A new series of technical webinars are kicking off this week, beginning with a platform overview of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion led by Ajay Malhan, Technical Solutions Manager for Research In Motion (RIM). The webinars will continue over the following weeks and provide an in-depth look at how to install Universal Device Service for managing iOS® and Android™ devices, as well as how to install BlackBerry Device Service for managing BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets and upcoming BlackBerry® 10 smartphones. See the schedule below:

• August 15th – BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Platform Overview
• August 22nd – Installing Universal Device Service and Mobile Fusion Studio
• September 5th – Installing BlackBerry Device Service and Mobile Fusion Studio

Head over to the BlackBerry Resource Center to register, and be sure to block off your calendar. There will be live Q&A sessions after each webinar, so be sure to stick around and discuss with the presenter.

The BlackBerry® Enterprise Applications Showcase is designed to show you how to make a productive mobile enterprise a reality. This one-day virtual event, taking place on May 30th, will allow you to attend live demos, ask questions of experts and explore the exhibition hall, all from the comfort of your own office.

Key partner applications from Citrix, SAP, and Box will be highlighted, and will show you how to fully enable a productive mobile office. Not only will you hear from some great speakers, but you’ll also be able to download relevant information to review and share with your colleagues and decision-makers. The BlackBerry® Resource Center is perfectly suited to host this event, with an interactive conference-style environment that you can explore and take advantage of.

Details

Wednesday May 30th, 2012
10:30am ET – 2:30pm ET
Register now

You can easily register through the BlackBerry Resource Center for your virtual seat at this great event, as well as to see a full agenda. Not a member already? It’s quick and easy to join – register today and start reaping the benefits; there’s a whole lot that the resource center has to offer on an ongoing basis!

Does your organization deploy mobile apps to increase productivity or efficiency? Do you personally use apps this way? Share your experience in the comments.

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike of our Communication & Collaboration Services group to discuss the new BlackBerry® Resource Center and all that it has to offer. Check it out below!

Can you give me some background on yourself and your role at Research In Motion® (RIM®)?

I manage the Business-to-Business IT Marketing Programs for North America. My focus is on helping our customers and prospects stay up to date with all of the products in our ever-expanding portfolio, as well as to understand what they are, how they work, how to leverage and manage them, and the benefits they can bring to any organization in terms of efficiency, security, and new revenue opportunities.

What is the BlackBerry Resource Center?

The BlackBerry Resource Center is the single source for all IT and business BlackBerry webcasts, white papers, videos, demos, partner solutions and more. It’s more than just a website library; the BlackBerry Resource Center is a complete online events platform which gives us the flexibility to share information in a variety of ways. Some examples of shared documents include live and archived webcasts, on-demand white papers, case studies and videos, interactive collaboration and demo sessions, and one-on-one or one-to-many chats with BlackBerry product experts from RIM or our alliance partners.

I’ll break the space down and describe a few of its components, all of which anyone can access once they’ve registered and logged in:

• Conference Hall: The Conference Hall hosts the webcasts and live Q&A sessions.
• Solution Showcase: This is what you would call the tradeshow floor in a physical conference. Here you can browse BlackBerry and partner booths to access collateral, watch videos, and most importantly, chat with company representatives in order to get answers to your questions.
• Resource Center: This is where all of the on-demand materials are located and easily sorted by media type. If you are looking for specific information, simply use the Advanced Search function to help you find what you need.
• Collaboration Room: This is where we will hold live desktop sharing sessions on a variety of topics.
• Special Offers: As new offers become available, we’ll post them here in addition to all of the other ways that people find out about special offers.
• Help Desk: This is where you can run a system check to ensure that you are able to leverage all that the space has to offer, or get troubleshooting help on the Resource Center functionality directly from a technical representative.

And many, many more! The personal content management is one of the greatest overall benefits, allowing you to store material that interests you in a virtual briefcase, among other functionality.

What unique benefit can the resource center provide?

For one, this is all about simple, consolidated access to information. We want the resource center to be your hub for all IT and BlackBerry business information. The second thing is that this is not just about information consumption – we want this to be about collaboration and interaction. If you have questions after reviewing materials, then we’ve included ways for you to get answers through IM chat or email.

I think it’s also important to acknowledge what the resource center isn’t. It isn’t a place for software downloads, tech support, or product technical documentation. However, the good news is that those things are always available on BlackBerry.com!

Who is the resource center targeted towards?

A lot of the content today is geared towards IT managers and business decision-makers who need to ensure they have the information required to help them manage their BlackBerry solution and, more importantly, ensure that they are leveraging all of the great capabilities our solution has to offer.

How’s the webcast series going?

Great! The feedback that we’re getting is that people love the Resource Center, and they love to see the webcast schedule so they can ensure they don’t miss an important session. Plus, a lot of the series is focused on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet in the enterprise, which we’ve seen a lot of interest in. We’re also working on additional sessions so you’ll see the list of topics continue to grow.

Another great thing about the BlackBerry Resource Center is the ability to run multiple sessions simultaneously, so look for us to hold multi-track full day events in the future.

Thanks Mike!

To explore what the resource center has in store for you – and to register for your free account – head over to the BlackBerry Resource Center and check it out for yourself!

We’re excited to announce that the new BlackBerry® Resource Center is now live! This online hub is home to a slew of on-demand resources – webcasts, whitepapers, videos and case studies, as well as an extensive list of BlackBerry partner solutions.

What better way to kick off launching this great new initiative than with a webcast series? Since the launch of the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, there have been questions around how to best leverage and manage this flash-loving, multi-tasking machine in a business environment, and this webcast series hopes to answer many of those questions for you. Here’s what we have lined up so far (and we’re in the process of working with more groups inside Research In Motion® to expand this list!):

Stay tuned for more information about the BlackBerry Resource Center, and sign up to view the webcasts right away!