Last week the big news was around the release of BlackBerry Classic (read our comprehensive blog coverage here).
But we also announced plenty more. Given our ongoing enterprise shift, these are collectively just as significant. Let me catch you up.
BBM Anchors Secure New Productivity and Collaboration Bundles
Recent hacks (see below) reinforce what you probably already know: strong security is vital.
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Rather than being an expensive hindrance to productivity, strong security can prevent you from having to devote management time and IT expertise to shore up defenses or clean up messes after the fact.
BlackBerry announced two inexpensive software bundles centered around BBM that aim to enable both: the Secure Productivity Bundle and the Enterprise Communicator Bundle.
The Secure Productivity Bundle, at $6/user/month, allows employees to stay connected and access data regardless of their location while ensuring that sensitive information is protected the entire time. It includes:
- VPN Authentication by BlackBerry
- BBM Enterprise (formerly known as BBM Protected)
- BlackBerry Blend
This Secure Productivity Bundle is available for enterprise customers with BES10 and BES12, as well as BlackBerry 10 smart phones. Interested? Read a more in-depth blog or visit here.
The Enterprise Communicator Bundle delivers secure, cross-platform mobile-first collaboration, via:
Priced at $12/user/month, this bundle is available to enterprises with BlackBerry 10, iPhone and Android devices. Read the blog for more info or visit the BlackBerry Enterprise Store at BlackBerry.com.
BES12 Keeps Winning Enterprise Customers
Released just last month, the latest version of our enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, BES, is gaining converts.
The marquee news was around BlackBerry collaborating with Boeing to provide secure mobile solutions for Android devices utilizing our BES12 platform. Check out the collective press reaction here.
We also announced the coming conclusion of our BES migration program, EZ Pass. Through EZ Pass, we issued a total of 6.8 million BES licenses, up 100% from 3 months ago, to 4,900 enterprise customers. One-third of those licenses were issued to enterprises trading in licenses from competitors. The program ends on December 31.
One example is financial services firm Ocean Capital Investments, which moved off rival MDM solution MobileIron to BES12 for managing its BlackBerry and iOS devices. It joins Mackenzie Health, Tata Energy, Bombardier, Rocco Forte Hotels as confirmed BES12 customers (here are some other BES12 fans). In total, there are nearly 300 organizations that have deployed BES12 or plan to deploy it within the next 12 months, CEO John Chen said last week.
Showing our commitment to making BES12 the premier cross-platform EMM solution out there, we announced BES12 now supports the latest flavor of Android, Lollipop.
Finally, we announced the official closing of our acquisition of German voice encryption provider, Secusmart. Its powerful anti-surveillance solution is, among others, used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.