Sunday, April 20, 2008

AT&T and RIM Offer BlackBerry Software for SMBs

AT&T and Research in Motion (RIM) announced today the availability of BlackBerry Professional Software for AT&T's small business customers with up to 30 wireless users. It enables wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, business data and Internet access.


The companies said the new BlackBerry Professional Software provides a simplified installation process and the full suite of advanced security features and IT policies that come with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, such as sophisticated end-to-end encryption to protect communications and information -- but with simplified administration. With pre-defined IT policies, it is also easy to control content protection strength from content on the handset, owner-information settings, password use, password complexity, timeouts and more. A lost or stolen smartphone can be locked down, and proprietary business information can be erased immediately.


BlackBerry Professional Software also provides control over the company's BlackBerry smartphones, allowing the owner or office manager to limit certain features on an employee's smartphone, and the solution enables data to be backed up wirelessly. Changes to control settings can occur in seconds as IT policies are "pushed" to the smartphone over the air.


The BlackBerry Professional Software package that supports five wireless users out of the box is priced at $499, with a 10-user version priced at $849.http://www.att.comhttp://www.rim.com