RIM Cloud Offering Brings BlackBerry Tools to Small Biz

Research In Motion has introduced BlackBerry Management Center (BMC), a free online service for small businesses that provides a cloud-based management system for company- or employee-owned BlackBerry smartphones.

It fills out the firm's selection of BlackBerry management products. The current lineup include BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), designed primarily for enterprise users, and BES Express, which is marketed towards midsized firms.

RIM's product lineup traditionally lacked a management solution designed for firms with 100 or fewer BlackBerry devices to manage. That's where BMC comes in. Whereas BES Express still required an on-premises installation, BMC is ideal for small businesses that lack an on-site email or messaging infrastructure.

"This is focused on very small businesses that have already decided to use BIS e-mail and use it in the context of a business solution as opposed to just as an individual solution," said Pete Devenyi, senior vice president of e-mail and management platforms at RIM.

"What's unique is it's a no-charge cloud based offering with the power of BlackBerry Protect, something for people to manage their BlackBerrys from the cloud, along with managing their accounts like Hotmail," he added.

BIS stands for Blackberry Internet Service, a service that lets users receive email and access the Internet on personal Blackberries. BIS differs from BES in that it uses a public email service like Hotmail or Gmail instead of a corporate Exchange server, which is what BES supports.

BMC is cloud-based; users don't need to install or maintain a local server. It offers the major functions of BlackBerry Protect, a feature found in BES: automatic wireless backup of BlackBerry smartphones; remote lock it and, if necessary, wiping the contents of a lost BlackBerry; sending a loud ring to the lost BlackBerry to try and find it; and restoring the settings and content on a new or replacement device.

It's not quite as rich in terms of functionality as BES, but for a free service, that's to be expected. All that's required is to have a BIS contract, which users get through their carriers. When you sign up with Verizon or AT&T, you get a BIS contract.

RIM came up with the idea when it realized that a lot of phones it assumed were going to consumers were actually going to individuals in small businesses, some of whom provided their own phones for work. Devenyi said the company realized there were a lot of BlackBerry phones out there in business use not being served by BlackBerry Protect.

"It's a very unique offering that for us," said Devenyi. "What made us drive in this direction is we realized how many business users that originally we thought were consumers were using BIS e-mail in a business context and it made a lot of sense to bring an offering of this nature together to promote that kind of use for small businesses."

Andy Patrizio is a technology journalist and regular contributor for AllBusiness.com.