BlackBerry steers course towards software future

Smartphone vendor spruiking BES12 enterprise services

BlackBerry A/NZ managing director Matthew Ball.

BlackBerry A/NZ managing director Matthew Ball.

BlackBerry has shifted sights towards the enterprise software market with the company spruiking a number of customer wins in Australia.

Venue management firm AEG Ogden, Morea Architects, construction firm BMD Group and intercom systems supplier STENTOFON Australia have rolled out the vendor’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) offering, BES12, to manage iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Samsung KNOX and BlackBerry devices.

The Australian National Audit Office and Australian Transport Safety Bureau have upgraded from BES10 to BES12 in order to use services such as WatchDox.

AEG Ogden Middle East, Asia and Pacific CIO Dirk Hoffman said it selected BES12 as it wanted an enterprise mobility platform that could manage any device securely.

“We have deployed BlackBerry Passport and Classic devices, and we are now in the process of making BES12 our one-stop solution to manage all other mobile devices in our APAC network, including those running iOS and Android,” he said in a statement.

BlackBerry Australia and New Zealand managing director Matthew Ball said the company now defines itself as a software organisation that happens to make devices.

“Last quarter, 45 per cent of our customers came from a cross-platform environment. They may not have been BlackBerry customers in the past but they are coming to us with a cross platform solution in hand.”

“Mobile device management [MDM] is a part of our overall enterprise mobility strategy. The three key pillars around everything we are doing at the moment are productivity, collaboration and security,” he said.

Ball added that Australia is active in the BYOD technology space and BlackBerry's cross-platform shift about 18 months ago put the company in a good position to compete.

According to Ball, the company is now targeting SMB customers with the launch in A/NZ of BES12 Cloud, a service which is hosted in Canada.

“Now that we have a scalable solution, we are starting to have discussions with SMB customers who may not have thousands of users but they still have that same need around being able to enable their business and do it in a secure way.”

He added that the vendor is making it easy for SMBs to pay for the cloud offering with monthly or annual billing.

“What customers are telling us is that they love having a conversation about securing any platform with us. It’s really enabling choice,” said Ball.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags BlackberryMDMenterprise mobility

More about AEG OgdenAPACAustralian National Audit OfficeAustralian Transport Safety BureauBlackBerryNational Audit OfficeSamsungTransportTwitterWatchDox

Show Comments
[]