Seamless integration with BlackBerry 10, Office 365

Issued by puruma business communications for Tarsus Technology Group
Johannesburg, 28 Aug 2013

Even as BlackBerry's fortunes fell prior to the company's recent relaunch of its mobile operating system and smart new handsets, South Africans remained loyal to the brand. Solid business and mobile credentials, together with attractive pricing structures, have kept BlackBerry near the top of smartphone sales in the country throughout the company's troubled period overseas.

And with the launch of the new BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 handsets, along with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 (BES 10), the company is unlikely to lose any existing fans. Indeed, with its unique bring your own device (BYOD) security feature - Balance - it may even pick up some more as end-users opt for the elegantly designed new handsets.

There is, however, still a lot of confusion in the channel about how to integrate new devices into a BES or BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) environment. "The company and software has undergone such a fundamental shift that it's understandable that some customers will need guidance as they transition to new services," says Tarsus Technologies general manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Greg Pothitos. "And it's an opportunity for resellers to take stock of a client's entire mobile strategy and help to refine it."

Many South African businesses are built around the twin infrastructure pillars of BlackBerry and Microsoft, and the good news is that the two work together even better than ever. Exchange e-mail is supported natively in BlackBerry 10, and the company has also developed BlackBerry Business Cloud Services (BCS) to make the most of Microsoft's Office 365 in an enterprise environment.

BCS is hosted by BlackBerry itself, and is available to Office 365 Enterprise Plan customers. With BCS, IT departments can remotely administer BB10 devices through the Office 365 dashboard, and users can sync e-mail, calendar and both BlackBerry and Microsoft messaging services to their handset.

"Even though the licensing structure for BES 10 is more straightforward than previous versions," says Pothitos, "the challenge of maintaining multiple servers and multiple licences will be a challenge that smaller customers may need more help with. It's an area where resellers can really add value."

Tarsus Technologies

With more than 28 years of experience in the ICT industry, Tarsus is the leading value-added distributor in South Africa, specialising in the supply of the world's foremost PC and peripheral hardware brands to the local reseller channel.

Tarsus strives to meet the channel's needs for credit funding, stock availability and efficient logistics, ensuring that resellers are able to deliver the highest quality service to their customers, focus on support and compiling the best overall solutions for their end-user customer base at the lowest possible cost.

The company prides itself on its flexibility, adaptability, knowledge, skills and successful track record combined with an industry-leading ability to manage large roll-outs. These are the reasons Tarsus has consistently been rated as the top distributor in the country by international vendors, resellers and the IT media alike.

With its strong commitment to the South African channel, Tarsus is able to not only make the reseller channel more efficient, but more importantly, it plays a vital role in dramatically reducing the costs of doing business in the local ICT market.

Tarsus distributes a range of products from the world's leading manufacturers, including Acer, AOC, APC, ASUS, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Meissner, Microsoft, NETGEAR, OKI and Samsung.

Tarsus' head office is situated in Johannesburg with branches in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Nelspruit. Tarsus has also extended its footprint into Africa with branches in Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius.

More information about Tarsus is available at: http://www.tarsus.co.za.

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Seamless integration with BlackBerry 10, Office 365

The company has developed BlackBerry Business Cloud Services to make the most of Office 365 in an enterprise environment, says Greg Pothitos, GM for BlackBerry Enterprise Server at Tarsus Technologies.