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BlackBerry recently completed 10 years in India. The milestone was not marked by any pomp and show. And understandably so. The company has seen its fortunes drop by a mile. In 2008, BlackBerry had a valuation of $80 billion and its shares traded at $149.90. Today, it is valued at $4 billion and its shares are playing around $7.
Manoj Khilnani, Country Marketing Head – Enterprise, BlackBerry India, however, is quick to defend. “What would be a better way to celebrate than receiving a tremendous response from the market? It makes us happy when customers come back and say we went to buy your device but it was out of stock.”
So, despite the positive sentiment from the market, one wonders why is it that the company’s revenues are plummeting? According to Khilnani, this is a temporary blip, more to do with the overall market expanding than anything else. He is confident that it is just a matter of time – the company will bounce back.
“The overall market size where we were playing has exponentially grown in the last couple of years. Earlier it was only BlackBerry in the enterprises. Suddenly new platforms have entered. Any company today in order to be able to respond to the market takes time,” he says before quickly adding, “We have been quick to respond to the changing market dynamics. In a years’ time, we released three updates. If the company was slow we won’t be doing so.”
Enticing the CIO
With BlackBerry getting a new CEO, John Chen, last year, it is positioning itself as an end-to-end player offering hardware, software and services and not just an IM/handset/software player.
“The issue that a CIO faces today is not comparing this hardware versus that hardware. That story has become old. The questions that he is asking are – if I want to open BYOD, how do I regulate it? How can I manage different platforms within my organisation? This is where we have a strong role to play and can help a CIO. We are the only player in the market that offers everything from hardware to software,” says Khilnani.
Seeing the market shifting, the company recently announced that it will enable Mobile Device Management (MDM) companies to directly manage devices with the BlackBerry 10 operating system. The move intends to provide CIOs with quality and flexible management tools to support a broader enterprise mobility strategy. Besides, it intends to launch BES12 in late 2014, adding Windows Phone 8 support.
“Our MDM platform has security as USP. No platform is as secure as BES 10 or BES 5 has been. The second aspect where we score is that of manageability – which plays a huge role from a CIO’s perspective – when he is looking at multiple platforms within an organisation – right from installation to the usage / from administration to usage,” says Khilnani.
According to him, all these efforts are yielding results. “Today, we have more than 1,000 BES10 customers and 2,000 BES5 customers in India and over 30,000 BES10 servers have been installed globally. We are the only brand to get ‘Full Operational Capability’ on US Department of Defense Networks. This enhances an enterprise’s confidence levels,” he opines.
Mindshare versus marketshare
There is no doubt that BlackBerry still has a strong mindshare of enterprise IT decision makers when it comes to mobile security. However, when it comes to BYOD, it seems to be losing out to Android.
As Gaurav Sharma, Head-IT and COO of PNB MetLife, avers, “When you talk about the strategic intent of the organisation, we are agnostic to a brand or a model. Our strategy is clearly towards making sure that we create great solutions, and we are present in a space where the majority of the consumers shift to. So, if tomorrow the consumers shift to iOS or Android, then we will have no option but to shift accordingly.”
“While we do use Blackberry Enterprise Server, the focus from a distributor standpoint is clearly towards Android – as that is where the major traction is taking place,” he says.
Atul Luthra, Vice President - Information Technology at Matrix Cellular Services, meanwhile, feels BlackBerry is confronting two big challenges that it would have to overcome.
“There is no doubt that their security is the best. But they never became user interactive. The browser was not up to the mark and did not work well. Also, BlackBerry and BYOD don’t match. If the user has to buy a device, I don’t think he will consider BlackBerry as it lacks user experience,” he feels.
Meanwhile, a top CISO of a BFSI company, on conditions of anonymity says, “BlackBerry has a fantastic technology. In my personal opinion and experience, its device is safer as compared to android phone. I would ideally give a BlackBerry to my employees.”
Brand management
The slide witnessed by BlackBerry has certainly hit its brand image. Khilnani too agrees with this but feels bouncing back is what counts at the end of the day.
“Every brand goes through a life cycle. There are stages that a brand goes through. I won’t call it as going up or down. It is a part and parcel that every brand has to face at some point. At the end of the day the important part is how well you are able to reposition yourselves to your core customers. We are at a juncture where the brand is repositioning itself,” he says.
“Our enterprise customers in India are very positive. The number of trials we are seeing with BES 10 is phenomenal, and that too with very little marketing effort from our side. Once we have BES 12 coming in second half of the year, it will make huge sense to a CIO. He can keep adding platforms without having to set up a server farm inside the organisation,” says Khilnani confidently.
We hope he is proven right.
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