Channel Post speaks to Nader Henein, BlackBerry Security Director, about the company, its products & solutions, and market strategies for 2017.
Channel Post (CP): Give us a brief overview about your company.
Nader Henein (NH): BlackBerry is a security software and services company dedicated to securing the enterprise of things. The Enterprise of Things is becoming increasingly relevant today, as data breaches and cybersecurity threats have become some of the biggest roadblocks challenging companies around the world. Businesses must be able to confidentially and reliably transmit sensitive data between endpoints to keep people, information and goods safe.
Market demand for security is shifting from the network of computers to the network of endpoints and BlackBerry is addressing this emerging market need because of the company’s legacy leadership and ongoing innovation in securing and managing mobile devices. BlackBerry is no longer about the smartphone, but the smart in the phone, and in cars and containers, medical devices and wearables, consumer appliances and industrial machinery, and ultimately the entire enterprise. BlackBerry software also provides the embedded intelligence to secure the Enterprise of Things so that the Internet of Things can thrive.
(CP): What markets are you currently present in?
(NH): BlackBerry’s headquarters is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and currently operates offices in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. In the Middle East our regional office is based in Dubai but we operate throughout the region.
(CP): Which industry verticals do you cater to?
(NH): We operate in the enterprise mobility, crisis communications and security space across industry verticals such as financial services, government, healthcare, energy and utilities, manufacturing, education, defense, automotive and professional services. Organizations are increasingly looking at mobility as the way to transform how they run their business or even nations, demanding secure solutions to mobilise their people, processes, and data. In order to deal with complex and sophisticated mobile business environments, they are looking for new skills and expertise from their solutions providers – which we provide.
(CP): What is the workforce strength of your organization?
(NH): BlackBerry operates in 77 cities through 32 countries around the world.
(CP): What products, solutions, brands and services do you represent and offer in the markets you are present in?
(NH): Across the key markets we operate in, we provide products and solutions that relate to enterprise mobility, crisis communication and security. These include
- Enterprise Mobility solutions such as BlackBerry UEM (formerly BES12), BlackBerry Dynamics (formerly Good Dynamics), BlackBerry Workspaces (formerly WatchDox) and BlackBerry Work (formerly Good Work).
- Secure Communication Solutions such as Athoc by BlackBerry.
- BlackBerry IoT solutions such as BlackBerry Radar and BlackBerry Software Management Service.
- BlackBerry Cyber Security Services such as Penetration testing, Threat Intelligence and Knowledge Service, Forensic Services and It Security training, Auditing and hybrid reviews against large matrices of information assurance standards and Security oversight for development, architecture and review on mobile applications, server based solutions and embedded systems.
For our channel partners we offer notable services such as the Enterprise Partner Program. Through the program, BlackBerry provides partners with best practices that enhance their skills and support for BlackBerry’s cross platform security and productivity solutions.
(CP): What are your market strategies for year 2017?
(NH): Our strategy rests on a few strategic pillars:
Our product platform: Our software platform, BlackBerry Secure, is a mobile-native approach to security and addresses the entire enterprise from endpoint to endpoint. It’s not only our product platform but also a standard of security. We are already securing many enterprises and governments in the region and will continue to focus on this in 2017.
Relevant Target Markets: Our expertise in mobility and security make the cybersecurity, automotive, and Enterprise of Things markets key to our success in 2017.
Go-to-market: We have a new licensing, developer, partner and sales strategy in place to market BlackBerry Secure to enterprises and governments directly and through our top-tier channels partners in the region.
(CP): How has the technology market grown in the MEA region over the past few years?
(NH): In the UAE and wider GCC region, government Smart City visions are driving greater investment in digital technologies that can be implemented across the private and public sector. However, this shift is also increasing vulnerability to cyber threats and data theft so business sectors are looking at faster and more comprehensive emergency response technologies that save lives, protect property and help organizations improve the bottom line.
An interesting trend highlighted by IDC shows that 40.5% of the region’s total enterprise IT spending for 2015 stemmed from business functions rather than the IT department itself. And this share is only going to grow over the coming years. IT spending by business functions in the region totaled $16.75 billion in 2015 and IDC expects this figure to reach $23.22 billion in 2020.
Annual spending on mobility across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) is expected to reach $185 billion by 2019, according to IDC, which also predicts that mobility software spending in META will grow from $164.3 million in 2015 to $330 million in 2019. Manufacturing, retail, and banking and financial services are among the early adopters of mobility.
(CP): Do you participate at trade shows such as GITEX?
(NH): We participate in industry events on both a local and international scale. Last week we participated in CES, were we announced our most advanced and secure embedded operating system (OS) for the automotive industry, QNX Software Development Platform 7.0.
