UC
Research in Motion launched a new version 5.0.2 of their Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) showing new features to separate business and personal use on a single Blackberry smartphone. Many organizations struggle to create and enforce policies related to personal use of company-provided devices, or with integrating personally owned devices into enterprise applications, a challenge exascerbated by the rise of consumer-focused smartphones such as Droid, EVO and iPhone. BES 5.0.2, in conjunction with smartphone RIM OS v6 offers separation of business data and personal data, allowing a company to remotely wipe or lock a phone without affecting the personal data. Apple released a similar feature for separating business data in OS 4 in June. We expect to see similar offerings from Android and Windows Mobile vendors before long. It’s important to evaluate features that enable work and play on the same phone, while crafting policies that avoid costs of personal use of business devices, or that minimize such costs into a monthly allowance. Keep your eye on continued developments in the mobile management space as workers increasingly rely on their mobile device as their primary means of communication and collaboration.
