Published on the 18/10/2016 | Written by Donovan Jackson

Remember BlackBerry? While the handsets were never really huge in New Zealand, they were once a part of the landscape, particularly for business users. These days, they still exist in the occasional niche and command pretty decent prices on Trade Me, but you’d be hard pressed to spot one, well, anywhere in the wild in an overwhelmingly Apple and Samsung world.

But after the one-time handset giant, which at its 2010 peak commanded over two fifths of the US-market, saw its that part of its business implode, there was still plenty of value left in the company. Most of that was in its ability to deliver remarkably secure mobile communications, which was always a function more of BlackBerry’s back end software than it was the physical manifestation of a handset – which is, no doubt, a key reason in Parliamentary Services’ choice of its WatchDox and Good Work software.

Parliamentary Service provides administrative and support services and employs around 460 staff and a further 260 people throughout the country. Its BYOD policy supports iOS and Android devices; in a statement issued by BlackBerry, CIO Michael Middlemiss pointed out that the sensitive nature of government work requires the ability to securely share while retaining control of documents. “WatchDox helped us to solve this issue, as it enables members and staff to securely share DRM-protected documents, while retaining complete control of the content.”

He said WatchDox is a valuable contributor to Parly’s data loss prevention strategy and, “From a security point of view, this gives us peace of mind but importantly, allows our team to be super productive.”

Middlemiss said members of Parliament and support staff also require continual secure access to emails and calendars, and the ability to share sensitive files in a secure mobile environment. That’s what BlackBerry’s Good Work does. “With such a range of devices used by our staff, we required an enterprise mobility solution [which didn’t] impact how staff use their devices. Using Good Work, members and staff like the ability to access delegate calendars to keep their busy schedules synchronised when on the move.”

Backing up this customer win, BlackBerry shared insights from Australian research firm Telsyte which talks up growing concern about the security of personal cloud storage services. Some 62 percent of Australian businesses are worried about risks associated with employees storing sensitive information on cloud storage services; cloud storage services ranked highest amongst security concerns, with the biggest security threats including documents being shared via the cloud (52 percent), IP loss (43 percent) and theft of customer identification (42 percent). That can probably reasonably be extrapolated to the Kiwi market.

BlackBerry APAC VP Paul Crighton said its customers want to improve workplace collaboration within a secure mobile environment; with security at its core and cross-platform capabilities, Crighton said the company is seeing ‘great momentum in our enterprise software business’.

He added that Telsyte’s research shows businesses need to ensure file-sharing systems are secured, rather than doing away with them completely. “It makes more sense to increase protection at the document level rather than trying to change the storage platform – whether that’s in the cloud, on a device or within a network. That way you can still provide a high level of protection, but in a user-friendly way that will maximise workflows.”