Zenprise updates BlackBerry monitoring software

Zenprise will release this week a new version of its BlackBerry e-mail management software, with changes that give network administrators an end-to-end view of their mobile e-mail chain on a user-by-user basis.

Zenprise for BlackBerry 3.1 is an updated software module that runs with the Zenprise Enterprise Management Server. The new release includes a user dashboard, which is a set of graphical screens to show the overall health of mobile e-mail services for individual users. Some new diagnostic tools make it easier for administrators to make sure the Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry device is active and receiving messages.

The changes are part of the vendor’s effort to expose still more the components of the BlackBerry mobile e-mail system, so administrators can quickly know about problems, and diagnose and solve them.

The main Zenprise application, updated in April, relies on sophisticated algorithms to collect a range of information from Exchange’s messaging environment, including global catalogs, domain controllers, DNS servers and Active Directory, to uncover problems and then identify their underlying causes. The software then specifies a resolution, based on the customer’s e-mail environment.

The BlackBerry module, released in February, examines the BlackBerry environment for problems. It creates visual maps of usage trends and service performance; runs a predictive analysis that looks for impending service troubles; and calls on one database to generate step-by-step actions to fix problems; and on an expert database loaded with management advice from BlackBerry experts, including knowledge bases of documents and best practices from Microsoft and RIM.

For a company such as Grant Thornton, a Chicago-based accounting firm, that insight is critical, says Michael Ruman, the company’s IT messaging manger. Currently, some 600 BlackBerry devices are in use. Overall, the Exchange Server 2003 system handles 700,000 e-mails daily. “E-mail is mission critical for us,” Ruman says. “It’s our top application, next to the time-and-billing system.”

“[Zenprise has] greatly enhanced our ability to see any issue that may be out there,” he says. Using Zenprise, his team now can monitor all four U.S. BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, and pick up, analyze and fix problems before they affect users.

Where the previous version focused on the BlackBerry and Exchange servers, the new version gives administrators and help-desk staff a more user-centered perspective, according to Ahmed Datoo, vice president for marketing at Zenprise, in Fremont, Calif.

The new user dashboard-interface uses color-coded icons to show problems with various parts of the mobile e-mail infrastructure, or with specific users, along with a set of real-time performance graphs that show how long it takes to connect between the BlackBerry and Exchange Servers, or the number of pending messages to a handheld.

An administrator can click on a user name, or search on a name or e-mail address, to access a profile of the user, including his unique BlackBerry identifier, and a color-coded list of performance measures, such as service availability, message latency and pending-message queue. Clicking on any red-flagged icon brings up more details.