After several months of either denying or keeping mum over a pending realignment, Motorola Inc. finally let its new structure out of the bag.
In the fashion of other big players like Nokia Corp., L.M. Ericsson and Nortel Networks Ltd., Motorola has organized its operations into four business groups: personal devices; networks; government and enterprise; and the connected home. The new changes take effect Jan. 1, according to the company.
“Today’s announcement builds on the progress we have made over the past two years in improving our focus and operating efficiency. Aligning our organization with our vision of seamless mobility takes it to the next level,” said Ed Zander, chairman and chief executive of Motorola. “With a more streamlined structure, Motorola will boost its flexibility and speed to capitalize on new opportunities, allowing us to deliver seamless mobility to our customers worldwide.”
With the semiconductor division now standalone company Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the company is focusing more on equipment, devices and professional services.
Ron Garriques will take charge of the personal devices group. Adrian Nemcek will lead the networks division. Greg Brown will preside over the government and enterprise division, while Dan Moloney will head the connected home division. They all are presidents of their divisions.
The company said all the activities of the divisions will use a central architecture, including supply chain operations, information technology, finance, human resources, legal, strategy and business development, marketing, quality and technology.
Motorola will also form a new organization to oversee its supply-chain business. This will entail manufacturing, distribution and procurement worldwide, said the company. It has not picked a person to fill the position. The company also said it is searching internally and externally for a new chief information officer in its efforts to centralize and provide more consistency in its information organization.
The personal devices division will work on multi-mode, multi-band devices for enterprises and homes. The networks division will leverage talent, research and development, as well as operating efficiency for existing businesses like radio access networks, core Internet Protocol networks, IMS/softswitch, iDEN infrastructure, wireline access, wireless local area network technologies and other broadband services and applications.
Its government and enterprise area will focus on Fortune 500 class enterprises, governments and automobile manufacturers. The connected home group will leverage existing and new cable and satellite customers for broadband networked homes.
The wireless vendor hinted it would reorganize last year shortly after Zander joined the company. One of his first moves was to emphasize the importance of software in the company’s new vision. The company was already on that software path before he became CEO with the acquisition of Winphoria Inc., a softswitch company.
Part of this strategy hinges on its Global Applications Management Architecture, which serves as a platform to bring together the various parts of its networks through a unified application programming interface, explained Guru Pai, vice president of the core networks product line at Motorola.
He said his company, like other major vendors, allow its TDMs and packet switches to cohabit in line with the industry’s gradual transition to an all-packet core infrastructure.
Its Push-To-Talk over Cellular plan is humming along, said Pai, mainly because it is leveraging Motorola’s IP strengths, especially with its IP multimedia platform. It claims to dominate the PTT space with up to 60-percent market share.
