IBM Delivers New Services for BlackBerry

IBM announces new subscription-based managed services and support for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to help enterprises with mobile access to information and resources.

IBM on Sept. 24 "announced new subscription-based managed services and support for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, to help organizations around the world benefit from mobile access to information and resources anytime, any place," the company said in a news release. According to the release:

"The newly unveiled IBM Mobile Enterprise Services for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is a flexible, comprehensive managed service designed to simplify management, technical support and cost of a client's BlackBerry deployment, while making it easier for them to scale the solution to meet their business demands. The service consolidates the technical, administrative, licensing and support costs of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution with pricing on a monthly, per-user basis. The new subscription-based pricing model is designed to help organizations better project and budget mobility costs and minimize their upfront investment.

"The new managed service offering will be provided by IBM professionals certified through the BlackBerry Certification Program."

For example, "IBM is working with AstraZeneca, a leading international pharmaceuticals company, to improve mobile access to corporate resources and information for its global work force with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. By using IBM for the management of their BlackBerry solution, AstraZeneca is able to seamlessly scale mobility and increase productivity through one consistent global solution and provider," IBM said in its statement.

To read an eWEEK Labs review of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, click here.

"Giving employees mobile access to information allows for greater productivity, better collaboration and faster decision making, which are all critical to the success of our business," Jeff Walker, executive director of IT Services at AstraZeneca, said in the release.

"Mobile access is vital, and enterprises are challenged by rapidly expanding requirements from workers across all lines of business," Dan Papes, vice president of IBM Mobile Enterprise Services, said in the statement. "To unleash mobile access, IBM Mobile Enterprise Services for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution offers a flexible set of services to complement a client's existing IT and security strategies and provides a predictable cost structure that allows clients to focus on their core business while leaving the deployment, management and support requirements of a mobility solution to IBM."