BlackBerry securing its future in the Enterprise of Things
WATERLOO — BlackBerry’s chief marketing officer admits his own mother may not really understand what the company is up to these days.
And that’s just fine, Mark Wilson says. “There will be people who won’t know what our enterprise strategy is,” he said Monday during a sit-down in Waterloo with journalists at BlackBerry’s global sales summit. “At the end of the day, my mom is not the target market for us.”
Gone are the days when the smartphone pioneer’s market was virtually anyone in the world who might want to use one of its devices. As the company pivots away from hardware to focus solely on software and cybersecurity, its market, too, has focused.
When it comes to potential enterprise clients — users such as banks, law firms, hospitals and governments — the global market might be 40,000 strong, Wilson said. “It’s a fundamentally different marketing mix.”
But it’s also a recognition that BlackBerry’s transition — from hardware to software — and turnaround, is complete, he said. Hardware to software. Eighty-five per cent of the company’s revenue now comes from enterprise software.
There are still BlackBerry-branded devices being made, but they’re produced and sold by Chinese firm TCL and a couple of other manufacturers under licensing agreements.
BlackBerry has leveraged what set it apart in the smartphone world — security — and applied it now to what’s called the Enterprise of Things. It’s a recognition that as more everyday objects are connected in the Internet of Things, businesses are finding there are more things that must be managed and protected as well, both physical (like computers, phones and cars) and digital (such as files and communications).
“The whole market is moving towards security,” Wilson said. “That plays well in terms of our position in the market.”
A company committed to securing its Enterprise of Things can comfortably adapt to a workplace that’s accessed remotely, often on personal devices, by a workforce that can include less-permanent staff like contractors or seasonal employees, Wilson said. BlackBerry software also improves workflow while ensuring security remains paramount.
On Monday, the company announced a partnership with Microsoft that will allow people using the BlackBerry enterprise platform to seamlessly use Microsoft mobile apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint on iOS and Android devices. Data and privacy will be secured to the highest standards, the companies said, but users won’t see a difference in how they open, edit and save files.
If security measures are onerous, “then people will start to go around it,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to solve that by making it easy.”
The company is planning a worldwide rollout of its new software features during an 10-city tour through North America, Europe and Australia.