goodbye Stephen Elop... whats next?

I sat back this morning, a little shocked as the news rolled in about Microsoft Business Divsion - President, Stephen Elop, let the world know he was leaving Microsoft, to become CEO of Nokia.



While at Microsoft, for the past four years, he has helped oversee Office 2010 rollout, and the Dynamics ERP and CRM business increase at great rates. He was always great to listen too at Convergence every year.

Now he will no longer be with Microsoft, and as of Sept. 21 he will be the CEO of Nokia.

ZDNet has covered this well, including asking some tough questions if Stephen is the right man for the Nokia Chief position. That article can be found here.: Can a Microsoft man fix Nokia? Here are 6 things that have to happen

I don't personally know Stephen, however the past four years working in the Dynamics Ecosystem, through a tough recession, and through new major releases, all-in-all, has been a great four years for Microsoft.

Being the leader of the Business Divison, Stephen has to be given credit, in part, to this success. There are of course many different reasons for the success, including great partners like Sunrise Technologies, Inc., the amazing VAR I am a part of.

So for Stephen and Nokia, I think we all wish him the best and hope he does well while at Nokia.

Now taking a step back, and looking at the bigger moving parts going on in the enterprise and Nokia's current position world wide and in the U.S. They have the top market share in Mobile OS actually, yet hardly exist in the U.S.

Now, lets take my blog post from yesterday.: Tech execs betting on enterprise mobility and look at what Stephen Elop was for Microsoft and is now going to be for Nokia.

For me at least, it has me thinking. Nokia is a big partner of Microsoft actually, believe it or not, and is fast losing share to iOS and Andriod for world wide marketshare.

There is a huge shift to the computing device most people use is a smart phone or tablet / slate based device. This will only continue to grow, and even more so in the Enterprise.

Now take the big focus for next year, Mobile Line of Business Applications. That is, stand alone, and connecting Mobile solutions that extend a customers enterprise investments to the mobile devices, smart phones, slates, tablets, etc.

Could Stephen Elop take Nokia, and revive it, bringing the giant into the U.S. Markets, continue to grow in developing markets, and offer a platform that enterprise swarm to for Mobile LOB applications?

Right now, hard to say. However do I think this will be a top priority for Stephen Elop, bringing Nokia into the US and a focus on the Enterprise? I do!

It will not be his only focus, but a big one. How big of a success he is, will be determined by how Nokia engages the market, if they beef up Mobile LOB app creation ability on their platform (either with Symbian OS or another one), and how he involves Partners.

If Stephen believed anything about what he preached, around the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem, to help drive Dynamics, then I would be willing to bet that this will be an early on project to enable Nokia's push for being a viable mobile LOB platform for enterprise in the U.S. and the world.

So, that's my two cents... trying to tie a bigger picture together here. For me, still will be focusing on Dynamics AX, as well as Windows Phone, Apple iOS and Andriod for devices. If Nokia has a valid push, and it's a great value to enterprises, and can bring value to my customers... then it will be added to the list. Time will tell!

That's all for now, check back soon and have a blessed and wonderful weekend!

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