BlackBerry Work Drives is a free application for BlackBerry 10 devices that requires BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. This app enables BlackBerry customers to remotely access, edit and manage content located on enterprise network drives. Once the network drives are mapped through the Work Drives applications, native applications like File Manager and Documents To Go can be used to manage the network files and folders.

Key Features of the Work Drives app

• Mapping Network Drives: Connect and manage multiple network drives from your BlackBerry 10 smartphone
• File Manager Integration: Access documents and network folders from the File Manager application
• Document Management: Create and edit documents located on network drives using BlackBerry 10 applications like the bundled Documents To Go
• Email: Attach documents to email from shared network drives, and save attachments directly from an email to a shared network drive
• Note: BlackBerry Work Drives is supported on BlackBerry 10 devices provisioned on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. It requires installation of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 and BlackBerry Balance and works in the Work perimeter only. It requires BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.0 and above.

Putting BlackBerry Work Drives to Work

Throughout my testing of this capability, I was pleased to be able to edit my team budget via our shared network drive on my BlackBerry 10 smartphone, and upload the revised file back into our team drive – all from the comfort of my couch at home. All I had to do was connect my team’s network drive to my Work Drive application by typing in the network path and my login credentials. The network drive is also saved in my File Manager app, so I only needed to type in the file path once. Once your network drives are mapped through the Work Drives application, native applications like File Manager and Documents To Go kick in to help organize and manage the network files and folders.

Having the ability to access files stored on my various network drives with the tap of an icon from my smartphone means I have the freedom to work on whatever I need to, whenever I need to. Having this capability fully integrated within the BlackBerry 10 platform is an undeniable bonus for those who use network drives in their daily work. I don’t need to go into the office to plug in (although my BlackBerry co-workers are awesome), or carry my laptop around in my already overstuffed work bag to have direct access to my corporate network drive. After speaking with the product team about BlackBerry Work Drives on BlackBerry 10, it’s clear that we are committed to empowering connected BlackBerry customers who we know will embrace the mobility capabilities fully integrated within their BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Do you use network drives at work? How will you use Work Drives on BlackBerry 10 to be productive on the go? Share in the comments below.

In the business industry, things are always changing. In order to keep up with emerging trends and industry news, I do a lot of reading. A couple of months ago, Maribel Lopez of Lopez Research published a study titled “Mobile, Social and Cloud Transform Business and IT” addressing how these three major technology trends are changing business today.

Lopez Research estimates that there will be more than 30 billion connected mobile devices and 6 billion mobile internet users by 2020. As industries like consumer electronics and automotive include mobile sensors in virtually all products, many of the 6 billion mobile Internet users will use mobile technologies as their only or primary connection to the Internet.

Mobility will transform business in four ways:

• Connecting Phones, Tablets and the “Internet of Things”: Companies will need to adapt current network connectivity models and plan for a substantial rise in real-time information. Additionally, companies will need to prepare for various interaction models, including people to people, people to things, and machine to machine. Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions like BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion will allow organizations to manage company and/or employee-owned devices on multiple platforms and reduce the risk of lost or stolen devices.
• Rebuilding Business Processes to Work in a Mobile World: Because mobility-optimized systems are task oriented, companies will need to change how applications and processes are created. Applications will need to be able to deliver sensory information and be device-aware, location-aware, and network/cloud-aware.
• Creating Portable Services: As more people begin to carry multiple mobile devices, content and services will also be readily available at any location. Applications like BlackBerry® Bridge allow you to pair your BlackBerry® smartphone with a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to access documents, browsing, emails, messagin,g and photos. Also, the Citrix Receiver app allows users to access a virtual desktop with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
• Supporting Multiple Personas Per Individual: In the past, enterprise features were locked to a specific device, but as mobility evolves, technology like BlackBerry® Balance™ will enable IT to separate corporate and personal data — essential to supporting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environment. By separating personal data and applications from corporate data and applications, both the employee’s information and the organization’s information will remain private.

While mobility will create new opportunities for businesses, it also opens up potential security and management risks in addition to “business-process challenges.” As these technologies continue to evolve and embed themselves more deeply in our everyday lives, businesses must prepare to adapt to the changes they will bring. In order to address these risks and challenges, businesses must create a mobile strategy that addresses security and management and support of multiple device operating systems. Lopez research suggests a three-step plan to prepare for the changes mobile brings:

For more about how mobility will transform business and what organizations should do to prepare for the change, read the study: “Mobile, Social and Cloud Transform Business and IT”

Has your organization begun to see any of these changes from Mobile, Social and Cloud technologies? What strategies will you be adopting to confront the transformation?

The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet browser is far more than a simple application for viewing web pages. It has been carefully designed to provide an enhanced tablet experience, complete with options for customizing the browsing experience, private browsing, bookmarks management, HTML 5.0, Adobe® Flash® and JavaScript® capabilities, location-aware features, and so much more. Consider this powerful tool to be a window into not only viewing and interacting with a variety of web sites, but to also access powerful enterprise web applications.

There are a number of complete and secure web app solutions that you and your business can take advantage of – apps that are designed to offer new ways to collaborate in real time. Access to your internal enterprise network may also be possible from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet through supported VPN suppliers.

Research In Motion® (RIM®) has a large number of enterprise software partners in the mobile industry, and we are constantly working with them to deliver apps and access to web-based hosted solutions optimized for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This means that employees will be able to use existing tools while on the go.

I’m sure at this point you’re looking for examples. Well, here are seven of our favorite enterprise apps that are BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser-ready!

IBM® Connections (IBM®)

IBM Connections is social software for business that is designed to allow you to “access everyone in your professional network, including your colleagues, customers, and partners” (via IBM Connections overview). IBM Connections was designed to be supported on a wide variety of platforms, including the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser. Through this interface, you can engage with communities, files, wikis, profiles, bookmarks, forums, and much more. It’s as good as it sounds, especially through the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet experience.

BusinessObjects Dashboard (SAP®)

SAP offers a web tool called BusinessObjects Dashboard, which is designed to allow you to create interactive analytics and dashboards with connections to SAP backend data sources among others. These interactive dashboards can be shared via Microsoft® Office, Adobe® PDF, web sharing, and SAP sharing solutions. You can then create, view, and share these dashboards using the the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser with Adobe Flash support.

Chatter® (Salesforce®)

Salesforce.com offers a private, and secure social network for your business called Chatter. This service allows you to increase collaboration within your organization as well as assist with planning and project management. Not only did I test this service using my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, I actually completed the entire registration process using my BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphone.

Basecamp®, Highrise®, Backpack®, and Campfire® (37signals®, LLC)

Back when I was running my own small business, the 37signals services were a huge relief to find. This suite of HTML5 web apps allows you to manage projects, contacts, communications, and collaboration – all through extremely user-friendly web apps. While testing this one on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet this morning, it was hard to put it down. Check out an overview of the suite on the 37signals web site.

Zoho®

On-demand CRM software is available from Zoho, among other services, and is widely used by businesses large and small. The entire Zoho Suite, interacted with via the dashboard, is available as a mobile web application designed for tablet use and is easily accessible using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser.

Confluence® (Atlassian®)

The tagline for Atlassian’s flagship product is “More Than Just a Wiki”. This statement is true, as I’ve had personal experience working with the Confluence product, which allows for contribution, discussion, collaboration, and indexing of a wide variety of content within an organization (among other great features). Want an efficient workforce? Pool the knowledge and make it accessible. Speaking of accessibility, this one is also available via web interface using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser. Have Confluence set up on internal corporate servers? No problem – use the BlackBerry® Bridge™ browser.

So as you explore all that the BlackBerry App World™ storefront has to offer, don’t forget to take advantage of the wonderful world of web apps. As you can see, the sky’s the limit with the award-winning BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and its unique browsing experience, which opens up a whole world of possibility for engaging in enterprise apps online.

Are you using enterprise apps, either native or web-based, on your BlackBerry PlayBook? What apps do you find particularly useful?

Salesforce.com, Chatter and all associated logos are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other names and logos used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.