Alan Duerden speaks to Mike Lazaridis on the accountability, back-up and security capabilities incorporated into the latest generation of BlackBerry smartphones targeted at the small and medium-sized office.

Dubbed the ‘Crackberry’ for its addictive qualities among users, the growth of BlackBerry has spread at an astonishing rate with more than nine million subscribers around the world now using the service. At the forefront of this quasi-cult movement is Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), the Ontario, Canada-based company responsible for putting BlackBerry on the map.

Mobile technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and the number of employees working on the move, remotely and flexibly, is growing. Recent Yankee Group research found that more than 50% of small business employees in Europe are classified as mobile workers, and this figure is set to increase.

RIM’s successes in the wireless email market since its inception in 1984 give Mr Lazaridis little to worry about – business is booming. But if there is one thing that keeps him awake at night it is the fear that his company, like so many others in the past that have carved out a dominant position in their respective market, will become complacent, relying solely on its tried and tested brand and customer base.

SME focus

RIM needs to successfully develop new products, generate fresh ideas and attract new types of client if it wants to stay ahead of the game. “The challenge for us was how to expand into the small and medium-sized office and to the professional consumer,” explains Mr Lazaridis. “That has been the area that we have been concentrating on over the last two years.”

Earlier this year RIM announced the development of a range of new, highly stylised products which would allow them to tap a whole new segment of product and market. With the BlackBerry Pearl, to be launched in US this September, and the 8820 which was rolled out earlier this year, RIM is able to offer the users of its BlackBerry service new multimedia functions such as video players, audio player and external expandable memory while also pushing the envelope around full Wi-Fi capability and built in GPS.

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“Not only have we launched a product with Wi-Fi, but we have probably launched the most sophisticated Wi-Fi product for corporations to date,” states Mr Lazaridis, when talking about the Pearl, which can be completely set up and managed wirelessly. “The user doesn’t have to load anything to the device,” he explains. “The IT manager can set up the device profile using a secure cyber connection and the device just starts working. There is no end user set up requirement for the device whatsoever.”

Software magnet

This kind of innovation is what keeps the wolf from RIM’s door and is testament to the growing community around BlackBerry that is attracting a number of entrepreneurial software developers hoping to ride the wave of BlackBerry’s success. With 70% of RIM’s customers using applications beyond email on their BlackBerry smartphones, more and more independent software providers are writing applications for BlackBerry users. “Most Fortune 1000 companies in the world use BlackBerry and that’s a lucrative, compelling, target platform for developers,” quips Mr Lazaridis.

As early as June, 2005, the first wireless bond trading application was introduced for the BlackBerry platform by eSpeed and Nextel Communications and companies such as Pyxis Mobile now produce several wireless applications for the fund management and financial services industry.

BlackBerry is in more than 65 countries and is expected to be in another 100 countries by the year’s end; it is also served by more than 200 carriers. The carriers launching BlackBerry last year included Saudi Telecom and Mobily in Saudi Arabia; American Mobile in Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala; Djezzy in Algeria; Eurotel in the Czech Republic; Glo in Nigeria; Telefónica Móviles in Nicaragua; and Hutchison in India.

This year, Digicel, the fastest-growing wireless telecommunications operator in the Caribbean, has joined the fold, as have Dopod International in Asia; Trigcom in Norway; Orange Slovenska in Slovakia; and Batelco, Emitac Mobile Solutions in Bahrain.

China Mobile Communications Company, China’s largest mobile operator, promotes and sells BlackBerry services in mainland China. Demand is particularly strong in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and BlackBerry is also working with partners to provide its devices in China for commercial availability in fiscal 2008.

Using the same operating platform, all BlackBerrys are essentially the same piece of kit with a personal identification number that uniquely identifies the devices regardless of technology, network or country. What users have discovered is that any BlackBerry can talk to any other BlackBerry within seconds and quickly get a delivery receipt.

Using that functionality users are layering applications so if their email or even access to the internet go down they have a back-up capability to communicate with each other, with full delivery receipts, and can coordinate not just across their own organisation or institution but across others.

Security issues

As you will read in the next issue of The Banker, the age of remote working is highlighting the importance of accountability, back-up and security. CIOs not only have to look for products that can be remotely managed and backed up easily but also that meet regulatory requirements and BlackBerry has built these capabilities into the wireless IT policies of its products. “From day one we knew we needed a foundation that was built on security,” says Mr Lazaridis. “It’s one of those areas that is sometimes under appreciated and is definitely misunderstood.”

RIM protects its devices and the data on those devices with a PKI (public key infrastructure) model for all applications which enables the users of a non-secure public network such as the internet to securely and privately exchange data. All the data on the devices is protected with on-board encryption (a code that prevents any unwanted parties from accessing the device), while IT managers are not forced to open up their firewalls to incoming connections for many devices as only one IP (internet protocol) address is used that all devices can connect into.

“It sounds complicated,” jokes Mr Lazaridis, “but it’s complicated for a reason. The CIO must look at what is being installed so as not to put the organisation in a tough position and BlackBerry provides a unique, singular solution with all the security benefits for the device, its data and the network.”

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