Few could have predicted BlackBerry's roller coaster ride following its meteoric rise to dominance a decade ago. Today, however, you don't need to be Mystic Meg to see that BlackBerry is once again on the march, this time on a mission to fully reclaim its overarching market influence, according to Mike Gibson, Director of UK Enterprise.
Heroic BlackBerry deserves more than a medal following its skirmishes in the war of the enterprise smartphone. The company has emerged, reinvented, from the heat of a hard fought battle, victorious. In a remarkable turnaround incoming Chief Executive Officer John Chen, who replaces Thorsten Heins, aims to drive innovation and electrify BlackBerry. He has brought stability to a company that was up for sale last summer, reeling from a Q2 net loss of £597 million and about to wield the axe on 4,500 jobs. But core principles remain the same and are already making their influence keenly felt in various ways, noted Gibson.
"John Chen has set out a clear mandate of going back to BlackBerry's heritage and roots to deliver enterprise-grade, end-to-end mobile solutions," affirmed Gibson. "From an enterprise perspective, my priority is to continue to build on the early success of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) - which now has 30,000 servers installed and counting. Leveraging the strength and depth of our existing channel partnerships is fundamental to this objective; along with our focus on handsets, EMM solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems. We're confident about our future in enterprise, our technology and our ability to adapt to changing market needs."
BlackBerry's strength in enterprise software and services, including BES10 and BlackBerry Technical Support Service, is the force behind a big push to develop new strategic partnerships with VARs, MSPs and SIs. "We're working to develop and grow these partnerships via our BlackBerry Partner Programme so that they can capitalise on the opportunities that our portfolio offers them," added Gibson. "With our inherent focus on mobile, our heritage and our reach, we are confident that we can continue to best serve the needs of the enterprise market in the medium and long-term."
Gibson's career began in data comms before moving into UC, including a stint at Nortel. Although his role at BlackBerry is firmly rooted in the mobile space, the focus is broadly similar to his past experience. "Software and services are at the core of our business and my previous experience has stood me in good stead, particularly with innovations such as BES10 where we've taken our previously proprietary software to create a full cross-platform solution that extends our security and management capabilities to iOS and Android devices," he said. "All of my previous roles have been characterised by a strong channel-centric approach and this came into play as BlackBerry introduced its Partner Programme to activate the IT VAR community."
Partners can join the BlackBerry Partner Programme at one of three levels - Strategic, Approved or Associate. Progress through the tiers is encouraged, and Strategic top tier partners receive the most benefits including full access to the Partner Programme website. Notably, training has proved to be a popular area within the portal. "Since its launch 19 months ago we have seen over 6,500 eLearning modules completed, 2,500 webinar modules attended and a total of 728 people have participated in the on-site classroom training," commented Gibson. "We also cater for the complex distribution network by tailoring content for our key distribution partners."
According to Gibson, BlackBerry's partners benefit from a constant stream of upsell opportunities that are designed to fully maximise their account penetration. "We've introduced a range of new sales incentives aimed at rewarding solutions sales, as well as a partner support package to help partners maximise revenue opportunities from support services," Gibson added.
His message is clear: BES10 is a full cross-platform solution that builds on BlackBerry's tried and trusted capabilities in security and management, and it is testament to how far the company has travelled from old perceptions of it being a 'phone maker'. "We are much more than a device company," Gibson commented. "For any organisation looking to seamlessly manage multiple mobile platforms and devices, they can do so with BES10 and benefit from the security and management capabilities that have made BlackBerry the leader in mobile enterprise for more than a decade. What's more, there is a simple upgrade path from our existing BlackBerry infrastructure to our BES10 platform without the need for a costly rip and replace."
BES10 is flexible and scalable, designed to address the needs of SMBs using Active Sync through to an organisation operating in a fully regulated environment which must conform to the strictest security criteria. "The development of BES10 exemplifies how we are continuously innovating to meet and anticipate the requirements of our customers," added Gibson. "As different mobile devices and platforms have proliferated within the workplace, we have created and delivered a full cross-platform solution that can manage and secure iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, apps and content from one single console."
Gibson claims that BlackBerry manages more mobile devices than any other MDM vendor in the world, pointing out that over one third of FTSE 100 companies have already been installed globally along with over 60 per cent of its Fortune 500 customers. "This reflects their desire for a cross-platform enterprise mobility management solution that delivers a strong level of security, control and management at both the device and app level," he stated. "We're confident that with further innovations in this space, including the forthcoming launch of our new cloud solution, we can continue to maintain the strong position in enterprise that we have held for well over ten years."
Most organisations have a variety of devices types and platforms in the workplace today. The real challenge is how to secure and manage not just these devices but the apps and content running on them, especially in an environment where BYOD and/or consumerisation have driven IT departments to settle for workaround solutions in an attempt to make a multitude of device types and platforms 'fit for work', observed Gibson. "In their haste to adapt to this shift many organisations have opted for a more basic mobility management model just as everything is being mobilised. Consequently, they require even more sophisticated mobile management capabilities," he said.
"With a multi-device enterprise environment now the reality, the IT department has the opportunity to regain a measure of control over the management of the mobile enterprise estate. BES10 ticks all of the boxes by delivering a full cross-platform solution offering the best of our security and management capabilities."
Not surprisingly, MDM is top of the agenda for most CIOs and IT departments, not just because of BYOD but also because of the clear opportunity that mobility presents to boost productivity, customer engagement, job satisfaction and more. "We are focused on creating a platform agnostic service that goes beyond just devices to managing endpoints," stated Gibson. "As experts in mobile we are well positioned to achieve this because other mega IT vendors lack focus and competency in mobile, while smaller pure play MDM vendors lack the resources and reach."•