“Today we are announcing an exciting new offering that further expands the market opportunity for the BlackBerry platform,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “In a marketplace where smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express significantly raises the bar by providing a cost-effective solution that allows companies of all sizes to support enterprise-grade mobile connectivity for all employees without compromising security or manageability.”

For IT administrators, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express also offers the following:

• Runs on the same physical or virtual server as the Microsoft mail server or on its own server. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is also certified for use with VMware ESX
• Over 35 IT controls and policies, including the ability to remotely wipe a smartphone and enforce and reset passwords
• A Web-based interface that allows remote administration and makes it easy to install the software, connect BlackBerry smartphones and apply usage policies

Additional features supported through BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Connect v4.0 include:

• Enhanced attachment handling capabilities, enabling users to view images, footnotes and tracked changes;
• Remote look-up of corporate email address directory;
• Triple DES or AES wireless encryption;
• Internet and corporate intranet access via the BlackBerry Mobile Data System;
• Wireless device provisioning to allow devices to be activated wirelessly;
• Remote control of email settings to allow users to wirelessly configure out-of-office replies, email filters, and auto-signatures directly from their device; and
• Wireless IT policy enforcement and commands.

Key features of the complete solution, which requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 or higher, handsets running BlackBerry Device Software 4.1 or higher, and the new BlackBerry IM client for use with Office Communications Server 2007, include:

• One-to-one or multi-party instant messaging – Engage in one-to-one or multi-party instant messaging sessions from a BlackBerry smartphone. Users can also send instant messages with hyperlinks included that can initiate an email, phone call or launch a web page and can save conversations to the smartphone for archiving or sharing via email.
• New presence statuses – In addition to setting their presence status as Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, Away, or Offline, BlackBerry smartphone users can now create a customized notification about their location, such as “home” or “office”.
• Auto presence setting based on activity – View the presence of others automatically based on activity from their desktop computer, desk phone, and activities scheduled in their Microsoft Outlook calendar, which can show a more granular level of presence with notifications such as “Out of Office” and “In a Meeting”.
• Control access to presence and contact information – Users can control who sees their presence by setting their availability to individuals, teams, the entire company, and people outside the organization, or they can block the information outright.
• Click to communicate from contact list – From within the BlackBerry IM client, users can click on a contact in the contact list and select to initiate a phone call, email, MMS or SMS with the contact. Users can also initiate an instant messaging session with a contact from within the BlackBerry Address Book.
• Picture association in contact list – Users can associate a photo to each contact in their list.
• Determine presence of contacts from address book, receive alerts – View the presence information of a contact in the BlackBerry Address Book and receive an alert when a person becomes available.
• Usage controls for the enterprise – New IT settings and controls have been added to BlackBerry Enterprise Server allowing administrators to control access by individual users or groups as well as control specific functionality, such as the ability to save conversations.
• Market-leading security – Leverages the market-leading security and encryption of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to help ensure that presence information and conversations remain protected and secure.
• Ease of deployment – The BlackBerry IM client can be easily deployed via side loading or over the air. IT administrators can also ‘push’ the application to users through BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
• Optimized for mobility – BlackBerry smartphone users benefit from the BlackBerry platform’s push-based architecture, supporting battery efficiency, network optimization and automatic delivery of instant messages, even while the application is running in the background.

Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 or higher, handsets running BlackBerry Device Software 4.1 or higher, and the new BlackBerry IM client for use with Office Communications Server 2007.