Enterprise BBM Use High Among Companies that Use BlackBerry Devices

It’s no secret that BlackBerry’s 2013 has been less than stellar. And yet, it’s hard to write the company off entirely, especially when it does have the potential to keep going, at least in the enterprise space. Indeed, while BlackBerry devices no longer have much of a place even among business users, the company has embraced this with the release of a cloud-based EMM (enterprise mobility management) solution. Then there’s BBM.

Recently, BlackBerry stated that its mobile messaging platform is still in use by more than 85 percent of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) enabled organizations running BlackBerry smartphones. The benefit of this is that it provides an end-to-end solution for logging, archiving and auditing BBM conversations, while also aiding in meeting compliance requirements in regulated industries.

This all sounds well and good but, when you read between the lines, the 85-percent figure is a bit less impressive. After all, with 90 percent of companies expected to encourage BYOD in 2014, how many are actually left relying solely on BlackBerry? But, again, there’s potential here.

The combination of BES and BBM provides administrators with the assurance that data is secure, whether in transit or at rest. This is accomplished with end-to-end encryption of data within an organization, based on a security model that runs from the CPU through the OS, file system and applications level.

Now imagine if this level of security could be applied to a BYOD scenario. It’s not that crazy of an idea, especially since BBM has already made its way to Android and iOS. Unfortunately, BlackBerry says that end-to-end encryption for BBM is available only for BlackBerry OS devices, with BlackBerry 10 support expected in the spring.

"While BBM among business customers may have started organically, we know organizations choose BBM today to improve communications and collaboration. Employees get an amazing messaging experience that gives them immediate, active conversations with their peers, which helps drive better communications and collaboration, and improves mobile productivity," said Andrew Bocking, EVP of BBM at BlackBerry. "Organizations in regulated industries that need to meet compliance requirements can use BBM on BlackBerry smartphones with BES, which provides them with the ability to track and log BBM communications."