BlackBerry support in Office 365 is now in Beta

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Rob Waggoner

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Usually when I talk about Office 365, someone asks if we offer integration with BlackBerry.  While BPOS initially offered BlackBerry integration at an additional cost, BlackBerry announced that they would offer BlackBerry integration services for Office 365 without an additional cost post RTM of Office 365.  Yesterday RIM announced the Open Beta for the RIM BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Office 365.  The RIM press release is here.

RIM listed a few key features that BlackBerry user’s should appreciate:

Key features include:

  • Access to Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry smartphone
  • BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure
  • A web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere
  • Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft

As RIM posts at the end of their press release:

Microsoft Office 365 customers can sign up for the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services beta at www.blackberry.com/beta/businesscloud. The cloud-based service is available for no additional charge to Microsoft Office 365 Midsized Businesses and Enterprises plan subscribers and works with BlackBerry smartphones on business or consumer data plans.

Once you work through the BlackBerry Beta process, you’ll need to setup Office 365 to use the BlackBerry services.  On the Setting up email on mobile phones management screen:

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Choose the Enable BlackBerry Business Cloud Services button on the bottom of the page.

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Of course, you’ll be prompted to approve the services agreement and then you can move forward enabling your BlackBerry mobile devices on Office 365 service. 

Please keep in mind that you must subscribe to the Office 365 Enterprise (E1 – E4) plans to take advantage of the BlackBerry integration.  The small business (P1) SKU does not provide BlackBerry integration.

Until next time,

Rob

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