As someone with little technical or server knowledge – but certainly a drive for getting things done – I present to you the ideal solution for the like-minded and business-focused: BlackBerry® Management Center!

BlackBerry Management Center is a free online service designed to allow you to remotely manage and protect up to 100 BlackBerry® smartphones in the cloud. BlackBerry Management Center is ideal for small business IT administrators, with an easy-to-use interface that provides rich functionality. It’s a great solution for small businesses seeking to integrate and manage the variety of company-issued or employee-owned BlackBerry devices in use within the work environment. The service is easily accessible from a web browser, simple to use, requires little-to-no maintenance…and did I mention it’s FREE?

Some key features of BlackBerry Management Center:

• Device management for mail services, including Gmail®, Yahoo!®, Hotmail®, AOL®, POP, IMAP, and OWA
• Can include and integrate existing employee-owned BlackBerry smartphones
• Allows non-technical administrators to manage BlackBerry devices
• Reduces the need for outside technical assistance
• Central management of email for employees
• Can include BlackBerry® Protect™ features that help to ensure that your data is safe and that you can easily find your smartphone if misplaced – lock, wipe, loud ring and send a message*
• Provides the ability to send a PIN or email message to all console users

We’re particularly excited about this type of solution, as it provides a streamlined answer to the need for centralizing employee-owned devices and providing a network of support and management. To learn more about BlackBerry Management Center, be sure to check out www.blackberry.com/managementcenter.

Could your small business benefit from a management solution for mobile devices? Share your thoughts in the comments.

*Phone must be on to use the BlackBerry Protect application.

A recurring theme to the conversations I’ve been having with people in the wireless industry lately is the need for enterprises to better manage the dual personas of the modern employee: their work persona, and their play persona (my personal favorite persona). The software teams here at Research In Motion (RIM) are aware of this need and are working to address it by providing enterprises with the necessary tools via the BlackBerry® platform. I was able to catch up with Santiago Carbonell, a Handheld Software Product Manager at RIM, who is one of the people working on a new feature coming to the BlackBerry platform to do just that. Check out the interview below!

You’re working on a new feature coming to the BlackBerry platform. What’s the story behind this feature and what does it do?

Over the past 10 years, smartphones have been a huge boon to enterprises because they enable employees to take their work with them wherever they go. In the past few years, however, smartphones have started allowing us to take our personal life anywhere, through things like social networking applications and rich multimedia features.

This has led to a trend we’re seeing in the enterprise space right now, and that’s personal-liable devices, or BYODs (“Bring Your Own Device”). People are buying smartphones for that rich personal experience, but then looking to bring that smartphone into the office to take their work with them as well. What we’re working on is building a platform of coexistence between these two lives on one device.

That sounds cool, but what do you mean by coexistence?

Enterprises understandably need to be very protective of their corporate data and communications, and the BlackBerry platform has always allowed that information to be mobilized securely and efficiently through a robust set of IT policies. These policies allow enterprises to control virtually every aspect of the smartphone, down to whether or not personal email addresses or 3rd party applications can be added. This helps to prevent security no-no’s like data leakage, where confidential information sent to the smartphone via a work email is then shared via a personal email address or through some other application.

However, this means that in the interests of corporate security, some BlackBerry smartphone users can’t add their personal email accounts, access Facebook® or download 3rd party applications. RIM recognizes that enterprise employees are also consumers and we want to stay ahead of the curve by allowing those employees to do their jobs, but also take advantage of all the rich consumer-focused features that are a part of the BlackBerry smartphone.

So, for example, the average employee will be able to respond to that urgent email from their boss, but then a minute later be able to check up on their kids over BlackBerry® Messenger or Facebook, because their employer is comfortable with the security measures protecting their sensitive data.

Exactly.

So it’s a win for the company and the user, because they both get what they want.

Yep. =D Enterprises can then allow employees with their own BlackBerry smartphones to bring them into the office at no cost using products like BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express. The employee gets access to all their corporate services (work email, work calendar… etc.) and is still able to enjoy using their BlackBerry smartphone in their personal life because the security concerns are addressed.

Without giving away the secret sauce, how is this going to work? Will the BlackBerry smartphone user notice anything different?

Really what we’re working on is keeping the enterprise data where it belongs. That means sensitive information like emails or important business contacts can stay highly secure and controlled. This is all happening in the background of the platform, so the BlackBerry smartphone user won’t really notice anything different. However, if they try to do something their company would deem unacceptable with that data, the platform is designed to help prevent it from happening and notify the user.

Thanks for this! I’m looking forward to grilling you for more information as it becomes available to put on Inside BlackBerry.

No problem!

BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry® MVS 5) was one of the many announcements during WES 2010. During the show I had the chance to speak with Andrew from the Voice and Collaboration Platform team about the voice over Wi-Fi® calling capability of BlackBerry MVS 5, use cases and security features. Check out the video above demonstrating Wi-Fi calling and call transferring using BlackBerry MVS 5, then click the link below for my interview with Andrew.

Q: So what are some specific use cases for BlackBerry MVS 5?

A: People are increasingly working from home at least a few days a week, so in this scenario with BlackBerry MVS 5, you wouldn’t have to do any call forwarding, and you wouldn’t have a need for a separate business line at home. You just take your BlackBerry® smartphone with you, connect to your home Wi-Fi and it’s like your office phone comes with you as well.

Being at home and being able to sync my BlackBerry smartphone to my Wi-Fi router and make secure calls through my work extension – just as if as I was at the office – is an absolutely fabulous use case for a growing number of people in their work lives.

Another great use for BlackBerry MVS 5 is on campuses. You could be in a hospital or manufacturing plant, away from desktop phones, but with access to a voice grade Wi-Fi network – now you can make calls over that Wi-Fi network from your BlackBerry smartphone using your enterprise/work number versus your mobile number.

BlackBerry MVS 5 is a great way to optimize the use of your cellular voice plan, address coverage issues and maintain privacy of your cell phone number when working away from the office.

Q: What does the end-user need to do to be able to use BlackBerry MVS 5?

A: If your organization already has BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry MVS 5, then you just need to contact your IT group to get your BlackBerry account added to BlackBerry MVS 5. Your IT administrator can then push the software update and the VPN credentials to your BlackBerry smartphone – no user interaction required! After that you can simply connect to an available Wi-Fi network and choose to make calls from your work line, over Wi-Fi, from your BlackBerry smartphone. You’ll love how easy it is, and IT will rest easy knowing that your mobile work calls are routed through the corporate PBX and have the ability to help maintain corporate compliance regulations.

Q: Then, as a user, you just have to make sure that you connect to an available Wi-Fi network from your BlackBerry smartphone, and everything is taken care of for you?

A: Correct. Once your Wi-Fi is turned on and you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network, the administrator will have set it all up for you – you just have to start making calls.

Q: Anything else users need to know about BlackBerry MVS 5?

A: Your company needs to be running a supported IP PBX for BlackBerry MVS 5 (Cisco or Mitel to start, with other vendors to follow). Note that our BlackBerry MVS 4.6 version is available to customers with other vendors or legacy (TDM) PBXs and provides similar functionality over carrier mobile networks but does not support Wi-Fi calling.

If you’re looking for more info, be sure to check out the BlackBerry MVS 5 announcement and the BlackBerry MVS 5 product page on BlackBerry.com.