RIM calls all aboard the BES Express

Full steam ahead: RIM claims BES Express is "a massive opportunity for our channel partners"

Smartphone giant Research in Motion (RIM) is reaching out to the channel to help deepen its reach into the SME market.

The SME-targeted Black­Berry Enterprise Server (BES) Express is being launched this month. RIM’s vice president of channels, Jacqueline Cooper, claimed this would be a springboard to beefing up the vendor’s channel presence.

“Recruitment is important,” she said. “We want to enable the channel to really embrace mobility. The key thing for resellers is having the ability to build on the IT platforms they may already have in place.”

RIM rejigged the Black­Berry Alliance channel programme last year, splitting partners into Elite, Select, Associate and Registered levels. Pierre Lams, director of Select partner Handheld PCs, claimed his firm was now benefiting from increased marketing resources and hands-on ­channel management.

“The new programme has helped RIM define which partners to focus on,” he said. “It understands the market and values the contribution of partners. There are new competitors such as the iPhone and Google Android, but BlackBerry has such great technology – the infrastructure is very secure and the corporate world likes that.”

The free-to-download BES Express allows smaller firms to wirelessly sync devices with Microsoft Exchange and Windows Small Business Server. Cooper claimed BES Express could be a stepping stone for resellers and end users to invest in BES 5.0, a paid-for upgrade.

“We really think there is a massive opportunity for our channel partners,” she claimed. “It is not just selling handheld devices, it is building the services around the ­platform.”