Nokia has announced that Japanese mobile player Rakuten has selected its Intelligent Management Platform for All Connected Things (IMPACT) in an effort to help the operator explore new revenue opportunities through the rollout of Internet of Things (IoT) services across Japan.
As an integrated, standards-based platform, IMPACT simplifies the process of bringing and scaling multiple applications onto a single platform. As a result, Rakuten can deploy various IoT applications faster and more cost effectively across multiple sectors such as agriculture, industry and the automotive field, including connected vehicles.
Nokia will provide turnkey deployment and integration of the IMPACT platform, leveraging its experience of implementing a complete end-to-end IoT solution for several leading communication service providers around the world.
Nokia is working with Rakuten to build vertical specific use cases and a comprehensive IoT ecosystem of its own comprised of industry players, system integrators, software developers and academia. This modular solution will maximize automation, bring in innovation and help Rakuten launch new use cases faster.
Further, Nokia's solution will allow Rakuten to conceive and implement unique IoT use cases specific to the Japanese market and differentiate their offerings to B2B and B2C customers while reducing the cost of launching new IoT use cases and operations. Rakuten and Nokia are completely aligned on the IoT vision and it is being implemented in Rakuten's new mobile network operation in Japan.
Tareq Amin, Chief Technology Officer of Rakuten Mobile Network, Inc., said: "We are very excited to be collaborating with Nokia in the field of IoT. Our experience as an IT company and strong presence in a wide variety of consumer tech industries and business domains puts us in a strong position in terms of deploying the IoT platform and applications. By leveraging our existing ecosystem and Nokia's advanced IoT platform, we believe will be able to create innovative, cost-effective IoT solutions and take a leading role in the market."
Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software, said: "Rakuten has quickly established its presence in the Japanese service provider market and we are pleased to be providing it with our full IMPACT solution in order to help it seize the many IoT opportunities available in the country. IMPACT is a great extension of our relationship with Rakuten and underlines the attractiveness of Nokia's full end-to-end portfolio in the marketplace."
The Nokia IMPACT IoT Platform is a horizontal platform covering connectivity management, data collection, device detection and analytics, and business application development, on top of device and subscription management across all industries.
