Propelled by the win of more than 10,000 enterprise customers, BlackBerry topped its publicly-announced target of $500 million in software and service sales for its just-finished fiscal year.
For FY16 ending February 29, 2016, BlackBerry software and services revenue grew to $527 million, up 113% over FY15, as BlackBerry absorbed category-leading software firms including Good Technology, WatchDox and AtHoc, while releasing new software and winning new customers.
“We are performing well and are very pleased,” said Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen during a conference call earlier today.
In Q4, BlackBerry released its Good Secure EMM Suites, an integrated platform that includes BES12, Good Dynamics and WatchDox by BlackBerry. Traction was strong, as more than 90 enterprises adopted the Good solution within the first 60 days of availability.
“We are very excited about Good Work and Good Dynamics providing secure container and collaboration apps,” said Stephan Schleibinger, Head of Front Office, MBDA Deutschland GmbH. “The new Good Secure Collaboration EMM Suite, including the BES12 multi-OS EMM platform, is very promising and we expect it to be a long-term solution for our organization to build out our mobile app program and drive productivity anytime, anywhere while maintaining the security of our data and network.”
For Q4 total, BlackBerry won 3,600 enterprise customers including the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which awarded us with a $20 million, multi-year order for our secure crisis communications AtHoc platform, covering over 600,000 VA personnel. Other customer wins included Dell Inc., Rabo Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Hartrodt in Germany, Jones Day, and Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Viellesse.
Overall, BlackBerry’s Q4 software and services revenue grew 106% year-over-year to $153 million.
“We grew software faster than the market and beat our targets,” Chen said. “We continue to expect above-market growth for FY17.”
Chief drivers for FY17 will include our new cybersecurity services practice based heavily around our recent Encription acquisition, and our QNX division. QNX already has 50% market share in the auto industry (with its software used by 250 auto makers and embedded in 60 million cars to date). That is expanding to new industries. Yesterday, BlackBerry announced a new software solution for the trucking industry called BlackBerry Radar that aims to cut theft and boost profits for shipping companies.
BlackBerry’s transformation into a security-focused enterprise software and services provider continues the trend highlighted in prior quarters. 70% of BlackBerry’s software revenue is already recurring, based on subscription rather than one-time perpetual licenses. BlackBerry is targeting 80% recurring revenue, Chen said.