BoxTone's Unique Approach to BlackBerry Monitoring and Management

Many IT departments are having a difficult time managing the growing number of BlackBerry users in their businesses. Recognizing the need for an automated monitoring and management product that can help IT administrators and Help desk technicians proactively identify and resolve users' BlackBerry problems, BoxTone developed BoxTone for BlackBerry.

     According to Brian Reed, BoxTone's chief marketing officer, a good mobile user management product has to help administrators be proactive as well as reactive, and BlackBerry monitoring and management needs to start at the user level rather than at the infrastructure. In addition to monitoring BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and other infrastructure components like other BlackBerry management products do, BoxTone for BlackBerry monitors the path of every single email message sent to users' devices. By collecting data about delivery times, hung threads, BES-to-mail-server connectivity, and usage, BoxTone for BlackBerry can recognize patterns, identify trends, and alert administrators and Help desk employees to developing problems before they affect users.

     When BoxTone for BlackBerry detects a problem, it sends alerts to administrators' PCs and mobile devices describing which users are having problems, whether the problem is inside or outside the firewall, and how to fix the problem. "IT groups want to know one thing fast: 'Is this my responsibility? And if not, then who should I call?'" said Joel Weinshank, BoxTone's director of marketing. If an alert points to a problem outside the firewall, administrators immediately know that's where the problem lies and can work with Research In Motion or the service provider to resolve the difficulty without delay.

     BoxTone for BlackBerry's reactive approach includes a unique module that provides Help desk employees with diagnostic tools and intelligent recommendations that they can use to quickly and efficiently respond to users' problems. BoxTone's screens and dashboards also include these intelligent recommendations. For more information about BoxTone for BlackBerry, go to http://www.boxtone.com.