ArcelorMittal South Africa, the largest steel producer on the African continent, has chosen Samsung Electronics South Africa, in partnership with MTN Business, to equip staff with the latest smartphone technology.
The primary objective for ArcelorMittal South Africa was a mobile solution that would integrate with its SAP release processes and offer total device security and mobile device management (MDM), while providing pertinent order information on-the-spot for its workforce.
“We are very pleased to provide such a holistic mobile solution for ArcelorMittal South Africa which will help to transform how its employees operate, especially in-field, and we look forward to continuing to support them,” comments Paulo Ferreira, director of Enterprise Mobility at Samsung Electronics SA.
Instant access to data is vital for the modern workforce and Samsung’s provision not only enables ArcelorMittal South Africa personnel to receive emails on-the-go, but also supports increased efficiency by enabling content to be accessed through future cloud services.
“We are pleased with our choice to roll out Samsung mobile phones to our employees. It gives us the opportunity to provide all the functionality we require of the mobile smartphones,” adds José Marques, manager: group infrastructure and SAP CoE, resource to product.
“We also retain the control that we need in terms of maintaining the integrity of the mobile service from a corporate perspective, while at the same time respecting our employees’ privacy.”
Samsung’s offering includes a systematic series of checks and touch-points tailored to the needs of the company, ensuring a seamless migration to the Samsung environment.
SEMA provided assistance to ArcelorMittal South Africa throughout the mobile transition process, from conception through to device handover. Included was a device selection process, whereby Samsung delivered onsite smartphone device and accessory showcase presentations. This allowed employees the opportunity to explore the features and functionality of each device, which enabled them to make an informed decision about their personal choice of device.
Samsung’s technical professionals were on-hand at the time of product distribution to assist users in configuring their new devices and migrating user information, allowing the workforce to immediately use their smartphones from day one. Each unit was delivered to the user with account access details pre-configured, including email and apps.
Samsung believes that training is a crucial element to workforce productivity and as such, all employees were provided with device and User Interface (UI) training at pre-selected ArcelorMittal South Africa sites. Staff were guided through all elements of the devices in classroom-style training sessions.
The device assessment regime included proof of concept testing with internal business systems as well as ensuring MDM readiness.
“Device security and management is of the upmost importance to Samsung and we have ensured that ArcelorMittal South Africa’s stringent security requirements have been met,” explains Ferreira.
Security-critical devices were delivered with Samsung’s data protection platform KNOX providing end-to-end security on mobile devices with advanced data and privacy protection through multi-layered protection.