Neotelis Inc. is a Canadian telecom consulting company that collaborates with clients in more than 100 countries around the world, offering its expertise to telecommunications organizations through training, consulting and forums.

Neotelis, which originally offered courses in a traditional classroom setting, began to modernize its programs by offering virtual training, where participants could participate in live classes and select individual e-learning options. Deciding that the next evolution of its programs should involve mobile learning, the company launched a pilot program of its flagship Mini MBA course that provided all trainers and students with BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets equipped with the course material.

“Our trainers have given it rave reviews in terms of how it can work in a training environment,” said Michel Bruyère, owner of Neotelis. “We were easily able to incorporate links within the material that would allow students to access the browser and benefit from having this great device.”

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet allows the trainers and students to multitask between its many business and productivity features. Using the pre-loaded Documents To Go® feature, students easily switched between viewing, editing and formatting the course material using Microsoft® Word® documents, Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets and Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations.

When Neotelis mentioned BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in its invitation to the Mini MBA training session, they gained almost five times more click-throughs than a typical invitation. The company has also had businesses indicate that they would like to incorporate BlackBerry PlayBook tablets into the private sessions that it runs.

“Our clients recognize that these tablets help to enhance the learning experience,” said Bruyère. “Not only that, they also provide the chance to leave the session with a very useful device — both for professional and personal use.”

How does your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet help your business or organization increase collaboration? Share in the comments below. And if you have a success story similar to Neotelis, let us know at success@rim.com.

Each year, more than two million New York City corporate passengers get a ride with the Executive Transportation Group (ETG), whose clients include some of the largest and most notable government institutions, banks and law firms in the city.

ETG first deployed a BlackBerry® solution in 2005 to streamline communications and automate their dispatch process. In early 2012, ETG performed a four month review of smartphones and tablets, opting to stay with BlackBerry and upgrade their existing BlackBerry smartphones to a newer model.

As a company transporting top executives at financial institutions and important government officials, security is ETG’s number one concern. According to Mark Heminway, ETG’s Vice President of Operations and Business Development, “Some of our customers told us they use RIM products because they provide the most secure environment and we chose a BlackBerry solution because we want our clients to know we are taking security very, very seriously.”

For their 2012 upgrade, ETG deployed 1,800 BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphones to management and drivers. Because the company was already running on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, the new smartphones integrated seamlessly with the third-party, custom application that runs ETG’s automated dispatch system. This integration allows ETG to manage the workflow of their 200 employees and 1,800 vehicles.

“We operate 24/7, 365 days a year in a fast-paced, high-volume business,” said Heminway. “To stay competitive, we need a fast, reliable and highly secure mobile solution and that’s exactly what we’re getting with our BlackBerry solution.”

How does your business or organization use BlackBerry security features? Tell us in the comments below.

One of the biggest priorities for law enforcement leaders is to keep their officers – and the citizens they protect – safe. This requires a mobile platform that ensures the compliance and security of devices, as well as the security of the sensitive data accessed by officers.

We recently connected with several leaders in law enforcement to find out how their agencies are using BlackBerry solutions to help increase productivity, security and collaboration. Here’s what they had to say about their experiences:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Visit www.upgrademyforce.com to learn more about the BlackBerry portfolio of solutions for law enforcement.

Do you work for a law enforcement agency that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

We’re delighted to be sponsoring the 2012 SMB Influencer program yet again, and this year’s Awards Gala is in full swing here in New York City. Influencers and members of the SMB community have come from far and wide to honor their peers and take part in the awards ceremony. Research In Motion® (RIM®) is a huge supporter of small and medium-sized businesses around the world, with smartphones and mobile device management solutions that are affordable and scalable. Over the years we’ve heard some amazing success stories of businesses that have used BlackBerry® solutions to help grow, expand, and communicate with customers and stakeholders.

I’ve managed to catch up with RIM Sr. Director for Enterprise Accounts Bryan Lee here at the event to chat about RIM’s commitment to the SMB community, Bryan’s role and impact at RIM, and the SMB Influencer program. Check it out below for the full scoop!

Biz Blog: Hi Bryan – tell me about what you do at RIM

I have the great pleasure of leading our U.S. enterprise sales division, which includes support for both large enterprises and small to medium-sized customers. In addition, I work closely with our VAR community who sell and support the BlackBerry solution.

Biz Blog: How has RIM been involved in SMB communities around the world?

Being connected, keeping your ideas and information secure, and engaging in real-time communication with your customers is crucial for starting and growing a business. These are areas that we focus on and work to constantly improve. Being reliably connected to everyone that you need to be connected with, and having access to all of the information that you need, really enables success. You know, as we’ve designed our business product roadmap and launched business solutions over the past 10 years, we’ve had SMB’s in mind with products like BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express, BlackBerry Business® Cloud Services, and the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. We love the passion and dedication that this community embodies, and we love to support them.

Biz Blog: We’re all very excited about BlackBerry 10. How will this new platform enable small and medium-sized businesses and business owners?

The flow of BlackBerry 10 will enable new levels of productivity – we’ve had some sneak peeks of this at BlackBerry World™ and the recent BlackBerry® Jam Americas event in San Jose. The platform has been designed for rapid and functional interaction to help you get things done quickly and efficiently, staying on top of the many tasks and communications that you engage in on a daily basis. BlackBerry Hub, for example, lets you access all of the information that you need at a glance, and the people view in the calendar shows you who you’re meeting with and collects all the information you have about that particular person without having to jump between different applications. Integration with services that small businesses use is a major aspect, like Box being built right into the OS along with other cloud storage providers.

Ease of setup and implementation is also an important point for small businesses. ActiveSync® connectivity is available right out of the box, providing a free option for connecting the devices to your work mail server. For more robust device and application management, security, and BlackBerry Balance™, BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 will be available at launch. We’ve even enhanced the process for getting work mail, calendar, and contacts set up from a user experience perspective, which we shared at BlackBerry Jam Americas 2012.

Biz Blog: Why are programs like the 2012 SMB Influencer initiative important?

Providing solutions for small and medium sized businesses is a good thing, but it’s also important to get out there and meet with the members of the community. It’s a real pleasure to do that and get to discuss challenges and solutions that are faced every day. We’re also here to honor the top 100 influencers; it’s fantastic to see the impact that many of these individuals and organizations have had.

Biz Blog: Any final thoughts for the SMB community?

Stay tuned for more details on BlackBerry 10; we’re very excited to share this with you and show you how it can help in your business. There will be more sneak peeks ahead of the launch in Q1 2013, so be sure to visit the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog. Lastly, a big “congratulations” to each of the top 100 SMB influencer champions!

Biz Blog: Thanks for joining us, Bryan!

Stay tuned for more coverage of the SMB Influencer Awards Gala, and more details about BlackBerry 10. How have BlackBerry solutions or products helped you grow and operate your small or medium-sized business? We love to hear your stories – share in the comments below!

Because government agencies deal with some of the most confidential information in the world, IT leaders in the government sector face unique challenges with data protection, device management and security accreditations. Mobile solutions for government must improve productivity without compromising security requirements.

To find out more about how government agencies are using BlackBerry solutions, we spoke with several government IT leaders. Here’s what they had to say about their experiences with BlackBerry services and products like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Visit www.upgrademyagency.com to learn more about how BlackBerry can provide your government agency with a complete solution for mobile security, manageability, productivity and collaboration. And stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on BlackBerry solutions in public safety and law enforcement.

Do you work for a government agency that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us about a mobility challenge that BlackBerry has helped you resolve.

“Communication is the key to our international success, and BlackBerry holds that key for us. It’s a two-way street between sharing and receiving information and our BlackBerry solution helps us achieve goals that we’ve set for ourselves.” — Vikas Sharma, Business Process and IT Head, Homex India Private Ltd

When Vikas Sharma became Business Process and IT Head at Homex India Private Ltd., a subsidiary of Desarrolladora Homex, S.A.B. de C.V, he soon realized the challenges of corresponding with the company’s head office in Mexico, thousands of miles and many time zones away. Inquiries would often go unanswered for hours and it was difficult for Sharma to efficiently support a number of projects.

Sharma’s role has recently expanded to include the company’s new Saudi Arabia office. This move has prompted him to create a reliable communications strategy that effectively connected each office and took advantage of the security provided by the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. Building upon the company’s existing BlackBerry® smartphone deployment to its senior management and project leaders, Sharma encouraged the employees to better leverage the many features offered on their BlackBerry devices.

Protecting private corporate information was also a key consideration. From an IT administration perspective, Homex effectively managed the BlackBerry deployment through IT policies via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This gave Sharma the confidence that company material was securely managed.

The BlackBerry Advantage

“It started with a broader use of the BlackBerry solution,” said Sharma. “Since we have offices spread out across several different time zones, we’re essentially online as a company at all hours, and by educating staff about the reliability and security of the email function on their BlackBerry smartphone, I was able to start working with other BlackBerry features.”

Sharma educated employees about the benefits of working with BBM™ contact information, encouraging them to send him messages whenever they had an inquiry or issue. Working with BBM allowed Sharma the flexibility to manage two offices at once, whether in India or Saudi Arabia, where he travels for 15 days every three months.

“BBM allows me to address any concerns very quickly,” said Sharma. “The fact that I know when the messages have been delivered and read help minimize the geographic barriers in a sense. I don’t have to wait a day, as is the case with email sometimes, to follow up on any outstanding projects and everyone just seems much more organized when we use BBM.”

The company’s improved communications has resulted in much faster and more effective responses to its SLAs, which Sharma calls the backbone of any IT function. Whether rectifying the problem immediately or connecting with the Mexico office to find a solution, Homex now has a solid and robust continuation system for its SLAs.

Homex’s BlackBerry solution has also resulted in an estimated savings in overall communication costs by up to 40 per cent in some cases. Rather than rely on more costly and oftentimes less reliable international mobile services, the company takes full advantage of the BlackBerry smartphone’s data efficiency and Wi-Fi® connectivity to save money, especially during trips to other offices.

“At the end of the day,” Sharma said, “the company’s IT departments are now far more integrated and employees more attentive because of the improved follow-ups on deliverables.

“Communication is the key to our international success, and BlackBerry holds that key for us,” said Sharma. “It’s a two-way street between sharing and receiving information and our BlackBerry solution helps us achieve goals that we’ve set for ourselves. My BlackBerry smartphone is always in my hand.”

Have a success story similar to Homex? Tell us at success@rim.com. Do you use BlackBerry® Messenger for business? How has it provided benefits to your internal and external communication? Share in the comments below.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend one of the “Appy Hour” events that we hosted on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Many segments of the U.S. government, as well as other governments around the world, are big adopters of BlackBerry® products and solutions based on the built-in security, manageability, and many features that enhance productivity, communication, and efficiency. We took the opportunity to share hands-on demonstrations of BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, and to answer any questions as they popped up.

It was great to meet with government staff in person to discuss how they use BlackBerry everyday as part of their work and personal lives. It was also the perfect opportunity to thank the Washington, D.C. community for its support of BlackBerry. To further express our appreciation beyond the Appy Hour events, we’re also “upgrading commutes” with BlackBerry shuttles in and out of the city every day for the month of May – look for those slug lines and jump on board!

There are incredible BlackBerry apps available for BlackBerry government customers – this was an “Appy Hour” after all. From email provisioning to Mobile Device Management, and from field staff to public safety workers, there are a ton of BlackBerry solutions to take advantage of. For example: data collection apps, IT and cloud management, resource tracking, notification/communication, and document management. Not to mention apps that you use outside of work like Twitter, photo editors, recipe apps, and so much more. Coupled with BlackBerry security, these apps and solutions can bring serious efficiency and positive process overhaul in government industries. The best part is that BlackBerry smartphones are already FIPS certified, as well as certified for use by the Department of Defense. (Watch for a blog post about this coming soon!)

If you missed the event last week, no problem! There will be another “Appy Hour” held on May 31st at Bullfeathers in Washington (5-7pm), so make sure that you come by to unwind and to get your hands on the latest BlackBerry smartphones and tablets. We’ll be there to help you out, showcase what we think will be your favorite and most useful features, and to answer questions. See you there!

What are the top two features of your BlackBerry device that you love to use for work and personal life respectively? Share in the comments below.

What strikes me about their work is that many started with the core strengths of the BlackBerry platform for email, security and IT management, but have gone much further in their visions. For example, many have branched out with BlackBerry apps they’ve created or deployed with partners – apps that make doing the business of government so much more efficient with better service to the public and real ROI.

Over the next six weeks, I’m going to share these stories – from policing and public safety to helping the deaf and hard of hearing communities, from making it easier on people who inspect parks, buildings and waterways to informing prime minister’s offices that need to stay on top of the news. We all know today’s governments are cash- and resource-strapped, but also have to meet an increased demand for services. These customers in Colombia, Scotland, California, Baltimore and Canada show exactly why BlackBerry helps them get the job done, and why BlackBerry remains the number one choice of government mobile customers.

Stay tuned for the coming blog posts and find out how BlackBerry is making a difference in governments around the world.

Are you a part of a government office that uses BlackBerry solutions? Tell us how you’ve used mobile technology to make a difference on your staff, your politicians, or your citizens.

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 ]

International law firm Clifford Chance LLP (Clifford Chance) has long been a customer of the BlackBerry® solution. When the firm decided to allow staff to bring in their own devices to work, they wanted to avoid the complexity and cost of having to manage multiple platforms. With the release of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, Clifford Chance saw the opportunity to use the Universal Device Service to manage its employees’ devices with a single, centralized console. By combining this one-platform enterprise management console with the security and flexibility provided by BlackBerry Balance™ technology for BlackBerry users, the BlackBerry solution helps Clifford Chance to run a more modern, efficient and productive workplace.

Anthony Vigneron, Platform Services Leader at Clifford Chance, spoke with us about why the firm decided on BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, the benefits of working with BlackBerry Balance technology and his upcoming session at BlackBerry World™.

Biz Blog: Why was it important for your law firm to implement BlackBerry Mobile Fusion?

AV: We’ve been a customer of Research In Motion® (RIM®) for more than 10 years. BlackBerry smartphones are important productivity devices for our staff and in terms of reliability of service, global capability and total cost of ownership, the BlackBerry platform is in my opinion unbeatable. That’s why our preference has always been to work with the BlackBerry platform to manage all mobile devices in the enterprise. Users want to bring their own devices to work, and rather than adding layers of complexity and having to manage more policies and integrations, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows us to simply work with the enterprise-grade Mobile Device Management solution that we’ve been using for years. We found that it was simple to implement on top of the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, it is much more efficient than working with multiple platforms, and it is absolutely the right answer to manage longer-term a diverse set of devices such as BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, Android™ smartphones and iOS® devices.

Biz Blog: In your opinion, how do features like BlackBerry Balance technology help make BlackBerry Mobile Fusion the best enterprise management option for your law firm?

AV: Technology has to be designed to function the way people actually behave and work. People don’t want to work in sandbox environments that are tightly controlled, limit access and force them to continuously set passwords when switching between applications. BlackBerry Balance technology allows end users to easily switch between different entry points on the same device and work the way they normally would without technology getting in the way. It allows us to offer a seamless experience to users on their corporate BlackBerry device and meet consumer needs, employee needs and business needs at once. With BlackBerry Balance technology we can have employees use their own BlackBerry smartphones while maintaining control of all corporate data. Combining this feature with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is hugely important to us.

Biz Blog: What are some of the main benefits that BlackBerry Mobile Fusion has offered your firm?

AV: We’ve experienced a number of benefits. Using BlackBerry technology, our firm has experienced reduced costs in carrier billings especially when compared to other solutions we have used on a similar scale. Designing the service for the way people work, which in my opinion, is not a given with some other solutions, benefits not only our end users but also increases productivity amongst all staff. Right now users work with a variety of devices and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows us to benefit from the existing agreements we already have in place with RIM. Whether it’s the bottom line impact, reputation, security, or the competitive advantage, our focus remains firmly on RIM and its overall BlackBerry mobility service.

Biz Blog: What message will you be delivering at BlackBerry World?

AV: We believe in RIM and truly see it as the best platform possible. There is a very real message that we believe needs to be delivered, which is that we believe the BlackBerry platform can help a business achieve a modern workplace. We think that there are very smart people in companies around the world who can be more productive on the BlackBerry platform than on anything else. It’s all about using technology to help deliver services that are attuned to how people work and live. Quite simply, we think that BlackBerry Balance technology and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion are win-wins, both for the businesses that manage devices and the end users that work with them.

Be sure to check out Anthony Vigneron’s session at BlackBerry World 2012 (Session ID WA59): Be the Modern Workplace with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and BlackBerry Balance. Add this, and other sessions, to your schedule at www.blackberryworld.com.