Our Better Business Hub is currently taking a deeper look into how businesses can use NFC. The opportunities offered by the technology for your business are wide-ranging. It can allow you to market your company and reach out to your customers in very innovative ways, some of which are demonstrated in the NFC video below.

Anything with an NFC-embedded chip (or Smart Tag), whether it be posters, advertising boards or business cards, can be used to take consumer engagement further and interact with your customers and new business prospects in a new, innovative, and exciting way. The beauty of NFC is that automating tasks on your smartphone is really simple, as we found out earlier this year when I experimented with NFC Tags.

Consider using NFC to share your company details, direct customers to online information about a new product, promote a video, or to signpost your social media profiles. The opportunities are endless and it is important to remember – NFC is so much more than just mobile payments.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Does your company use NFC? Where do you see potential for NFC in your business? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier this month, I sat down with Geoff from the Near Field Communications (NFC) Product Management Team at RIM to get his take on a top NFC myth we often see from our Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog readers. (FYI – the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 smartphones and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones have built-in NFC.)

Editor’s Note: About a year ago, we sat down with Geoff for the first time to get his perspective on where RIM is going in the NFC space. If you haven’t had a chance to watch Geoff’s video interview, check it out here: How to use Near Field Communication (NFC) for Business.

Debunking The Top NFC Myth: NFC is not just about mobile payments!

Popular perception seems to be that NFC is just a way to make mobile payments. Although RIM has been a key mobile payment advocate – including becoming among the first smartphones to be certified by MasterCard® and Visa® for NFC-based payments and working with EnStream in Canada – this capability was merely a stepping stone to a BlackBerry presence in the NFC space. Mobile payment capability is just one part of NFC technology’s true potential.

With BlackBerry solutions, our vision is that NFC will become part of daily life, saving people bits of time wherever they are. The ability to pay for things, securely access the workplace, and exchange contact info with colleagues with the tap of a BlackBerry device are just a few of the NFC capabilities you can take advantage of today!

Here are a few examples of how NFC is already empowering today’s mobile workforce:

1. Replace access badges with BlackBerry smartphones

BlackBerry partner HID Global offers Secure Identity Services™, a comprehensive suite of web-based tools for managing physical access credentials (here’s the HID press release with more info). In case you didn’t know, Secure Identity Services is the first all-in-one web-based solution for enterprise credential provisioning and management. The HID platform provides businesses with the tools to create, use, and manage identities for traditional badges on plastic cards, for tokens, and for digital credentials on NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones.

2. Share information with BlackBerry NFC capable devices using BlackBerry Tag

Earlier this year, RIM announced BlackBerry® Tag, which allows customers to exchange information with a simple tap between any two NFC-enabled BlackBerry® smartphones. This technology makes sharing information a lot faster and much more personal. Here are just a few examples of what you can share with a single tap using BlackBerry Tag:

• Invite your friend to BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™)
• Share contact information
• Share content from the media applications
• Share voice notes
• Share documents from within Documents To Go®
• Share a URL from the browser
• Create Bluetooth® pairing with ease
• Transfer files

3. Smart Tags – “Work Like Magic”

Smart tags can contain a range of information, including web addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, coupons, graphics, media files, event details, and more. When you tap the smart tag reader on the back of your BlackBerry smartphone against a smart tag, your smartphone views the smart tag and presents you with the options to view or delete the smart tag. Smart tags can also help automate common tasks that you perform on a regular basis.

According to Annu, Senior Product Manager for BlackBerry 7, NFC technology on BlackBerry smartphones “works like magic”. Some smart tag ideas from Inside BlackBerry For Business Blog readers include launching the BlackBerry® Travel app when tapping the NFC tag on their suitcase, tapping an NFC tag beside their bed to set their alarm, and so much more. If you are interested in taking advantage of this unique technology, check out this blog post: Automate Common Tasks in Your Life Using NFC Tags and Your BlackBerry

We’d love to hear how you’ve been taking advantage of NFC technology – share you experiences with us by commenting below!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is on the rise in the mobile space, providing exciting new ways to share information, make mobile payments, and interact with your surroundings. Of the new BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones, the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 smartphones and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphones contain built-in NFC capabilities. Being the device and technology lover that I am, I had to ask the question: How can this budding mobile technology be used for business? To find answers, I started with our NFC team to get a breakdown of how BlackBerry devices can use this capability.

As pictured above, the NFC antenna is located in the battery door of your BlackBerry smartphone, allowing you to simply tap an NFC smart tag to instantly read or write the data. Smart tags can be located anywhere, such as on an advertisement, movie poster, or in a business card. Blank smart tags can be ordered from third party vendors and written with information using the BlackBerry Smart Tags application that comes preloaded on the NFC-supported BlackBerry 7 smartphones. While I had known that my BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone had NFC technology enabled, it was amazing to realize that my smartphone can both read and write these smart tags with my own customized information.

Smart Tags Application

The Smart Tags application for BlackBerry smartphones contains an intuitive interface for managing all of your tags. To create a tag, simply press the menu button and select “Create Tag”. At this point, you’ll see form fields to fill in the title and URL. NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones can read information not only from smart tags, but also from other smartphones.

Now that I had the full scoop on what the technology is and what it can do, I switched my focus to how you in the business community could make use of it for enhanced productivity, improved CRM, and more. So, how exactly can NFC be used for business? I can think of at least few ways:

Sharing Information Using NFC

BlackBerry Tag will soon allow the sharing of documents, URLs, photos and more via a simple tap of two NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones. Additionally, you’ll be able to invite a friend to BBM™ (BBM 6.1+ required) using this technology, and create seamless Bluetooth® pairing for file transfers. The solution is designed to be secure and intuitive – stay tuned for further details on the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Mobile Payment

A very exciting aspect of NFC technology, when coupled with BlackBerry security standards, is the ability to pay using your smartphone. Recently, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 became the world’s first SIM-based smartphones to receive MasterCard® PayPass® handset certification! Clearly there are convenient times ahead when you may be able to leave your wallet at home.

Promotional/Advertising

I believe that we’ll start to see NFC-enabled advertisements that allow real interaction with users, and a transfer of the experience to their mobile devices. Imagine, for example, a user tapping on an advertisement poster on the street and being able to purchase tickets to an event or browse reviews of products, all on the go. Capturing the attention of customers – as well as finding opportunities to engage with them – needs to happen very quickly when it comes to advertising and marketing. An instant and seamless technology like NFC allows this to occur at lightning speed in comparison to many other avenues of customer interaction and user experience. Lastly, this technology can augment existing promotions and campaigns to extend their reach and increase conversion.

Product Information

As I mentioned above, NFC allows individuals to access information about products with a single tap of their BlackBerry smartphone. In industries where physical products are present, such as retail, this can provide a brand new flow of specific information for customers, such as ratings and reviews, sharing through social media, and feedback mechanisms. The same concept applies to B2B where your business clients can enjoy the same access. For example, a printed invoice could include NFC technology that would allow customers to tap and pay securely with a BlackBerry smartphone.

NFC technology truly is inspiring and the use cases are limitless. Not only is this a new technology for BlackBerry users and businesses to take advantage of, it also holds the potential to fundamentally impact the interactions that take place through the sales funnel, between products and individuals, in business networking and interaction, and even internal applications.

For those looking for blank/writeable smart tags, a quick search online provides a host of options and pricing. NFC technology may not be enabled for all carriers, so please check with your service provider for availability.

Can you imagine a creative use case for NFC technology? Share your favorite!*

Related Posts and Resources:

• BlackBerry User’s Guide: Creating a Smart Tag
• Developer’s Guide to Working with Smart Tags
• Interview on NFC with RIM’s Andrew Bocking, VP Handheld Software Product Management

* By posting a comment below you acknowledge that you have read and accept these terms and conditions and that any ideas you post will be the property of RIM in accordance with the terms and conditions.