A tough balancing act

Security and cost are often the biggest areas of discussion and concern and many IT departments lack solid data on which to evaluate the different approaches to enterprise mobility. The UK’s Public Sector is a good example. Multiple departments handle areas as diverse as social security and national defence. Each one has different requirements for functionality and security. Within each department, there are different user groups that complicate the picture further. IT departments need to balance these needs but there is little third-party comparison of the various deployment options and mobile devices available, particularly when it comes to cost and security.

It will be a familiar picture for many organisations across all sectors. They are looking to their suppliers for best practices in enterprise mobility and to third parties for direct comparisons of the different approaches and technologies open to them.

Adding some perspective

Technology analysts and consultants Strategy Analytics have today published a report, commissioned by Research In Motion® (RIM®) that contrasts the different approaches to enterprise mobile deployments in the public sector. Based on interviews with IT decision- makers from across the UK public sector, it compares the BlackBerry® solution to deploying devices running on the iOS®, Windows®, Android™ and Symbian mobile operating systems and using a ‘Walled Garden’ approach to managing and securing these devices. The report looked at different solution set-ups, control options associated with these solutions, the suitability of different operating systems and the implications regarding total cost of ownership (TCO) for these different implementations.

The BlackBerry end-to-end solution delivers clear cost and security benefits

A single-vendor solution delivered clear benefits for organisations. The report found that BlackBerry provides a lower overall total cost of ownership across different user implementations. For example, a 100 user deployment the Walled Garden approach costs 39% more than the BlackBerry enterprise solution to deploy and manage. The TCO of a BlackBerry in a 100 user company factoring in all associated costs, is £294 ($454, €367) which is often cheaper than an alternative smartphone from a competitor.

The report provides a breakdown of where the cost benefits are realised, including:

• BlackBerry running costs after one year are 14% lower than using a Walled Garden approach.
• Network data plans for BlackBerry devices are on average lower than alternative smartphone plans*.
• BlackBerry solution setups require fewer additional elements to get started resulting in lower CAPEX. Additional gateways, routers, firewalls and a Reverse Proxy Server and additional network layers (Access and Presentation Layer) are required for the Walled Garden setup.
• Walled Garden Installation and setup costs are higher.

The report also found that the end-to-end architecture of the BlackBerry solution, including encryption for data-at-rest and in transit, mitigates the maximum amount of risk and offers essential support for corporate IT policies. The below chart references different threats an organisation can face with their mobile devices and what the threat level is for a specific solution:

In summary, Strategy Analytics found that:

“When looking to define a cost-efficient, long-term enterprise mobility strategy, we would caution all organisations across both the public and private sectors to look at the total cost of supporting multiple devices with multiple operating systems over several years.”

“The BlackBerry solution not only provided the most secure platform but also the lowest TCO when considering all elements of the network, required device management and the devices themselves.”

You can check out the full range of BlackBerry services and solutions here. The full Strategy Analytics report can be viewed here.

*Dependent on network provider

Trend Micro™ recently published a report that seeks to address the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend in the workplace by evaluating leading mobile platforms based on security standards and corporate integration. “An increasing number of companies are opening corporate networks and data to consumer mobile technology,” states the report in its Executive Summary. Although “BYOD” may be the buzzword of the year, securing these devices is a major concern for IT administrators – and on the other side it makes perfect sense for employees to seek to bring their own smartphones to work. Their own individual devices have the capability, they’re familiar, and they avoid the dual-device headache that some have faced.

The report published by Trend Micro seeks to inform those facing this trend to ensure that they are able to tackle it effectively, efficiently, and securely within their organizations. Sizes of business vary, as well as industry and information sensitivity, but data security is important to all businesses employing mobile solutions today. And in some cases, keeping data secure can be a make-or-break scenario hinging on retaining a competitive advantage.

The report rates the BlackBerry® 7 OS as having the highest overall rating for security out of all four major smartphone platforms. For example, it was the only operating system with any rating at all for device firewall. Overall, Trend Micro wrote: “Corporate-grade security and manageability make this [BlackBerry] platform the option of choice for the most stringent mobile roles.”

Okay, so it’s secure. But I need features and usability!

This is where many authors stop. The platform is demonstrated as secure, a clear conclusion is presented, and reputable sources cited. However, we know that you and your employees need so much more than this. The underlying issue behind BYOD is that employees want to use the incredible features included in these smartphones: the camera, webmail, Facebook®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, blogs, and more. Today our mobile phones allow us to be constantly connected to all aspects of our life – including during the 9AM-5PM timeframe.

What we’re looking at here is a set of requirements for a mobile solution within your organization. I’d outline them something like this:

• Supports multiple mobile platforms, allowing use of personal phones for work
• Able to connect these devices to your infrastructure and mail servers
• Includes manageability of your data – remote wipe, provisioning, security measures, and more
• Leaves personal data untouched
• A feature-rich experience, including access to social media, while limiting risk to the company

This isn’t the first time these requirements have been presented. This is what’s happening right now in corporate mobility. It’s also what has been requested of the BlackBerry platform as a trusted provider of mobile solutions with. Here’s what we came up with:

BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion

Strike off number one, two, and three from that requirements list. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed to allow you to support multiple platforms including BlackBerry OS, iOS® and Android™ smartphones and tablets. Secondly, it allows you to connect these devices into your infrastructure to setup corporate mail, IT policies, data encryption, and more. And thirdly, it allows you to set data management policies.

BlackBerry® Balance™

This is where BlackBerry really shines. Most BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet include this feature, and this one smashes requirements number four and five out of the park. BlackBerry Balance technology creates a secure perimeter within the OS of a BlackBerry device, which separates work and personal apps, data, accounts, and more. The end user experience is designed to be seamless, and within the inner workings, specific settings can be created to prevent data from passing from the corporate area to the personal. This allows for a full-featured experience for employees who use social media and other personal apps and accounts. It also saves the cost of deploying corporately owned BlackBerry devices if employees have their own BlackBerry smartphones that can be brought into the company network and activated with BlackBerry Balance technology.

Moving forward from here: industry trends, and our roadmap for the future

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and BlackBerry Balance technology are designed to help organizations cut costs, and minimize security risks while maintaining a great user experience, and to set you up for the future in response to fast-moving trends in business mobility. From here, we do what we do best: closely watch for new challenges around the corner, listen to our business customers to understand what they need, and craft solutions to keep you one step ahead.

In terms of specifics, it was fantastic to hear our CIO, Robin Bienfait, and Alan Panezic, VP of Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at RIM, take the stage at BlackBerry World™ 2012 to make a few exciting announcements. Within the next year, they shared, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will be offered as a cloud-based solution, as well as via partners as a hosted solution. This will make it even easier to face what’s being thrown at you, simplify deployment, and present major opportunities for our many partners and resellers. We’ll be diving into these announcements to unpack what they mean for you in the coming months. I can’t wait to get started!

What’s one challenge that your organization is facing in terms of mobile devices? Share in the comments below.

These kinds of questions are leading field service organizations to re-evaluate their mobile tool set. IT departments, looking for ways to standardize technology platforms and reduce mobile infrastructure costs, are exploring the use of BlackBerry® devices in non-traditional environments – like field service operations, where BlackBerry devices often offer a surprisingly close fit at a significantly lower price point. With this premise in mind, industry analyst research firm ABI recently published a detailed whitepaper (commissioned by Research In Motion®) examining the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of traditional ruggedized devices versus BlackBerry handhelds.

Historically, BlackBerry smartphones have been thought of as strictly for white-collar workers, while ruggedized devices were strictly the domain of hard hats and steel-toed boots. However, both stereotypes are incorrect, and there’s a lot of grey overlap.

Field force workers, despite the rough-and-tumble stereotype, actually include diverse roles, including potato-chip delivery drivers, photocopier repair technicians, and restaurant inspectors. Clearly not all of these need fully ruggedized systems. Hence, organizations, in an effort to cut costs and standardize, are outfitting field staff with lower-cost, industry standard smartphones instead.

The ABI report looks at the factors that organizations considered in switching their field service teams from ruggedized mobile devices to smartphones – specifically BlackBerry smartphones. It analyzes the total cost and breakdown in various scenarios as shown below.

Source: ABI Research 2011: Comparing the TCO of BlackBerry Smartphones and Ruggedized Handhelds for Field Services Mobility

In addition to the quantitative measures, qualitative factors like ease of acquisition, upgrade management, application variety, development options, data security, and employee preference sweeten the pot.

All told, according to the study, the total costs and performance gains in switching from ruggedized devices to BlackBerry handhelds resulted in a five-year average TCO savings of up to 30%! Want to see where exactly the savings came from and how your organization might explore a similar evaluation? Click here to have a look at the report!

I’m sure your fellow IT leaders would love to hear about your experience in dealing with field service line of business managers. Have you integrated your field service teams’ requirements into your overall mobile strategy, or are you focused strictly on mobile execs? How do tablets like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet factor into this discussion? What special considerations or accommodations were required?