[DREXcb]

We don�t get much public visibility into how effective BlackBerry is at selling their BES products to IT folks. I am sure there are people on this forum that have first hand experience.
The only public information is things like the Gartner report that seems to have a bias and the information provided by the analysts that work for the firms that finance the competitors.
If you have the opportunity to deal with BlackBerry on the purchase of MDM products, how do you think they are doing. I get that this is a biased group but also a very informed group something that is lacking in the media.

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[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Well Chen was happy with his 2,600 "wins"... whatever that meant.

But as both hardware sales and service sales have fallen (granted BIS accounts for a lot of services failures at this point).... I don't see anything improving just yet when it comes to BES.

[DREXcb]

Yes but I was hoping to hear from someone that knew something

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[deiop]

In Europe BES is normally a channel product, advertised and sold through BlackBerry partners. BlackBerry started the 'direct sell method ' through their own store (store.blackberry.com) but IMHO this does not work in Europe. No bigger company will raise their creditcard to buy licenses.


So in Europe it is up to the BlackBerry partners to advertise the BES solutions, and in my opinion they are doing a good job.

The partners have the ability to show the customer possible solution scenarios, help them to integrate BES and maintain the systems.
This works well, and BES is more and more accepted and requested by the market. It is the 'slow' way - but it works.



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[DREXcb]

Thanks for the input

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[Stomps01]

Yes but I was hoping to hear from someone that knew something

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Lol

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[Stomps01]

Thanks for the input

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You seem bitter.......haha

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[beowulf101]

I could name and shame the BlackBerry sales rep who contacted me in the UK. I began a BES12 Cloud trial and received an email asking if I needed more licences and a Voicemail to the same effect.

Every time I called back, I got an incredibly condescending voicemail to say that the best way to reach the sales rep was via email (not acceptable), and when I emailed them directly I got no response whatsoever. None. Not even an out of office; just ignored.

Two weeks later I went with a different platform for 2300+ endpoints. The other vendor was responsive, detailed and on the ball. They'd quoted everything within the two weeks I'd been on the BES trial and signed the business whereas BlackBerry couldn't even be bothered to get back to me.

My answer is no. If they can't even get onto the warmest possible opportunity, which is clearly a prospective customer taking out a trial, then they have a poor sales team indeed.

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[DREXcb]

Thanks Beowulf. I suspect there are more cases like this out there. There are two parts to customer service and it looks like they missed on the service part...and ultimately the customer.

Anyone else have examples? We could get a bit of a customer satisfaction survey going here for BES12 customers or prospects as in Beowulf 's case.


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[barbas79]

For almost 2 years I am unable to get any licenses for BES. Not a single answer from BlackBerry and the cellular operators.
The online store just gives out trial licenses and I am unable to order any paid license.

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[DREXcb]

@barbas what country

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[deiop]

I could name and shame the BlackBerry sales rep who contacted me in the UK. I began a BES12 Cloud trial and received an email asking if I needed more licences and a Voicemail to the same effect.

Every time I called back, I got an incredibly condescending voicemail to say that the best way to reach the sales rep was via email (not acceptable), and when I emailed them directly I got no response whatsoever. None. Not even an out of office; just ignored.

Two weeks later I went with a different platform for 2300+ endpoints. The other vendor was responsive, detailed and on the ball. They'd quoted everything within the two weeks I'd been on the BES trial and signed the business whereas BlackBerry couldn't even be bothered to get back to me.

My answer is no. If they can't even get onto the warmest possible opportunity, which is clearly a prospective customer taking out a trial, then they have a poor sales team indeed.

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BlackBerry does not have the number of direct sales persons to address this .But in Germany you would have a call back from BlackBerry within one day, but as I said, Bes is a channel product. Contact a BlackBerry Partner, they will do everything for you :-)

We are a BlackBerry approved Partner in Germany and if a customer wants to get in direct touch to BlackBerry we call the BlackBerry Team here and the customer gets a call back within hours and a visit a day later :-)

The BlackBerry Germany Team is doing a great Job in my opinion and they try to support both, the direct sales and partner sales.

So maybe it depends on the country you a living in :-)


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[DREXcb]

@beowulf good luck with your implementation and like you said I hope you don't get caught in a bait and switch as far as customer service goes.

So Germany 1 and UK 0. Anyone else?

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[beowulf101]

Looks like no one. This really isn't a technology site or forum so much as a fan site for phones these days anyway - consumers, not professionals, so despite my gripes with it I wouldn't put the lack of response down do much more than this site being flooded with the wrong people for this kind of thread.

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[DREXcb]

I suspect that you are right. I am a BlackBerry investor and try to look in lots of different areas for input on the product and the company. It is important to put the right filter on the information based on the source.
Thanks for your input.

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[chasdrury]

We have a relationship with BlackBerry Germany and the uk. Found them to be very helpful and attentive recently (since bes10) to be fair. No complaints here at all..

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[pkcable]

I'm LONG since out of the process, but my dealings with the US enterprise division were VERY professional back in the day!

[DREXcb]

Interesting change here from Sims to Wiese. I wonder how long it will take to feel the impact in the field.

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[beowulf101]

I've been called back by the sales representative who didn't get back to me for the UK - he was very courteous, apologised for not getting back to me, has apparently changed his voicemail due to my comment here in this thread and we had a friendly engagement on the phone.

Hopefully BlackBerry will win more business and do more in EMM vs competitors. I'd like to also think that there will be zero presence of Google in any forthcoming BlackBerry Android device ala Silent Circle devices.

BlackBerry were good enough to call me directly and apologise. That's a goodwill builder, and I'll no doubt speak to them again when the current licenses come up to expiration.


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[beowulf101]

Additional: I also received a call from the UK Enterprise Team Technical Solutions Manager this afternoon. The call was 48 minutes, informative and quite fun. A good level of detail, hybrid deployment discussion and an excellent conversation of requirements in different environments - he understood the IT challenges and I'm impressed. He's also sent follow on documentation on Secusmart and BBM protected as well as geofencing - this is where it needs to be. He may be the TSM, not sales, but this is the guy who'd persuade me to buy BlackBerry.

Mismanagement of my own sales cycle aside, after the two telephone calls I received today, my door is open for the next cycle when it comes around.

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[DREXcb]

@beowulf thanks for sharing that story.
Maybe we will hear from others now about their experience positive or negative, knowing that someone is watching.

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