Research in Motion: More than just the Blackberry
Research in Motion, often referred to as RIM, is known for its innovation in wireless technology. Most people know RIM for its very popular smartphone, the Blackberry. While the Blackberry has sold millions of units for personal use, it is also a very effective business tool. It allows professionals to remain connected while out of the office and enables them to check email, connect to their companies’ server, and collaborate with friends, colleagues and clients through social media applications.
The Blackberry brand has built a strong online presence. RIM has made use of current internet technologies and trends to build a following that includes:
- More than 350,000 Blackberry support users
- More than 500,000 Twitter Followers
- Nearly 8 million fans on Facebook
- A YouTube channel with over 3 million views and 50,000 followers.
This strong following has enabled this Canadian based technology company with its head office in Waterloo Ontario to expand and serve and connect millions of customer around the world.
There is more than just the BlackBerry
While RIM is predominately known for its smartphone, there are also a number of other products and services offered by the company that can help your business. RIM offers an array of business software and business solutions for companies of all sizes.
There are three main areas of focus where RIM can help your business become more efficient and meet your organizations technology needs:
Business intelligence: Now more than ever business intelligence is a vital part of any company. Through the use of push technology RIM offers company a way to access information quicker in order to make important decisions.
Some of the benefits of this solution include access to important data in any company database, access to KPI’s from any remote location, and at a glance performance monitoring all from your smartphone.
Sales force automation: Sales force automation is an important part of any organization. When sales reps have the ability to remotely connect to internal resources such as their Customer Relationship Management database, they can make more effective decisions.
With RIM users can access important customer contact information, sales forecasts, and order and inventory information on the fly. The type of access will help reps close deals quicker, manage sales calls, and react to opportunities in a more productive way when they are not in the office.
Field services: Any company that has a field service component to their business, regardless of its size, needs the most up to date data and information. Blackberry business solutions offer a number of applications and services such as GPS, printers, barcode scanners, and signature capture to help field reps.
These field services solutions enable employees to remain connected and collaborate with others, manage customer support issues immediately as they arise, check on product/service availability and manage customer service more effectively.
The Blackberry PlayBook tablet and the continuous development of new apps have taken RIM from a mobile phone provider to a business solution provider. With a smartphone or PlayBook in hand, professionals can accomplish almost anything that can be done at the office.
RIM’s business software and solutions has expanded the capabilities of their devices and made them a viable business solution provider.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Balsillie resigns as RIM tailspin continues Sales and earnings plummet as the Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry maker's free fall continues
Thursday, March 08, 2012
IT hiring in Canada to rise by 15 per cent: report Technical support staff, network administrators, security professionals and mobile developers are in especially high demand, according to Robert Half International
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Year in review: May 2011 Sony acknowledged online intruduers could have compromised tens of millions more accounts than first thought, while Wilfrid Laurier University starts taking applications for a tech MBA, 
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Year in review: March 2011 Steve Jobs makes an appearance, Canada's Industry Minister draws a line in the sand, and more RIM rumours. More of the top stories from 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Year in Review: January 2011 A slew of tablets at CES, Steve Jobs takes medical leave and subpeonas for the Twitter accounts of Wikileaks' Julian Assange and his supporters
Monday, December 26, 2011
Year in review: February 2011 Zuckerberg meets his doppleganger, RIM announces Android plans and Nokia ties its handset future to Microsoft. More of 2011 in the rear-view mirror
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Predictions 2012: The future of RIM Our editorial panel's year-end discussion of what to look forward to in 2012 begins with predictions on what will become of former Canadian tech darling Research in Motion
Monday, December 19, 2011
Will 2012 be the Year of the Tablet? OPINION There may finally be enough worthwhile tablets that we can actually call it a “tablet market” in 2012, not just an “iPad market.” 
Friday, December 02, 2011
PlayBook sales decline, RIM takes $485M charge RIM needs "an increase in promotional activity" to sell off its inventory of tablets, now selling at half price
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Not much silver lining for RIM fans BLOGOSPHERE After a massive service outage and the delay of a new OS for its PlayBook tablet, Research in Motion hasn't given users much to cheer about lately
Monday, October 31, 2011
Takeover fight between Ottawa competitors ends WiLAN has surrendered to a U.S. private equity firm in its fight for Mosaid Technologies. It had hoped to create a Canadian-based patent powerhouse
Friday, August 26, 2011
RIM should go all-in on Android, shut down App World OPINION: Reports suggest RIM will make its new QNX-enabled phones, which it plans to release early next year, fully compatible with Android apps. The move has the potential to be great, but only if done correctly
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Industry-watchers divided on Googorola's impact BLOGOSPHERE Industry-watchers are divided on what Google's buy of Motorola mobile means to the industry. But they're nearly unanimous that it's about patents, not hardware
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
RIM’s new release offers same old BlackBerry, blogs say BLOGOSPHERE: The Waterloo, Ont.-based handset-maker refreshed its BlackBerry Bold and Torch lines on Wednesday. Many bloggers got their hands on the new devices and were left underwhelmed by the transitional BlackBerry 7 OS software
Monday, July 25, 2011
RIM cutting 2,000 jobs as COO announces retirement UPDATE: After BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion announces, on Monday, a mass layoff across all functions that amounts to 10 per cent its global workforce, one analyst comments on the direction RIM may have to take
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Does RIM’s fate rest on ‘beautiful’ new hardware design? Smart phone industry observers argue for both a leadership shake-up and a significant redesign of the BlackBerry device. The debate about RIM and its BlackBerry brand rages on as the company prepares to host its annual shareholders meeting next week
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Potential RIM takeover ‘horrible’ for Canada: Analyst The industry is abuzz that Research In Motion Ltd. is ripe for a takeover after layoffs and a stock plunge on Monday. One analyst fears that whoever pursues the BlackBerry maker won’t have its long-term interests in mind
Monday, April 04, 2011
Google stalking Nortel patents The search engine company's bid has been chosen as the base for an upcoming auction on Nortel's intellectual property, the remaining valuable assets of the bankrupt company
Friday, February 18, 2011
RIM pushes WebWorks for phone, PlayBook development The platform, a rebranded version of the BlackBerry Widgets development platform that now uses the WebKit Web rendering engine, lets developers use familiar Web tools to write apps that look native on BlackBerry devices
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tablets are ‘secondary’ enterprise device for now: IDC New IDC Canada research on portable PC adoption shows a better than forecasted growth from the year before, but don’t expect them to replace the laptop or desktop any time soon. The technologies that will ease adoption and the barriers that will keep them out
Monday, February 14, 2011
RIM to launch LTE, HSPA+ PlayBook tablets by year-end The two models will join a Wi-Fi version and one with Wi-Fi and WiMax that the company plans to begin selling next month. Plus, RIM expands its BlackBerry App World
Friday, February 11, 2011
RIM may let Playbook run Android apps Just months after dismissing the importance of mobile apps, Research in Motion could be planning to let its upcoming PlayBook tablet run apps designed for the ever-popular Android platform
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Lotus on mobile devices needs consistency: IBM exec At IBM Lotusphere 2011, Big Blue commits to four major mobile platforms while acknowledging user device preferences and a fast-evolving device market. One Research In Motion exec explains the PlayBook has the foundational technology for Lotus apps
Friday, January 21, 2011
RIM to offer BlackBerry client for SharePoint in 2011 The company lays out the technology road map for 2011 that also includes middleware capabilities for enterprise application integration and cloud-based mobile device management
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Videoconferencing to hit critical mass on mobile Tablets with video calling capability from the likes of Research in Motion, Cisco and Avaya are what will shoot the videoconferencing market to the next level, said ABI Research. The mobile platform issues that could impede this growth