I have long been a fan of the BlackBerry and prefer it over its nearest rival the (all too gadgety) iPhone. In fact most of my business colleagues seem to have taken the same view.
This partnership confirms the view that BlackBerry is for business, while iPhone's are for the FaceBook type crowd.
The SAP website is effusive in its claims stating that the partnership will bring dramatic changes "by enabling anytime, anywhere mobile access to SAP enterprise applications through the widely adopted BlackBerry® platform"
I'm a supporter. The hand held and mobile markets are either way over priced and have far too many redundant functions, or worse, they are cheap as chips and are a step away from being a commodity technology.
This changes things dramatically.
Heres some more from the press release:
This groundbreaking partnership between two leaders in their respective markets leverages best-in-class business applications and mobile technology to deliver:
Expanded Reach of SAP® Business Suite Applications – Users rely on their BlackBerry smartphones for access to people and information on the go, so it becomes easier to introduce new enterprise applications with a far greater adoption rate.
Automated Data Synchronization – The new solution leverages the push-based architecture of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server to automate data synchronization between business systems and mobile applications. BlackBerry smartphone users have the flexibility to use the mobile enterprise application even in the absence of network coverage. Once back in coverage, all updates queued on the handset and back-end servers are automatically transferred without user action, similar to how e-mail on BlackBerry smartphones works today.
Easy Deployment – The mobile device management capabilities of BlackBerry Enterprise Server allow IT groups to centrally manage and wirelessly deploy mobile applications to BlackBerry smartphones.
Market-Leading Enterprise-Class Security – The proven capability and demonstrated track record from SAP in enterprise applications security, combined with the renowned wireless security of the BlackBerry platform, helps ensure enterprise-class security for the end-to-end solution.
Low Incremental Cost of Ownership – Businesses that have already deployed BlackBerry Enterprise Server and SAP applications can leverage their existing investments and keep deployment and maintenance costs at a minimum.
“SAP is thrilled to bolster its long-standing relationship with RIM through the co-development of this breakthrough offering,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, SAP Americas and Asia Pacific Japan. “By combining RIM’s expertise for empowering the mobile worker and SAP’s strength in business computing, we are embarking on an exciting future to make it easier and more convenient for today’s business users to perform their jobs. Our extended partnership with RIM will open many new doors for mobile workers around the world who require real-time mobile access to enterprise applications in a secure setting.”
“In concert with SAP, we are bringing the unique benefits of the BlackBerry platform to SAP applications, providing organizations with the security, manageability, efficiency and ‘push’ capabilities of the BlackBerry platform with a dedicated client application that also integrates with core BlackBerry applications,” said Jim Balsillie, co-CEO, Research In Motion. “Our partnership with SAP will allow us to deliver an unparalleled solution to our mutual customers who demand the very best in enterprise mobility. With this new partnership, we have an excellent opportunity to further entrench BlackBerry as the leading mobile connectivity platform for enterprise information access. The vision that users can have access to SAP’s enterprise computing applications from virtually anywhere, anytime, represents a new era of opportunity.”
As part of the work delivered through the partnership, RIM will enhance its framework for building intuitive, workflow-enabled mobile applications for the BlackBerry platform. The framework will serve as the basis for developing mobile applications for other solutions in the SAP Business Suite.
SAP and RIM will be previewing the mobile CRM application at the annual SAPPHIRE® conferences in Orlando, May 4 to 7, and Berlin, May 19 to 21, as well as at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) 2008, May 13 to 15 in Orlando.
For more information, please visit http://www.blackberry.com/go/sap. For more information about SAP CRM, please visit http://www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/crm/index.epx
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