BoxTone for BlackBerry @ WES2009

As you can see in our last few blog postings WES Overview and WES Blogger Panel, WES2009 was an exciting event.  We promised that we had more to share, and today we deliver.

On Wednesday, May 13, Port3101.org, Crackberry.com and BoxTone hosted a 90-minute webinar – “The WES2009 Enterprise IT Highlight Reel” – during which we recapped everything that matters to enterprise mobility IT.  And by “we” I mean Howie Rappaport  from Port3101.org, Kevin Michaluk  from Crackberry.com, BoxTone product managers Mitch Berk and John Wargo.

During the webinar we counted down our top 10 highlights from the big event.  We’ll give you a brief snapshot here, but be sure to check out the free replay of the webinar for all the great detail.  So, here it goes, broken down into Top 5 for BES 5.0 and then Top 5 technology announcements.

1. BlackBerry Administration Service (BAS) – The new web-based administration component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 is a huge change in how users can manage applications and configure software.
2. High Availability -   The new  high availability features of BES 5.0 helps organizations better ensure that the mission critical platform service is always there when it’s needed.
3. Interfaces – BlackBerry Enterprise Server Resource Kit (BRK), BlackBerry Administration API (BAA) and BAS Plug-In are just a few interfaces that are giving users more flexibility and making it easier to manage their BlackBerry services. The BAS Plug-In is the strategic direction with big future ahead of it.
4. 5.0 Handheld Code – While BB Server 5.0 is enabling more backend functionality, there will also be new device-side code to take advantage of all the features likely available by the end of the year. BGR has had some sneak previews.
5. Migration Strategies – RIM is aiding in BES 5.0 migration with the Enterprise Transporter, and we discussed discussed best practices for incremental migration to simplify and reduce risk.

Now let’s look at the top five announcements at WES:

1. Cloud Computing – Google’s Gmail is the one of the most popular web-based e-mail clients, and now the company is working on a connector that will let you manage Google-hosted mailboxes with BES. Kevin’s been using this for a while and is very excited about it’s prospects, and also posted on the BlackBerry Push API announcement. Plus HP announced remote printing in the cloud and new initiatives around product integration. Some detail over at IntoMobile.
2. Security and Compliance – A couple new products are out on the market that further improve on BlackBerry’s industry leading security. Giesecke & Devrient showcased their secure microSD cards for authentication and encryption of email. See product video on Crackberry.com. And on the voice side, Cellcrypt introduced a solution that provides end-to-end encryption for voice calling to ensure conversations remain secure at all times.
3. Cost Reduction – With the economy in the state it is, everyone is focusing on lowering their costs. BoxTone discussed an incremental approach popular with customers that enables BES admins to prevent problems that cause issues, shift to user self service and help desk support, and track utilization to indentify and remove unused devices.
4. The HUB – Bayalink’s Liberty helps encourage more productivity by giving you full access to your BlackBerry from your laptop keyboard, and enables you to use your BlackBerry wireless connection, rather than logging into a VPN, to manage documents.
5. Unified Communication – RIM announced the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) Server for Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager, which provides a single corporate phone number, one caller ID and one voice mailbox for Cisco Unified IP phone and BlackBerry. Howie has a lot of experience here and sees major positive impact for users and the business.

That’s a wrap of our Top 10 from WES2009.  Also checkout more info and photos from THE LOUNGE at WES2009.

If you weren’t able to make it to the show, missed some sessions you wanted to attend, or were there and just would like to hear more about these topics, we invite you to listen to a free replay of Crackberry, Port3101.org and BoxTone in the WES2009 Enterprise IT Highlight Reel webinar on-demand.

The BoxTone Team from WES

Tags: BlackBerry, Event, Management & Monitoring

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Futures & Predictions, Messaging Operations, SLAs & Service Quality, Service Desk & Support, Smartphones & Devices, Strategy & Best Practices, Telecom & Expense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.