The bank was on the lookout for solutions to help its employees to remain in constant contact with the office and the rest of the bank. To achieve this, it partnered with EMS, a Dubai based solutions and service provider focused on the delivery, implementation and support of Blackberry Solutions in the Middle East region.
“Etisalat invited us to participate in its pilot project and we installed the entire infrastructure in our data centre. Our CEO and several members of the senior management committee were given Blackberry handsets. The immediate response was positive. Today at ADCB, the CEO, chairman, board of directors and senior management use blackberry while travelling across the UAE and abroad to communicate with the rest of the bank and business partners,” says Chris D’costa, Head of IT Services and Support of ADCB.
Now with mobile messaging, the office effectively moves along with the executive and allows e-mails to be read instantaneously and acted upon.
Going mobile
As access to e-mail was top priority, executives on the move had to ensure they had access to connectivity. This also left executives facing difficulties when on the move. The Blackberry implementation however helped change this scenario.
The solution for ADCB was deployed as part of a server-based solution and five devices were activated as part of the first session. “As with all pilots, there was a teething period during which users were still getting to learn about the devices and the overall solution. For example, there were problems with sychronising the mail boxes with the exchange servers, which were resolved quickly. The IT administrators were also familiarising themselves with solution and conducted rigorous network tests,” says Babar Khan, CEO of Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS).
EMS conducted the entire implementation under the supervision of Etisalat and with the internal help of the various network administrators at ADCB. There was a Blackberry administrator appointed within the organisation who had a pre-installed checklist to prepare the environment. This was essential for the installation of the Blackberry enterprise server (BES). After the preparation, the professional service team from EMS coordinated with the BES administration to schedule the install.
“This was the first time such an implementation was installed in ADCB. They had a text to voice dial in solution from its main telephony provider Alcatel. But this was the first e-mail client via a mobile device. The bank also currently has alternative methods of mobile e-mail messaging,” adds Khan.
Blackberry’s global popularity also made the solution as easy choice for ADCB and plans are on to expand the scope of the device usage.
“Blackberry is a proven technology globally and there are also various services available on the device. E-mail is normally the first step, followed by applications mainly based on sales management, financial services, real estate, integration with existing ERP solutions etc,” says Khan.
EMS has since seen interest from various business sectors that are increasingly viewing mobility as a primary requirement. “Being able to send and receive e-mails while on the move will increase productivity across the organisation and is essential today,” he notes.