Ricoh Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Ricoh Americas Corporation, is a document management and services provider with over 2,000 employees. A significant part of Ricoh’s business involves IT services, in which they support 45 locations across Canada providing infrastructure support for mobility, hardware and software, and management of BlackBerry smartphones.

Being involved in IT, having a history of partnering with BlackBerry, and having just developed a field services app, Ricoh spent some time considering BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. We caught up with Andy Ambrozic, Ricoh Canada’s Director of Infrastructure and Operations, to get his thoughts:

Hi Andy, thanks for joining us. We hear that you’re a big fan of all-touch devices. How you think the BlackBerry 10 touch screen and other features stack up?

Ambrozic: I loved the touch screen on the BlackBerry 10 device. It’s fluid to use and the predictive typing is really good. After a while you feel like it’s adapting to you and thinking for you. The device has a totally different look and feel, with some excellent advances. The size is just right as well. The larger screen is easier to use for viewing different kinds of media.

The BlackBerry Hub experience is also very good. I call it “sneak peeks” because if you’re in one screen and you’re watching a video, you can swipe slowly and get a quick look at new messages or social media updates on the BlackBerry Hub screen. It’s a true multitasking experience.

How do you think BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 supports both user and corporate needs?

The BlackBerry Balance technology that’s a part of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 has the potential to be huge. Full work and personal separation on BlackBerry smartphones will make it easier for our users, but also much easier for IT administrators.

We’re also in the midst of finalizing a BYOD policy. A big issue for our users and our organization is we want to be sure personal data is kept separate from work information. Data integrity has always been paramount for Ricoh IT, so the ability to achieve that is a tremendous plus for the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 platform. BlackBerry Balance enables that separation so seamlessly.

How much has using BlackBerry solutions benefitted Ricoh Canada so far and where are you planning to go with your deployment now that you have BlackBerry 10?

There are a lot of benefits that come to mind as I look back over the past 10+ years of using BlackBerry solutions. There’s peace of mind with the security. The devices have always had a high degree of ruggedness and reliability. But mostly I look at how far we’ve evolved from paging devices to email to app driven devices. In recent times, BlackBerry smartphones have pointed to the need to develop apps that help extend our internal processes out to the field.

We’ve just developed our own Field Service Automation app on existing BlackBerry smartphones. We’ve tried it on BlackBerry 10 devices and it worked really well. We definitely plan to deploy our app on the new devices. The app gives our field technicians the ability to manage the entire service call from their devices – from dispatch information to GPS navigation, inventory, time spent on a job and so on. All the job information is then sent back to our ERP system so we have an up-to-date record of the entire service call.

How inspired are you to develop apps for BlackBerry 10 devices?

BlackBerry 10 opens up all sorts of possibilities. If you look at the design, the speed, web and browser evolution, the engine and the application development language, I think it’s going to be a lot easier to build and port apps with BlackBerry 10. We’re now looking at developing a number of apps for our mobile users. For example, we may add a bar code reader to our Field Service Automation app on BlackBerry 10 devices so our technicians can read part numbers without having to input them by hand.

Does your business have a BlackBerry app that you’re planning to migrate to the BlackBerry 10 platform? Share in the comments below.

Bancolombia is a group of financial services companies with more than 130 years of industry experience in Colombia. The bank offers a wide range of products and services to a diverse clientele of over seven million customers, both individual and corporate.

Bancolombia wanted to provide their executives and sales representatives – both of whom are frequently on the road – with uninterrupted access to email, documents, and other important functions. In addition, the bank wanted to provide corporate customers and other individuals in the financial sector with consistent access to financial reports and the Colombian stock market.

To improve internal communications, Bancolombia equipped over 2,200 employees from 800 branches with BlackBerry smartphones, including built-in email, calendar and task management functionality. “Our employees can now use email as if they were sitting in front of their desktop computers,” said David Zuluaga Arango, Infrastructure Analyst at Bancolombia. “In addition, our managers can approve vacations and other administrative processes by email and our sales force can update their calendars and close agreements with customers, all with their BlackBerry smartphones.”

Employees now communicate with their work groups using BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). The organization has added additional users from other departments, including sales and administrative staff, and has implemented the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to manage their BlackBerry smartphones.

“The BlackBerry solution is a solid collaboration tool for the executives, who now have remote access to their email and calendars. It has simplified their access to information, offering a mobility they didn’t have before,” said Zuluaga.

To better serve customers, the bank launched a mobile banking application for BlackBerry smartphones, developed with TODO1. The Bancolombia App can be downloaded from BlackBerry World or by scanning a barcode located on the bank’s promotional ads.

In addition to its mobile banking functions, investors can use the app to obtain up-to-the-minute information on the Colombian financial market. Customers can also search for information on bank branches, ATMs, bill pay centers, and Correspondent Banks with the app, which has been downloaded over 104,000 times to date.

“We thought about what our customers needed to have in their pocket and saw that having almost immediate access to financial information from anywhere would help them make decisions, such as buying and selling currency or treasury bonds,” said Diana Marcela Arysmendi, Mobile Channels Management Analyst, Bancolombia. “I believe the Bancolombia App has brought us closer to our customers because we are more aware of their needs.”

Does your business have a BlackBerry customer success story? Share with us at success@rim.com.

Qubit.tv is an Argentinean telecom company that offers video-on-demand services for movies and documentaries. Founded in 2011, the company initially offered its services exclusively through its website. After identifying that users between the ages of 18 and 34 increasingly use their mobile devices to watch movies, Qubit.tv determined that they could grow their business by offering a wide variety of free and pay-per-view movies on mobile devices.

In order to expand its market reach, the company deployed Qubit.tv, a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application available for download from the BlackBerry App World storefront. Developed by Sondeos, the application sends an email confirmation to users who download it and register, and then allows them to run the app and choose from a menu of free and pay-per-view movies.

Qubit.tv’s app provides users with a variety of options: they can select a free movie, access over 700 movies available for rent, or subscribe to a pay-per-view service by paying a fixed monthly fee for on-demand mobile video access. Users can either watch movies directly on their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or enjoy a “home theater” experience by connecting the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to a television using an HDMI cable.

“We worked specifically with BlackBerry PlayBook tablets because the user video experience they offer is fun and user-friendly, and from a hardware and software point of view, it gives users an excellent video streaming experience,” said Javier Guevara, Marketing Manager at Qubit.tv.

Offering a mobile tablet application has helped Qubit.tv reach a younger and tech-savvy market segment. “Thanks to the app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Qubit.tv has been able to penetrate a highly competitive market and attract new customers,” said Guevara.

The application has also helped Qubit.tv provide a consistent user experience. “With the app for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, our customers have a more rewarding entertainment experience, with better transmission and minimal video interruptions, which we see reflected in the app’s high usability rates,” said Guevara. “Now, they can use their tablets to easily navigate and watch their favorite movies wherever they are.”

How does your company or organization use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for business? Share in the comments below.

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.

CompuRex, a third party mobile partner, helped FAMA deploy a comprehensive mobile solution to the Pasar Tani field officers. FAMA integrated BlackBerry® smartphones with a customizable user authentication application, Smart-Track™.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Read more about the FAMA/CompuRex Case Study on the BlackBerry Customer Success web site. If you have your own BlackBerry success story, reach out to success@rim.com.

Does your sales force use BlackBerry smartphones? How have they helped provide a benefit? Share in the comments below.