In this posting from TechCrunch, we read something about what Samsung is doing in the B2B space. Although not specified in the blog, Samsung has apparently been hosting a developer conference in San Jose this week to promote further B2B app development on company products such as phones, tablets, etc.
‘Chances are you mostly think of Samsung as a consumer-focused electronics company, but it actually has a very sizable B2B business as well, which serves more than 15,000 large enterprises and hundreds of thousands of SMB entrepreneurs via its partners. At its developer conference this week, it’s putting the spotlight squarely on this side of its business — with a related hardware launch as well. The focus of today’s news, however, is on Knox, Samsung’s mobile security platform, and Project AppStack, which will likely get a different name soon, and which provides B2B customers with a new mechanism to deliver SaaS tools and native apps to their employees’ devices, as well as new tools for developers that make these services more discoverable.’
So in effect, we must assume that Samsung is building out its profile for B2B procurement, and the e-commerce aspect of this should be obvious given the relative growth expectations versus C2B during the next five years.
We pointed this out in a recent research report, citing the various e-commerce selling models (including direct, which is what we assume is Samsung’s priority) and the massive purchasing volume forecasts the dot the landscape.
However, although Samsung makes its money on hardware, the focus of the indicated event was on better ways to market, promote, and extend products through business partners.
‘Today’s event is less about hardware than software and partnerships, though. At the core of the announcements is the new Knox Partner Program, a new way for partners to create and sell applications on Samsung devices. “We work with about 100,000 developers,” said Behbehani. “Some of these developers are inside companies. Some are outside independent developers and ISVs. And what we hear from these developer communities is when they have a solution or an app, how do I get that to a customer? How do I distribute it more effectively?”…This new partner program is Samsung’s solution for that. It’s a three-tier partner program that’s an evolution of the existing Samsung Enterprise Alliance program. At the most basic level, partners get access to support and marketing assets. At all tiers, partners can also get Knox validation for their applications to highlight that they properly implement all of the Knox APIs.’
We would need to get a more detailed briefing to understand the specific applications being developed for small businesses (or enterprises) on Samsung devices, but at least from an e-commerce intelligent selling standpoint, the increased use of markets and e-procurement apps can surely assist in identifying needs and logical partners/use cases.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
