Research In Motion today announced support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 providing an enhanced real time instant messaging for corporate customers using the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. The new offering includes an instant messaging application (BlackBerry IM client) for BlackBerry smartphones that provides enhanced presence information and deeper integration with core BlackBerry smartphone applications including the phone, browser, address book and calendar.


Key features of the complete solution, which requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 or higher, handsets running BlackBerry Device Software 4.1 or higher, and the new BlackBerry IM client for use with Office Communications Server 2007, include:

* One-to-one or multi-party instant messaging – Engage in one-to-one or multi-party instant messaging sessions from a BlackBerry smartphone. Users can also send instant messages with hyperlinks included that can initiate an email, phone call or launch a web page and can save conversations to the smartphone for archiving or sharing via email.
* New presence statuses – In addition to setting their presence status as Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, Away, or Offline, BlackBerry smartphone users can now create a customized notification about their location, such as “home” or “office”.
* Auto presence setting based on activity – View the presence of others automatically based on activity from their desktop computer, desk phone, and activities scheduled in their Microsoft Outlook calendar, which can show a more granular level of presence with notifications such as “Out of Office” and “In a Meeting”.
* Control access to presence and contact information – Users can control who sees their presence by setting their availability to individuals, teams, the entire company, and people outside the organization, or they can block the information outright.
* Click to communicate from contact list – From within the BlackBerry IM client, users can click on a contact in the contact list and select to initiate a phone call, email, MMS or SMS with the contact. Users can also initiate an instant messaging session with a contact from within the BlackBerry Address Book.
* Picture association in contact list – Users can associate a photo to each contact in their list.
* Determine presence of contacts from address book, receive alerts – View the presence information of a contact in the BlackBerry Address Book and receive an alert when a person becomes available.
* Usage controls for the enterprise – New IT settings and controls have been added to BlackBerry Enterprise Server allowing administrators to control access by individual users or groups as well as control specific functionality, such as the ability to save conversations.
* Market-leading security – Leverages the market-leading security and encryption of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to help ensure that presence information and conversations remain protected and secure.
* Ease of deployment – The BlackBerry IM client can be easily deployed via side loading or over the air. IT administrators can also ‘push’ the application to users through BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
* Optimized for mobility – BlackBerry smartphone users benefit from the BlackBerry platform’s push-based architecture, supporting battery efficiency, network optimization and automatic delivery of instant messages, even while the application is running in the background.

Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 or higher, handsets running BlackBerry Device Software 4.1 or higher, and the new BlackBerry IM client for use with Office Communications Server 2007.

Labels: BlackBerry, RIM

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