The solutions, which include support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, are focused on increasing service levels, reducing operations costs and improving productivity for customers.
HP and RIM plan to design and launch offerings to increase the productivity levels of the growing number of global mobile employees, enabling businesses to extend the return on their investments in mobility.
Said Ann Livermore, executive vice president for the technology solutions group at HP: “As businesses look for new ways to increase service levels, reduce operational costs and improve productivity, they can meet these challenges by transforming how they manage the infrastructure that powers their mobile workforces. Emerging models of communications and collaboration have created an opportunity for RIM and HP to provide service-based mobile solutions that deliver value to customers.”
Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer at RIM, added: “RIM and HP are working together to deliver solutions to customers that weave mobility into their daily operations; from innovative new services in the cloud to managed mobile services for the enterprise. Through our collaboration with HP, businesses will have access to an expanded set of applications and services for their BlackBerry smartphone deployments.”
At this year’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) in Orlando, US, HP will be demonstrating two new solutions: HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry smartphones; and HP Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry smartphones is a web services-based solution that allows users to print emails, documents, photos and web pages using a BlackBerry smartphone, wherever they are, in the office, at home or on the road.
The CloudPrint service enables mobile users to easily print to the nearest printer. The service is printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access. HP and RIM plan to make CloudPrint available to BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers.
The CloudPrint technology was invented by HP Labs, the company’s central research arm.
HP also is introducing software to centrally monitor and manage the extended BlackBerry solution ecosystem, whether it is virtual or physical. This ecosystem includes the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, mail servers, databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems such as Windows Server. Plans also include extending the capabilities of the monitoring solution to provide an end to end view of enterprise applications running on the BlackBerry platform.