BlackBerry has introduced four suites, which they are encouraging partners to position over the existing standalone offers from both BlackBerry UEM and Cylance.
May Mitchell, Vice-President, Global Channel Sales and Field Marketing at BlackBerry
BlackBerry has announced the availability of their first BlackBerry Spark Suites, These four new offerings, from both the BlackBerry UEM and the Cylance sides of their business, extend the integration of capabilities from the other side. The Suites also represent another significant milestone in the integration of the two companies, which will culminate in September when the channels of both Cylance and BlackBerry UEM will be integrated within a single Spark partner program.
The BlackBerry Spark brand, which BlackBerry launched in 2018, united BlackBerry’s traditional UEM solutions with Unified Endpoint Security from their Cylance subsidiary to provide a Zero Trust security model. Since then, the company has been working on the integrations, and the new solutions are part of a broader context to manage the full portfolio effectively.
“In March 2020, we created the Spark Division, which pulls together the Cylance portfolio, people and solutions and services, along with the BlackBerry UEM,” said May Mitchell, Vice-President, Global Channel Sales and Field Marketing at BlackBerry. “This reflects the convergence that has been taking place in the industry. Gartner has been talking about unified endpoint security, and our portfolio, all powered by AI, is perfectly suited for that.”
Mitchell emphasized that the suite announcement is one step in a series of organizational and Go-to-Market motions to deliver and support this unified endpoint security portfolio.
“The integration of the Cylance portfolio started last summer,” she said. “In March, we rolled out the new Spark organization, and we made enhancements to the Cylance partner program. Now we are now announcing the Go-to-Market solutions.”
The whole process will culminate in September with the unification of the Cylance and BlackBerry UEM partner channels into a unified program to manage the Go-to-Market strategy.
“From a channel standpoint, we have taken the partner ecosystem from BlackBerry and Cylance and will be coming together in a unified partner program, with more resources, more sellers, more technical SEs, and more field marketing,” Mitchell emphasized. “In terms of program, everything is grandfathered in to the new program from both the BlackBerry and Cylance sides. Online training and one-on-one deep drive training will be provided at no charge to all partners.
“We are half-way through the timeline now,” Mitchell continued. “We have a clear communication from both sides of partner ecosystem. In times like today, it is especially important to communicate clearly what to expect from us.”
Mitchell said that the united partner ecosystem will mesh well together.
“It’s very complementary. BlackBerry UEM and Cylance together have 2200 unique partners globally, and there’s not a lot of overlap. In North America, Cylance’s partners are very strong in the US, whereas the BlackBerry partner reach is very strong in the Canadian market and in the U.S. government.”
The four suites that make up BlackBerry Spark Suites come from both the BlackBerry and Cylance sides of the house. From BlackBerry come the BlackBerry Spark UEM Express Suite, and the BlackBerry Spark UEM Suite. Both of these will continue to be managed in the BlackBerry partner program until they programs are unified in the fall.
“These two new UEM suites have new functionality with CylancePROTECT and CylanceOPTICS in them, which the three existing BlackBerry UEM suites do not have, so there will be a natural trend to migrate to the new suites,” Mitchell said,
The BlackBerry Spark UES Suite and BlackBerry Spark Suite will be managed out of the Cylance program until September. The Spark Suite is the full bells and whistles offering.
The UES suites have CylancePERSONA in them today.
“It’s continuous user authentication, which tracks your personal details and the way you interact, and we can determine if it’s not you, and take action, Mitchell said. This is also available in the Spark Suite.
CylancePROTECT, their Mobile Threat Defense capability, has also been integrated into the UEM suites and into BlackBerry Spark.
“The four new suites are simplified solutions with one price and one discount structure for the partners, which offer customers more functionality,” Mitchell said. “They can go back to their existing install base as well as offer them to new customers. Many of them may have sold a customer just one point solution in the past. If they upgrade the customers into these new suites, that provides additional functionality for the customer and additional revenue for the partner.”
The existing BlackBerry and Cylance legacy solutions will continue to be offered, for customers who want standalone products.
“The big value though is in the suites,” Mitchell emphasized.
