RIM WES Blackberry 2009 Opening General Session

Key messages from the Research in Motion Wireless Enterprise Symposium for Blackberry 2009 opening general session:

Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO of RIM
  • Conference theme: Enable, Empower, Inform
  • RIM has sold 50 million smartphones to date
  • RIM sold 26 million smartphones in 2009
  • RIM is the #1 smartphone in North America
  • 2009 is the 10th anniversary of Blackberry
  • RIM has 12,000 employees
  • Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 now shipping
  • Security is a key differentiator of RIM
  • RIM acquisition of Chalk Media - mobile content on demand
  • Mobile Voice System - MVS.  Wireless extension to the PBX.  "Single-number"
  • Vocera (partner) - VoIP for nurses
  • Wireless Presentation Solution - leave your laptop behind and use your Blackberry to present
  • Blackberry App World
  • "Office in your hand"
  • "Doing things better and saving costs"


Bob Picciano, General Manager, Lotus and Websphere Portal Software, IBM Software Group
  • Lotus State of the Business - over 13K new Lotus customers (Notes, Sametime, Symphony, Connections, LotusLive, etc.).   30% increase in Sametime customers in 2008
  • Smarter Planet - the world is connected: economically, socially and technically.  Smart people working smarter
  • Working Smarter - 71% of CEOs plan greater focus on innovation and doing things differently
  • Working  smarter requires vision
    • Universal access to collaboration
    • Messaging becomes in integrated platform - Notes 8.5.  Notes and Blackberry, stronger together
    • Managing through human networks and not rigid corporate hierarchies
    • Telephony becomes voice collaboration - Sametime Unified Telephony,  Click to call becomes click to collaborate
    • Innovative desktop productivity tools - Lotus Symphony (Open Document Format).  This keynote is Bob's one year anniversary of uninstalling Microsoft Office and using Lotus Symphony for all his presentations.  BES 5.0 - supports ODF attachments (first applause from the audience)
    • Transform SMB into Global Trading Partners
    • Linux emerges onto the Corporate Desktop.  30% of netbooks purchased run with Linux.  Divert critical spending to other initiatives
    • Proliferation of cloud computing - LotusLive.  Collaboration in the cloud.  More than just delivering services through a web interface.   Planned beta for Blackberry 2Q/2009.  Key value proposition is collaborating with other customers and sharing
    • Situational apps solve daily problems - mashups
    • Working smarter - Alloy by IBM and SAP.  First public demo of Alloy on Blackberry.  Come visit the IBM booth at the product showcase to see it for yourself.  Working smarter on a smarter planet

Laurent Philonenko, Vice President and General Manager, Unified Communication Business Unit, Cisco
  • Improving the nature of work through mobile collaboration
  • Cisco & RIM - enabling mobile collaboration one capability at a time
  • End to End Connected Experiences
  • Great product demo showing participating in a meeting from a Blackberry
    • Audio conference on the Blackberry
    • Slide presentation on the Blackberry
    • Automatic re-connect to the meeting (audio and slides) when exiting a tunnel
    • Receiving a call on the Blackberry while in the meeting and adding the user to the meeting
    • Receiving an SMS message while in the meeting, ability to share the content with the team (slide presentation)
    • User arrives at the office and available conference rooms in displayed on the Blackberry
    • Upon entering the room, the audio switches automatically to the speakerphone in the room and the video is display on the monitor