A lot of news is coming out of Orlando, Fla., where BlackBerry held its BlackBerry Live 2013 event this year. The keynote address was packed with a lot of information about the direction in which BlackBerry is headed.
BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins and chief operating officer Kristian Tear both mentioned that security was still of paramount importance when it comes to the BlackBerry platform. The same type of security and functionality that government agencies require is also needed in a lot of other environments.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which is sometimes referred to as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office (LASO), is the local county law enforcement agency serving LA. It is the fourth largest local policing agency in the U.S. and the largest sheriff’s department in the world.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been testing BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10. More specifically, they tested the advanced mobile computing and communication features of BlackBerry 10. They were very pleased with the results.
LASD Commander Scott Edson of the technical services division had this to say: “Technology is moving fast, and the BlackBerry 10 platform is a viable secure platform that can help us keep up. I have personally tested devices on many smartphone operating systems and I think the BlackBerry 10 platform is a homerun. It’s very secure right out of the box, a great benefit to government and business, and is designed to make your various communication methods more efficient.”
The LASD has been using the earlier version of BlackBerry for a while. In general, employees of the LASD have been using their BlackBerry smartphones for messaging, calendar, access to the department’s intranet, as well as access to documents.
The LASD has found BlackBerry 10 to be a robust and reliable platform. Everyone in the department who has used BlackBerry 10 finds it is smooth and responsive. It is designed to support, learn and adapt to the way they work in the field.
On the backend, BlackBerry Enterprise Service10 version 10.1 is also a benefit. Building on its 10-plus years of enterprise expertise, it offers mobile device management, mobile application management and secure mobile connectivity, and delivers a cost-efficient and reliable solution for business and government customers.
The following comments are from Richard Piasentin, vice president and managing director for the U.S. at BlackBerry: “BlackBerry Balance offers our customers the most seamless and user friendly way to satisfy both user and corporate needs without compromising on either. We’re pleased to provide innovative solutions to our customers like BlackBerry Balance to enable organizations to protect critical content and applications, while letting their users get the most out of their smartphone.”
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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