BlackBerry, Playing to Strengths, Gains Enterprise Services Win

In October, BlackBerry (BBRY) appealed to its customers to stay loyal with an open letter in newspapers and on its web site touting the company’s technology, security, corporate suitability and financial strength. The message was “You can continue to count on BlackBerry.”

All that mushy stuff was right before the mobile device dismissed chief executive Thorsten Heins and pulled back from a proposed $4.7 billion sale to Fairfax Holdings to instead raise $1 billion from institutional investors—but just after a disastrous $1 billion Q2 loss and 40 percent workforce reduction.

That was then and this is now, and last week BlackBerry chief John Chen reiterated the October sentiment with an open letter—his second since taking the helm—this one directed to the mobile maker’s enterprise customers, saying, “Our ‘for sale’ sign has been taken down and we are here to stay.”

Now with the heat turned down and the industry’s eyes averted for the moment, BlackBerry reported some positive news, landing a deal with Rocky Mountain Human Services (RMHS) for its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) mobility management solution and Z10 smartphones.

Neither party disclosed the value of the deal, but BlackBerry did provide some clues to the size of the deployment. RMHS serves some 7,500 people challenged by a range of issues such as delayed development, cognitive and intellectual impairments, brain injuries, aging and social conditions. In that setting, employee communication, information-sharing and collaboration are critical. RMHS said that BlackBerry’s MDM solution has boosted collaboration between its remote workers using e-mail, BBM and file-sharing on their Z10 smartphones.

“The productivity benefits on the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone are unmatched, empowering our employees to be as engaged on-the-go as they are in the office,” said Annie Davies, an RMHS spokesperson.

For BlackBerry, playing to its strengths with BES10, a highly respected enterprise mobility management solution, may chart a way back for the venerable mobile device maker.

“Companies like Rocky Mountain Human Services invested in BlackBerry because of the incomparable enterprise-ready benefits and the unmatched security the BlackBerry EMM solution offers our corporate customers,” said Andrew MacLeod, BlackBerry North America managing director. “The combination of BES10 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones offers powerful productivity and security tools for organizations, giving both employees and IT departments peace of mind that privacy is maintained while sensitive work information is protected.”