For the next evolution of its BlackBerry Messenger service, BlackBerry just announced a new family of products and services called eBBM Suite. The eBBM Suite will work with BlackBerry smartphones and BES in order to aim a whole new animal of BBM at enterprise users.
BlackBerry says that BBM Protected “will provide an unrivalled level of trust in enterprise messaging with end-to-end encryption of messages that uses symmetric encryption keys for BBM messages and best-in-class technology for public-private signing and encryption key pairs.”
BBM Protected with integrate with standard BBM and allow messaging to all BBM users
It’s also worth noting that BBM Protected will integrate with the standard BlackBerry Messenger app, bringing your personal and professional life together under one roof. For IT administrators and infrastructure managers, BBM Protected will work across BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS smartphones in regulated mode with no OS upgrades required.
“BBM has always been an important tool for business users who want real-time messaging that is reliable, trusted and puts control of contacts and personal information in users’ hands,” said John Sims, President, Global Enterprise Solutions at BlackBerry. “With the introduction of the eBBM Suite and BBM Protected, we will provide regulated industries and security-conscious organizations with a powerful and best in class instant messaging solution.”
Sims points out that “BBM running on BlackBerry smartphones in a BES environment” meets the needs of “Regulated industries” who “need an option for mobile messaging that maintains compliance, but still gives employees the freedom to be productive with peers outside of the organization.”
BlackBerry expects to launch BBM Protected as part of the eBBM Suite this summer, and the service will be available to enterprise consumers for a monthly fee.