Excitor to provide secure alternative to BlackBerry for enterprises in the Middle East

There has been a lot of recent speculation that the BlackBerry solution from RIM is facing opposition from UAE’s officials that see its Messenger service as a possible security threat. As a result, BlackBerry’s messenger service, and possibly BlackBerry itself might suffer a ban from one of the most prosperous countries in the area. Other countries such as Saudi Arabia, India and Indonesia have also expressed their concerns and are assessing alternative solutions.

For large, multinational enterprises that rely on BlackBerry services to satisfy the mobility needs of their business, such a ban could have a serious impact on their employees’ efficiency. Many of them are now on the search for other solutions to secure access to their corporate data on a mobile phone.

ALAN GILES, Vice President of Excitor notes: “Today’s smartphone market is wider than it has ever been, with compelling handset choices being provided by the world’s leading handset manufacturers. BlackBerry’s long supremacy in Enterprise mobility is being challenged, as it is possible today to manage, secure and encrypt important data on any smartphone”.

Excitor, a European-based company with headquarters in Copenhagen, and presence in London and Manila, created Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME), a Mobile Device Management solution combined with secure e-mail and PIM, which presents itself as an attractive alternative to BlackBerry.

DME is a platform that allows enterprises and government organizations to deploy, administer and manage a wide range of smartphones, not just BlackBerry. IT managers can have access to all the necessary information about the entire mobile smartphone fleet and support users centrally. At the same time, employees are enabled with secure access to their corporate e-mail, calendar, address book and notes from their smartphones, as well as folder and file synchronization

DME is handset OS independent and can be implemented fully on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian or Java based devices.

The data sent to and from the device is encrypted, making it extremely secure to share information via mobile networks. Should a mobile phone get stolen or lost, all corporate data can easily be wiped, limiting the risk that confidential information gets misplaced. All data is stored on servers hosted by the company itself. As an alternative, DME can be provided as a managed service by 3^rd party hosting service providers.

The current trend of ‘Consumerisation of IT’ or ‘Bring your own Mobile to Work’ schemes is also very well supported by the DME solution, enabling enterprise customers to reduce spending on handsets, but still enabling their employees with a corporate mobility solution that is standard across the company.

“At Excitor, we enable CIOs to implement a standard email and device management solution that their employees can embrace on their choice of device, on their choice of handset operating system. DME satisfies the requirement of the enterprise, but allies it to the desire of the employee. It is important to remember a smartphone isn’t smart unless it is managed”, says Alan Giles.

DME from Excitor can be deployed as a wholly owned solution with zero dependence on a particular mobile operator. DME works with all mobile networks, and all mobile network technologies. The customer can take comfort from the fact that DME is a Client-Server based system with no requirement for their data to leave their own environment whatsoever.

Excitor has recently expanded in the AsiaPac region and will be present as a key sponsor at this year’s GSM 3G Middle East Telco Summit in Dubai on November 30^th and December 1^st 2010.