A couple weeks ago, I posted that BlackBerry® 7 OS had been approved in North America for Department of Defense use. This was great news, and apparently has now been extended to include BlackBerry® 7.1 OS devices as well. In fact, many US government organizations are responding to this certification quite positively and contacting dodsales@rim.com to take advantage of a variety of trade-up/trade-in programs.

However, within minutes of publishing that blog post, my Research In Motion® (RIM®) colleagues began BBMing me to point out that I’m not the only story in town. Apparently there’s a bigger story than I was aware of! As important as the USDOD approval is – and despite my local pride in the achievement of my North American friends on the security, regulatory compliance, and government marketing teams – apparently, RIM staff across the pond and around the world have their own bragging rights with governments globally certifying BlackBerry 7 OS for use.

In Australia, for example, the BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 Operating Systems (BlackBerry 7) were successfully evaluated and approved for Government use by the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) of the Australian Government. This certification affirms that BlackBerry 7 OS meets the Australian and New Zealand Governments’ strict security standards for a wide range of scenarios, representing the majority of day-to-day operational communications. This includes potential use in securing information classified up to and including PROTECTED (Australia) and RESTRICTED (New Zealand).

Not to be outdone, my U.K. counterparts chimed in adding that the CESG (Communications-Electronics Security Group), the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, has also approved BlackBerry 7 for government use across the U.K., making BlackBerry the only mobile solution approved by CESG to protect material ‘Restricted’ materials.

Whether it’s U.S., U.K., or Australia, governments around the world continue to use and officially approve the BlackBerry platform. For political reasons, it’s seldom they can speak about it publically, but time and again, after significant testing and review, our solutions pass with flying colors – acknowledging key facets of the BlackBerry solution including security, manageability, and scalability.

However, leading organizations, from both government and corporate sectors must look beyond certifications and focus simply on leveraging their investment in mobile infrastructure. Ensuring their staff have the tools they need to be the most productive often means accessing newer technology like the advanced features incorporated in the newest BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones – fast web browsing, NFC interoperability, augmented reality applications, and so on.

Moreover, in light of consumerization demands, IT organizations need to appease end user demands, opening up access to BlackBerry consumer features like the MP3 player, built-in radio, and camera functionality, not to mention access to fun and entertaining apps in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

So whether driven by regulatory approval or the built-in benefits (both personal and organizational), organizations are increasingly moving towards BlackBerry 7 OS. These governments have clearly defined their enterprise grade device choice, providing departments and staff with a much needed benchmark. Where is your organization at in defining your ‘approved’ mobile solution…are you leading or lagging public sector?

Your peers would be as grateful as I would be to hear your comments on mobile device selection and policy. Where is your organization at in defining and controlling device selection? Do you provide approved lists? Do you depend on analogous industry certifications or do you have your own approval program? Where does Mobile Strategy stop and Mobile Device Management start? What criteria do you use to evaluate whether a device is worthy of your organization’s staff and data?

Scott Totzke commented on the significance of the DoD accessing BlackBerry 7 OS technology: “The Army introduced a wide range of new apps and capabilities for their BlackBerry users last year, and these new BlackBerry 7 smartphones will now enable Army users, and all DoD users, to experience an even greater level of performance on new smartphones that include features such as voice activated universal search, Near Field Communications, Augmented Reality, and Social Feeds 2.0 just to name a few”.

But, even with all these great features, let me be clear – buying a device is not the same as crafting an enterprise grade mobility strategy. There’s back-end integration, security policy selection, budgetary considerations, and of course application deployment decisions. However, this pre-approval means that IT leaders can move from the tactical role of “device pickers” to a more strategic role of “mobile enablers” – providing greater value to the organization, and a more rewarding career for the IT staff.

Over the past year, the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog has featured conversations with Mike K. Brown (Director Product Security, SVP BlackBerry Security Group) around the various certifications and approvals RIM has achieved, such as FIPS 140-2 validation and Common Criteria EAL4+. There are many reasons why these certifications are important, but one of the recurring themes is around “making it easy for IT”. Certifications and official approvals allow IT decision makers to deploy BlackBerry devices in their organizations with ease by removing a certain amount of organizational or political risk. You can proceed with confidence knowing that not only are you making the right decision, but there’s an external, neutral, trusted body that has your back.

In the end, this approval will help ensure that the DoD is able to fully leverage the power of BlackBerry smartphones and realize the full potential of their investment in the BlackBerry platform.

How do you handle device selection? Do you have a pre-approved list? Are device upgrades based on time periods or technology shifts? Is your organization on BlackBerry 7, or are you missing out on key features?

Attending any conference, especially BlackBerry World, will get you inspired. You see the possibilities, you hear what other organizations are doing with the same technology (and constraints) you have, you meet with integrators and developers that can help you re-engineer your business processes…but come Monday morning, you still have to fill out that TPS report.

So, how do you prioritize the opportunities that are in front of you? How do you capitalize on the conference learnings before the momentum dies down?

I certainly have my own “back to work” challenges – not the least of which is editing nearly 50 videos captured during BlackBerry World! But I also have a list of longer-term ideas that were generated from BlackBerry World customer feedback and session content. I’m curious though as to what you took away from BlackBerry World. To use the Getting Things Done vernacular, what’s your “Next Action”? Here are some possible examples:

• Upgrading your organizations device collection to the current BlackBerry® 7 OS platform:
• Providing access to faster browsing, multiple form factors, WiFi® Calling, BlackBerry® Travel, etc.
• Launching department specific tablet computing pilot projects:
• Using a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet as a laptop replacement
• Equipping new, previously non-mobile, teams with tablets
• Moving to BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0, perhaps in preparation for:
Deploying BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, which could then enable BlackBerry® Device Service to manage BlackBerry PlayBook tablets or Universal Device Service for iOS and Android™ devices to address BYOD trends
• Documenting (or creating) your organizations mobile strategy:
• Bring Your Own Device policies and Authorized device preferences
• Defining application access and permission criteria
• User and company rights, responsibilities, and warnings
• Building (and perhaps ‘pushing’ out and managing through BlackBerry Mobile Fusion) your first (or next!) corporate application.

These are just the obvious tasks — there are hundreds of small sub-tasks and niche ideas. Clearly there’s a lot to be done in the coming months, and BlackBerry World has inspired IT leaders from around the world to ‘redefine possible’.

So, what’s on your post-BlackBerry World to-do list? How are you prioritizing these items? How do you make sure things don’t fall off the radar? Not only would your IT peers appreciate your advice, experience, and insight, but right now I could personally use some suggestions before my own project list falls to the wayside! Let us know in the comments.

We’re confident that attendees left Government Day not only more technically knowledgeable, but more inspired and filled with ideas for how they can transform their own organizations. Here’s a glimpse at what some of the attendees had to say about this event:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

As you might imagine, RIM employees are eager to participate in this world-class customer event. All of us have some reason to go – everything from “I want to follow up in person with customers who downloaded BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0” to “I’m presenting to a room of hundreds of people on how to use BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion to deploy an internal application strategy.” So, right around now, there’s an annual “who’s on the list” discussion.

Thankfully, I’ve made the cut once again, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I’ll be part of the team hosting our annual BlackBerry World tweetup (hashtag: #BBTweetUp) and staffing the ever-popular Social Media Desk in the Solutions Showcase area. The team will be capturing executive announcements, partner developments and customer excitement throughout the event to share with the world on our various social channels.

Although I may or may not have had to provide the event team with a bribe of baked goods in order to attend BlackBerry World, your participation is much more straightforward. Just visit blackberryworld.com/registration – and if you’re a returning alumni or coming with a team, be sure to check out the alumni discount and “3 for 2” group package.

Beyond the simplicity of registration, BlackBerry World offers highly relevant educational content. Last year 96% of attendees surveyed said attending BlackBerry World was important to their organization, and 99% of attendees would recommend BlackBerry World to a colleague. Clearly participants find the content of great value.

This year, we are so excited to share our insights on the mobile industry and update you on the latest technology offerings from BlackBerry that we’re hosting a special program for our partners and customers in the public sector – Government Day at BlackBerry World. Scott Totzke, the Senior Vice President of our BlackBerry Security Group (and a driving force behind Government Day at BlackBerry World) wanted to extend his personal invitation to you. Have a look at his video message:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

So whether you’re one of the thousands of enterprise and small business customers attending BlackBerry world, or an IT leader from a government or public sector agency, BlackBerry World will have something for everyone. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando next week!

Having attended BlackBerry World since the inaugural event (back in the days when it was WES!), I often take for granted that customers (and their bosses) inherently understand the value of the conference. After all, once you’ve attended, you just get it. In fact, based on our BlackBerry World 2011 Survey:

• 96% of attendees stated that “attending BlackBerry World was important to their organization”
• 99% of attendees “would recommend BlackBerry World to a colleague”, and
• 98% of attendees “plan to attend BlackBerry World again” (hopefully taking advantage of the alumni discount!)

But if you’ve never attended BlackBerry World, you wouldn’t know the experience for yourself. So, in addition to my apology, I’ve pulled together some reasons for attending BlackBerry World that you should consider.

Have a look at this presentation for the details: “Roger’s Top 5 BlackBerry World 2012 Attendance Justification Conversations To Have With Your Boss At The Water Cooler”.

Also, the BlackBerry World Conference catalogue covers a broad range of topics — you just might find exactly what you’re looking for. In fact, 84% of the attendees surveyed at BlackBerry World 2011 reported that “the breakout session catalog covered the topics they wanted to hear about.”

But beyond my “BlackBerry World 2012 Attendance Justification Conversations” – and in addition to all the work that goes into scheduling, preparing, promoting, learning from, and implementing various sessions – deep down, I think the single most valuable part of BlackBerry World is the people. I can’t put a price on this, or explain how it happens, but BlackBerry World simply brings so many of the right people together and creates the right environment that ‘magic’ is bound to happen. I’ve personally experienced it every year I’ve attended. You just might sit down to lunch and within minutes realize you’re seated with the one developer that has the exact application you’re after, an industry analyst who consulted on a similar business issue in Europe last year, a manufacturing customer who faced similar implementation challenges, and a system integrator that’s based near your office, but you’ve never run into before! Getting this brain trust together could take months of voicemail-tag and email trails. This fortuitous meeting of the minds can be invaluable. In fact, 88% of last year’s surveyed attendees claimed “BlackBerry World helped them meet colleagues (with whom) they would collaborate with in the future.”

So whether you base your attendance on the content or the networking, there’s something for everyone at BlackBerry World. So consider registering for BlackBerry World today…and if my “BlackBerry World 2012 Justification Conversations” do the trick, your boss might even come along, and maybe your team might then be able to take advantage of the group discount! Of course, you’ll have to be on your best behavior if the boss is beside you – but having them see firsthand the potential positive impact mobile technology can have on your company’s business could be worth the effort!

How do you justify conference attendance? Do you have a budget for the year? Per Person? Per topic? What do you say to convince your boss to approve BlackBerry World attendance? I’m sure your peers could benefit from your experience!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

It’s clear that MDM is a major item on the horizon and will be an integral part of IT project plans in the immediate future.

There are, of course, several sessions throughout BlackBerry World™ that touch on MDM, specifically BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. To get the most out of your time with the BlackBerry product experts, you’ll want to come prepared, and deploying BlackBerry Mobile Fusion in your environment in advance of the conference is a step in this direction. Getting your hands on the product, rolling up your sleeves and digging in allows you to prioritize your questions and make the most of the Research In Motion® (RIM®) experts and technology peers from other companies that you’ll have access to on site at BlackBerry World.

How are you preparing for BlackBerry World? Have you downloaded BlackBerry Mobile Fusion yet?

Since everyone’s keen to get the latest updates, I was lucky enough to catch Rory O’Neill, our VP Marketing for EMEA who tells us a bit about what we can expect to hear about BlackBerry 10 at this year’s BlackBerry World – check out his preview:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

There are only 18 days left until the big event, so if you haven’t already done so, consider registering for BlackBerry World ASAP. There are alumni discounts and organizational group discounts available (terms and conditions apply).

What are you looking forward to most at BlackBerry World 2012? Are there specific questions you’re hoping to get answered? Topics you’re hoping we cover? Let us know so we can possibly fit them into the ever-evolving session catalog. See you in sunny Orlando!

Today Research In Motion® (RIM®) has launched the next-generation in enterprise mobile device management (MDM) – BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion. This tool acts as a central platform giving IT managers the ability to effectively and efficiently manage the following:

• BlackBerry® 7 (and previous) smartphones
• BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets (and BlackBerry® 10 smartphones in the future)
• As of today, tablets and smartphones running Android® and iOS®

I recently spoke with some enterprise customers during the BlackBerry® Innovation Forum in both Toronto and Atlanta about their thoughts on BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – clearly customers are excited. Beyond Mobile Fusion Studio and BlackBerry® Device Service – both of which we’ve discussed previously – many seem eager to deploy the Universal Device Service. Check out a video overview of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion below:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

RIM has now officially released the entire BlackBerry Mobile Fusion solution, including the Universal Device Service. Similar to how BlackBerry Device Service provides a set of security and management features for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, the Universal Device Service provides Mobile Device Management for iOS and Android based devices.

Now let’s be clear: this does not turn a random phone into a BlackBerry smartphone! BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (conveniently accessible through Mobile Fusion’s unified, web-console, Mobile Fusion Studio) pushes out 500+ IT policies to BlackBerry smartphones. This is the champagne of enterprise mobility solutions, giving organizations back-end integration and end-to-end security that only BlackBerry offers; accessed through feature rich BlackBerry smartphones in a multitude of form factors that end-users desire.

As more devices come to market, however, IT managers need to accommodate individually purchased units that come into the enterprise, whether by a sales rep deciding to expense the latest handset, a doctor bringing in their personal phone for hospital work, or a field worker getting whatever’s available on special as a replacement unit. Universal Device Service offers you – if not a champagne solution – perhaps a Cava or Prosecco. And, given how individual-liable devices are typically used, this is often quite sufficient. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion finally gives you a solution, managed from a single web-console, to deal with the influx of personal-liable devices in the enterprise and ensures that a range of suitable security mechanisms are in place.

Once the server software is installed and the device side client is loaded (conveniently accessed by the end user through their OS-specific app store), you’re good to go. Each component (BlackBerry Device Service, Universal Device Service, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server) runs on a single server, keeping things straightforward and simple to maintain. To get you going, in addition to the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion server software always being a free download, currently several Client Access Licenses are included in a FREE 60 day trial, so you can deploy a pilot immediately before budgeting for a full enterprise roll out.

So what exactly does BlackBerry Mobile Fusion let you do in terms of managing non-BlackBerry devices? I could write a year’s worth of blog posts on each of the different functions (and probably will!). Obviously the specific capability will vary for each OS based on the APIs that are available, but here are some of the highlights of what BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed to do:

• Activate and configure devices and profiles over the air
• Enable access to enterprise Mail, Calendar and PIM
• Administer users and groups, natively and directory based
• Establish corporate IT Policies and Security
• Manage lost devices – Password Reset, Device Lock, Device Wipe
• Set Wi-Fi® and VPN settings
• Deploy internally-developed apps
• Define (and enforce) public applications as mandatory or optional
• Provides Notifications to the Device User
• Provides Rooting & Jailbreak Detection
• Help manage Roaming to control your data costs
• Prevent apps from accessing corporate mail accounts

So with the ability finally to control the chaos that seems to be the state of mobility in many organizations…when will you be deploying BlackBerry Mobile Fusion?

How do you manage non-BlackBerry devices today? Does your organization have a policy for personal versus corporate devices? How do you control the chaos? We’d love to hear what you’re doing now, and how you plan to leverage this new technology.

The biggest area of interest is around the specific details of the BlackBerry® Device Service component of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. Simply put, the BlackBerry Device Service is to BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets as the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server is to BlackBerry smartphones. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server manages your current BlackBerry smartphones, and the BlackBerry Device Service allows you to manage and secure your organization’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablets – and, moving forward, it will also manage BlackBerry® 10 smartphones. But that’s not all that BlackBerry Device Service offers – there’s even more going on underneath the covers.

In terms of core functionality, the BlackBerry Device Service is designed to enable you to manage and secure your company’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. Once you’ve associated a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with a specific user (a capability available with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0) and enrolled them within the work environment, you can configure settings and policies for the device. Hopefully your organization is looking at the kinds of policies that are appropriate for your staff, but some common examples that BlackBerry Device Service can provide include:

• Encryption of work information
• Requiring manual synchronization while a user is roaming
• Remotely locking tablets
• Remote wipe of work-related (or all) information
• Password controls/enforcement

It’s worth noting that, in typical RIM® fashion, when we talk about “password controls”…we don’t just mean “users can create a password if they want”. We’re talking about a robust set of IT-managed options such as:

• Mandatory Password
• Password required only for work perimeter
• Minimum Password Length
• Required Password Pattern
• Password Timeout
• Maximum Password Attempts
• Maximum Password History
• Maximum Password Age, etc.

It’s important to give options to IT departments, and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is really about providing options, choices, and flexibility…without compromise. Besides, did you expect any less from the company that offers over 500 IT policies on its BlackBerry Enterprise Server? We don’t take this stuff lightly!

While the BlackBerry Device Service brings new and important management and security capabilities, there are a few more important things to be aware of.

BlackBerry® Balance™ technology: Keeping control in the right hands

BlackBerry Balance technology certainly isn’t new. Since its launch, this technology has been widely adopted by end users interested in protecting their personal data, as well as organizations interested in safeguarding their corporate assets. What is new, however, is the extension of BlackBerry Balance technology to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion includes BlackBerry Balance technology. When a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is activated with the service, a secure AES-256 bit encrypted file system is created on the tablet for work information and applications. This creates a perimeter between work and personal data and helps keep information secure. In the event an employee leaves the organization or a device is misplaced, for example, you can choose to wipe only work-related information or all of the information from the device. Not only does this help to ensure that sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but it also provides a comfort factor to encourage employees to purchase and bring their own BlackBerry PlayBook tablets to their workplace. With an estimated 65% (Source: Yankee Group’s 2011 US Enterprise Mobility: Employee Survey, Wave 2) of tablets entering the workplace as personal purchases, this is an important consideration.

While it may seem trivial to an end user, the fear that their irreplaceable vacation photos could get wiped by IT, or that their Plants Vs. Zombies high score could be erased is very real.

BlackBerry Balance technology and the Work App Catalogue

And speaking of games and applications, the second key feature to consider is the new “Work App Catalogue”. As a key part of the BlackBerry Device Service, this feature is designed to allow you to manage required and optional work applications remotely on an end users’ BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Remember though, with BlackBerry Balance technology in place, this does not mean you’ll waste your time sorting out whether people should download Angry Birds or Madden 12 – your colleagues can handle that themselves. What it does mean is that you can securely turn an individual’s personal products into corporate productivity tools by providing easy to discover, pre-ordained enterprise apps.

BlackBerry Device Service is designed to provide administrators with a simple method to securely deliver corporate applications to their employees. End users can simply ‘discover’ optional and required corporate applications that have been approved for use by the organization. This approach leverages the familiar and easy-to-use interface of the BlackBerry App World™ storefront to display both corporate and personal applications through a single discovery channel. End users can visually differentiate between personal applications and business applications which are displayed in a private list.

WHAT THE IT ADMIN SEES

WHAT USERS SEE

Optionally, IT administrators can push mandatory applications in a controlled manner to end users. Using BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, administrators can support over-the-air installation, upgrade and audit required and optional applications for BlackBerry devices. For the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion works with BlackBerry App World to enable administrators to push and install required work apps on a user’s tablet.

I know there’s a lot to digest…but that’s rather the point. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is a big deal! This is not just a BlackBerry Enterpriser Server service pack – this is a fundamental evolution in the BlackBerry management tool set. If you haven’t already taken advantage of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and started to test it in your environment, I’d encourage you to get moving…time’s a wastin’! Right now you can download BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and enjoy a free 90-day trial (before standard CAL prices kick in). It’s a great way to test out the technology in a controlled environment before you deploy it companywide.

And don’t worry, we’re here to help you with your deployment and make sure you understand the capabilities of this new technology. If you haven’t already, take a look at this educational webcast, feel free to ask us questions below, and stay tuned to our LinkedIn group and SlideShare™ channel for more information and updates.