Today RIM launched its new BlackBerry 10 Enterprise Ready program and I have to say it is a great start. I had a chance to speak to Bryan Lee, Senior Director of Enterprise at Research In Motion, yesterday about their plan for enterprises. Lee highlighted the four pillar approach that RIM is using to get companies and government organizations ready for BlackBerry 10. What I found more interesting was that RIM was aiming for enterprises to be ready on launch day instead of pushing the enterprise solution after the device launch. RIM is also making a bold move by offering companies the ability to trade up their licenses to BlackBerry 10 at no cost along with offering a free BlackBerry 10 smartphone to enterprises with Advantage support contracts that install BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and attend some free training.
I also asked Lee about what RIM’s plans were for the corporate liable market. RIM has been making a hard sell to the BYOD and hybrid Business/Personal use case with BlackBerry Balance but what about RIM’s corporate liable heritage. Quite a few companies and governments rely on RIM’s enterprise solution to lock down devices completely (For example, many governments disable Bluetooth, cameras, etc.) Lee could not comment but he stressed that RIM has a plan for all of their customers in the works. RIM’s goal is to centralize support and assist companies to get ready for BlackBerry 10 at launch and be familiar with all it offers.
I dug a bit deeper into the BlackBerry 10 Enterprise Ready Webcasts that RIM has made available today and came across a few slides that showcase a few more details of what RIM has planned for enterprises with BlackBerry 10. They even detail part of their roadmap for management of iOS and Android apps with secure connections and app blacklisting.
Check out the slides below to get an idea or definitely check out RIM’s recorded webcast series if you are interested. RIM is making a serious play to revitalize its enterprise and government market share.
