BlackBerry MVS is just one solution that makes up our Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) portfolio. To find out more on how BlackBerry addresses the Content Management, Voice Conferencing, and Enterprise Instant Messaging needs of an increasing mobile workforce, check out the interview below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

How have BlackBerry products improved your productivity and helped you get things done when collaborating with other co-workers, customers, and partners? Share in the comments below.

You’re missing out if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the first two webcasts in our series on Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC). These took a look at current trends, shared some insightful data, and provided opportunities to kick your internal collaboration into gear while seeing that return on investment.

The final two webcasts in the series are now available, focusing on the financial industry and on mobile collaboration across multiple mobile platforms. BlackBerry® devices play a major role in many financial organizations due to the security, connectivity, and infrastructure. A correctly implemented layer of UCC on top of a smartphone deployment can make a difference in the quality and quantity of employee communication and collaboration – and this is what the BlackBerry UCC portfolio seeks to accomplish. When it comes to cross-platform UCC, common enterprise challenges and concerns are met with the fact that you don’t need to throw out a unified communications strategy when you embrace a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy in your organization.

But within this practice, there are resources, best practices, and key differentiators to be aware of when kicking off a cross-platform communication project. Check out the webcasts below to learn more!

• Webinar #3: Banking on BlackBerry: Achieving Regulatory Compliance
• Webinar #4: Supporting Cross-Platform UCC with BlackBerry

If your organization employs the BlackBerry portfolio of Unified Communication and Collaboration solutions to increase productivity and cut costs, we’d love to hear about it at success@rim.com. You can also share feedback on our LinkedIn® recommendation page, and discuss in our group while you’re there.

What mobile UCC topics are you most interested in learning more about? Share in the comments below.

Correctly leveraging Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) in your company can result in a massive return on investment. Rapid sharing of information, consolidation of document management, mobile access, and even Wi-Fi® calling all ladder into the idea of a productive workforce supported by an efficient infrastructure. One of the unique ways that we support enterprise customers is by providing a portfolio of tools, apps, servers, and systems that sit as a layer between your existing infrastructure and the activities of your employees, acting as an enabler for cost effective communication and collaboration.

We’ve got bright ideas already available and some on the way when it comes to supporting the diverse needs of an enterprise employee base. In the pursuit of continuing this support and adapting it for specific industry-based requirements, today we’ve made two webcasts available covering an overview of UCC, with one catered particularly to the healthcare sector.

• Webinar #1: Mobilizing UCC with BlackBerry Smartphones: Creating a Mobile Office
• Webinar #2: Healthcare with BlackBerry UCC: Improving Patient Care

Communication within any organization is crucial to business operations. And these days, email may not be enough – it can even bog you down with a loaded inbox and wasted hours sunk into reading and replying. With the introduction of voice technology such as BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System, as well as rapid communication and collaboration software like enterprise instant messaging, communication becomes efficient, streamlined, and unified. Employees can be reached at a single number whether at their desk or on the road. Calls can be transferred from the mobile network to your Wi-Fi network seamlessly and without dropping – representing significant cost savings. Instant messaging can be used for quick questions.

Clearly, the benefits of streamlining your organization’s unified communications and collaboration are numerous, not only for the bottom line in terms of cost savings, but also for keeping employees mobile, accessible, and collaborative.

What tools does your organization use to communicate and collaborate? Share in the comments below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

More and more enterprises – especially in financial services, healthcare and manufacturing – are turning to BlackBerry Mobile Voice System to help them address their regulatory compliance needs, improve productivity, and reduce their telecom costs. We have some great customer success stories from Mitel, Nomura Bank, Bank am Bellevue, University Hospitals Birmingham, London Health Sciences Centre, and LTT Vending at www.blackberry.com/mvs. (For similar stories on a wide range of BlackBerry products and services, check out the newly redesigned BlackBerry Customer Success Story website!)

Here is how some of the new features in BlackBerry Mobile Voice System v5.2 can address an enterprise’s Unified Communications & Collaboration needs:

• Call forwarding – incoming calls can be automatically forwarded to a different phone extension or a different phone number altogether.
• Enhanced reliability in areas of poor or no mobile data coverage – BlackBerry Mobile Voice System is designed to support the placing of calls on mobile networks that have little or no data coverage. This is especially important when roaming internationally and it is a distinct advantage since many competitive systems require a data connection to complete a phone call.
• Additional business phone systems support – BlackBerry Mobile Voice System v5.2 now supports these additional phone systems: Cisco Business Edition 5000 and 6000 and Siemens OpenScape v5.

Did you know that BlackBerry Mobile Voice System can support multiple phone systems on the same server? This is a common occurrence in enterprises that operate in multiple locations with different phone systems, and BlackBerry MVS can support systems from Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Siemens, and Mitel. Check out the video below to learn more about BlackBerry Mobile Voice System, how it integrates with the existing systems that many organizations have, and the benefits overall.

For more details on BlackBerry Mobile Voice System, head over to http://www.blackberry.com/mvs.

Does your business use BlackBerry Mobile Voice System? How has it benefited your organization in terms of increased productivity or cost reduction? Share in the comments below.

The annual Regulatory Compliance Conference for the American Bankers Association (ABA) took place in Orlando this past week (June 10-14, 2012), and we were pleased to attend and support the financial services community. Eric Nicolaisen, Charles Wong and myself were there exhibiting BlackBerry® solutions that address the regulatory compliance needs for mobility. The ABA was founded in 1875, and represents all banks (foreign, national, state, and local) that operate in the United States. Their primary activity is lobbying for policy and political presence in Washington, DC.

The key buzzwords at the Conference were Dodd-Frank, FINRA, and SOX, which address issues such as consumer protection & advocacy, archiving of oral & written communications, and auditing. Recent success stories around call recording and BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System were prominently featured, and invoked further discussions around BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, BlackBerry® Balance™, and solutions to assist in facing the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend as banks are slowly allowing their employees to connect their personal devices to corporate messaging and applications.

Case studies that were showcased included Nomura (2012 Wireless Achievement Award Winner at BlackBerry World™) and Bank Am Bellevue. These EMEA-based banks had to comply with the UK’s FSA 10/17 Policy for Call Recording, and in each case, these banks achieve regulatory compliance. The case studies were relevant to all banks that operate in the UK and are engaged in activities that are regulated by FSA Policy 10/17, in addition to recent policies on archiving written & oral communications in Dodd-Frank. (Case studies are also posted at www.blackberry.com/mvs if you wish to read further on this)

BlackBerry’s presence at the conference was undoubtedly strong; many individuals were stopping us in the exhibit hall or even the elevators to share their passion for their BlackBerry devices. We were particularly excited to make attendees aware of the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet running OS 2.0. After demonstrating the features and capabilities, their first impressions were fantastic, especially for the winner of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that was drawn for a prize. Special congratulations go out to Mary Clouthier, VP of Enterprise Compliance at Fifth Third Bank, a major bank based in the midwest. To say she was happy about winning would be an understatement – she immediately asked where she could purchase a HDMI cable and BlackBerry® Mini Keyboard.

If you’ve come out of the conference hungry for more, check out details on BlackBerry solutions for the financial services industry, read more case studies, and don’t miss the CIO’s Guide to Call Recording with BlackBerry smartphones.

What regulations does your industry need to comply with? How have mobile solutions helped enable compliance? Share in the comments below.