RIM Launches BlackBerry Professional Software

BlackBerry Professional Software is based on the core functionality of the best-in-class BlackBerry® Enterprise Server software used by governments and large organizations worldwide, but it is streamlined and tailored to meet the needs of smaller organizations with up to 30 wireless users. BlackBerry Professional Software is priced at $499 for 5 users.

BlackBerry Professional Software enables small and medium-sized businesses to enhance communications and collaboration with an enterprise-grade mobility solution – allowing user-friendly wireless access to email, organizer, Internet and intranet applications with advanced security – while addressing the desirefor an in-house solution that is affordable, simple to install and easy to manage.

"Small and medium-sized organizations have many of the same business requirements for a mobility solution as compared with larger enterprises, but they often require more streamlined administration features," said Carrie MacGillivray, Senior Analyst, SMB Markets: Mobility, IDC. "It has become increasingly important for smaller companies to be able to easily and cost-effectively deploy and manage mobile technology solutions in order to remain competitive and responsive to customers. An offer that combines a mobility solution with enterprise grade middleware, and an intuitive user interface, will resonate with this increasingly mobile segment."

Key features and benefits of BlackBerry Professional Software include:

Small IT Footprint – Installs on the same server as the email system, saving customers the cost of additional hardware and operating system licenses.

Support for the Leading Email Systems – Provides tight integration with Microsoft® Exchange or IBM® Lotus® Domino®, allowing a full complement of synchronized wireless services including access to email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.

Simple Installation – A Pre-install Assistant utility performs a technical assessment of the environment and provides a recommended configuration making installation fast and easy with little or no requirement to determine configuration settings.

Easy Management – Simplified BlackBerry Manager Interface is a one-stop location for most management tasks, and wizards and quick-links enable customers to easily change common functions such as adding or deleting a user. IT policies are also easy to set up with pre-defined IT policy templates.

Advanced Security – Utilizes the same certified security architecture and encryption system of the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which is trusted and accredited by more organizations around the world than any other wireless solution.

BlackBerry® MDS (Mobile Data System) Support – Provides customers with the ability to extend internal applications to mobile employees and use any of the thousands of third party applications developed for the BlackBerry platform.

“Productivity and flexibility are obviously important for small and medium-sized businesses and we know that the majority of these businesses are interested in a wireless solution, but many have been waiting for a server product that can afford greater IT simplicity while still allowing a superior quality of experience for users. We specifically designed BlackBerry Professional Software to provide a more simplified and affordable solution for small and medium-sized businesses, while maintaining industry leading performance, security and control,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. -Blackberry