Announcements are heating up Barcelona this week with the second day of the Mobile World Congress underway. Canada’s own BlackBerry is on scene to bring its own enterprise flavour to the mobility gathering. Here’s a breakdown of the company’s major announcements so far.
First off, BlackBerry and Samsung announced their continued partnership through the integration of Samsung KNOX, a security feature that switches between work and personal profiles on a handset, with BlackBerry’s WorkLife split billing and SecuSUITE anti-eavesdropping security features.
The companies also announced that BlackBerry enterprise solutions will be offered through Samsung Business Services. These services would be available to Galaxy S6 customers later this year.
Next, holding true to its cross-platform strategy, BlackBerry is bringing BlackBerry Experience Suite to iOS, Android and Windows phones, as the company has already done with BBM, BlackBerry Blend and BES. The suite brings a slew of productivity, communication and collaboration, and security functions to these operating systems.
Not to be bested, BES12 had news of its own, with the launch of a cloud version of the enterprise mobile management technology aimed at small and medium size businesses.
Black announced today that the new cloud-based EMM solution will manage iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Samsung Knox, Android for Work and BlackBerry 10 smart phones and tablets and would be released later this month.
The company also said that BES12 would be offered by Sprint alongside BBM Meetings, BBM Protected and BlackBerry Blend to its enterprise customers.
Read more: BlackBerry offers up cloud EMM for enterprise and SMBs
BlackBerry did not forget about verticals, however. On the government front, BlackBerry worked with Vodafone Germany to bring encryption to mobile calls. A new VoIP-based Android and iOS app solution called Vodafone Secure Call will work on all networks, even when roaming, and will use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit encryption combined with temporary encryption keys to keep calls from being tapped.
Meanwhile in healthcare, the company unveiled applications available for BlackBerry 10, iOS and Android that include tools to be used in medical reference and screening, EMR/HIS/EHR access, secure communications and alerts, imaging, and telehealth, all developed by partners.
I came across one of your articles and as a former employee of Blackberry wanted to take the opportunity to pass along my experiences. I worked for this company in 2003 and then again in 2012 and harassment began to take place and as a result I’ve submitted a Better Business Bureau complaint in 2014 as well as a tribunal complaint in 2016. Some of the information submitted within the complaint is listed below:
a woman at Vuteq where I work was shouting comments to me from a distance (name I believe was Laura) Vuteq management was notified of the incident
approximately Dec of 2015
Vuteq premises as I was leaving work
my lunch has been stolen from Vuteq
I had taken a Goodlife trainer’s course and had people join the course and harass me
I”ve received threats
these issues first started while I was working at BlackBerry and escalated once I was layed off
other incidents have preceeded this
vehicle broken into and damage done to car stereo( was rewired) in Mississauga
police report was filed PR15-044 7061
keys were stolen, items stolen from vehicle
staff have been hired from places I work to harass me, one place was The Monitoring Center in Oakville an Alarm Monitoring Company
John Chen was contacted Oct 6th 2016 via LinkedIn with no response received
Jim Mackey was contacted Oct 8th, 2016 with no response received regarding matter
Marty Beard – Chief Operating Officer at BlackBerry contacted Oct 12, 2016
The following statement was sent to them
Mike D Scott has been harassing me and my family for quite some time, you may or may not be aware of this. As a result sometime back a complaint was filed with the BBB bureau because of his actions. It appears he intends to continue with his actions forcing further complaints to be filed. As they’re submitted I will forward you a copy of them for your review. A Better Business Bureau complaint was filed July 17, 2014 case# 1302548
On Oct 16, 2016 the following was sent to John S Chen and Jim Mackey
A complained will be filed with the Tribunal shortly in regards to this matter. Thank you
response received from Jim Mackey
“At 11:53 AM, Jim Mackey said the following:Thank you. I do not manage this area.”
My response
“At 11:59 AM, Roger Virgo said the following:Okay please forward to the appropriate person and they can feel free to contact me.”
John Chen has been contacted via LinkedIn regarding this matter with no response received