- BlackBerry has announced it launched a new global partner program and a new mobile threat defense solution. These are the details.
BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB) (TSX: BB) announced it has launched a new global partner program called the BlackBerry Partner Program — which combines the BlackBerry Enterprise Partner Program and BlackBerry Cylance Partner Programs into one comprehensive structure. And BlackBerry also announced a new mobile threat defense solution called BlackBerry Protect Mobile.
BlackBerry Enterprise Partner Program
The new partner program doubles down on BlackBerry’s commitment to the partner community for facilitating Growth, Innovation, and Enablement. And the new global program features a unified sales portal with convenient and real-time access to a revamped curriculum of training, tools, and enablement resources to aid partners’ Go-To- Market efforts.
With the new program, all 2,200+ BlackBerry resellers and distribution partners will gain access to BlackBerry’s entire portfolio of solutions. This enables them to generate new revenue opportunities by offering organizations a range of market-leading cybersecurity and endpoint management options for helping protect businesses, endpoints, and people while ensuring business continuity.
This new program also includes a ‘Partner Protection’ feature, allowing partners to register their deals to receive higher discounts by working closely with BlackBerry’s field sales teams. And there are also several reseller partner distinction levels in the new program, including Gold, Platinum and Emerald — which provide increased levels of benefits and discounts to partners based on their annual new business revenue targets and technical capabilities. The select value-added distributors will also have the ability to obtain back end rebates for achieving new business growth targets.
Some of the additional benefits of the new BlackBerry Partner Program include:
1.) A new partner portal for allowing partners to submit deal registration and access online training along with sales enablement tools and marketing campaigns.
2.) A single deal registration program where partners are able to obtain higher discounts for new opportunities.
The new online modular training curriculum for Partner Sales and Partner Technical Sales focused specifically on BlackBerry Spark Suites.
3.) Access to the beta community and the knowledge base to test products before they are released.
4.) Availability of Not For Resale (NFR) licenses so partners are able to educate, test and trial deployments within a virtual sandbox environment.
5.) Demand generation and sales support via proposal-based marketing funds, case studies, strategic Go-To-Market engagement and access to inside sales resources.
6.) Members of BlackBerry’s Partner Advisory Council were given a preview of the new program earlier this fall with many of the new enhancements coming as a direct result from reseller and distributor feedback.
BlackBerry Protect Mobile
BlackBerry Protect Mobile is a new mobile threat defense (MTD) solution that extends the powerful AI-based security in BlackBerry Protect to mobile devices. And the solution provides security teams with unprecedented visibility into their mobile, desktop, and server endpoints from a single security console — which is essential during a time when remote workers are being targeted with mobile malware and phishing attacks.
Recent studies pointed out that mobile phishing is one of the fastest-growing threats and global mobile phishing attempts has increased by nearly 40% amid the shift to remote work during the pandemic. And a lack of visibility into endpoint activity could result in threats within the infrastructure remaining undetected until it is too late. And in 60% of breaches, attackers compromised organizations within minutes. But on average it took organizations over 200 days to identify a malicious attack had happened.
BlackBerry Protect Mobile — which was Built on the BlackBerry Spark Platform — utilizes BlackBerry’s advanced artificial intelligence engine to detect attacks before they can execute. And it alerts users before opening URLs and visiting spoofing websites designed to mimic legitimate pages to gather confidential or personal information.
This is done by detecting mobile malware attacks at the device and application levels to extend protection without the need for human intervention. And it identifies security vulnerabilities and potentially malicious activities by monitoring system parameters, device configurations, and system libraries at the application level. Plus it also identifies malware from sideloaded applications and can ensure that applications are only sourced through secure repositories.
Protect Mobile is a product within BlackBerry Cyber Suite — which combines AI-driven endpoint protection (EPP), detection and response (EDR), mobile threat defense (MTD), and continuous authentication and behavioral analytics (UEBA) for the broadest and most powerful set of security solutions available.
Key Quotes About The New Partner Program:
“Partners are instrumental to BlackBerry’s growth goals and with the new unified global partner program, we have all of the necessary ingredients to help drive new revenue opportunities for them as organizations the world over struggle to maintain business continuity during a time in which the scale and variety of cyber threats continues to grow. Thanks to our artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation-driven technology portfolio, no one delivers zero trust security like we do. We’re confident that the new program will be well received by partners who see significant opportunities amidst a security market and threat landscape that shows no signs of slowing down.”
— May Mitchell, VP of Channel, Alliances and Field Marketing at BlackBerry
“We are excited by how BlackBerry has embraced simplicity and flexibility as part of its new unified partner program and in recognition of the reality of the complex and chaotic security environment that today’s businesses are grappling with. We look forward to working with their partner team in the months and years ahead. With BlackBerry’s security at the core, both our enterprise and mid-market customers can be confident in their ability to manage, protect and defend the connected devices and things within their organization so that they can focus more on what matters most to their business.”
— Dominic Grillo, President of Atrion Communication Resources
Key Quotes About BlackBerry Protect Mobile:
“The number of phishing attacks that target mobile users will continue to rise because business is being conducted on mobile devices and users are more susceptible to attacks when viewing and accessing content on the go. BlackBerry Protect Mobile provides mobile device security integrated into our unified endpoint security (UES) solutions for a simplified approach to identifying and alerting users and administrators to phishing attempts and mobile malware across the enterprise.”
— Billy Ho, Executive Vice President of BlackBerry Spark
“The shift to global work from home driven by the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the traditional notion of work, and remote work is here to stay. We expect that the WFH boom will spark initiatives to modernize enterprise security, including mobile threat detection, which is essential for organizations to defend their users from growing mobile risks.”
— Phil Hochmuth, Program Vice President, Enterprise Mobility, IDC
