BlackBerry (News - Alert) users can now bring the functionality of their office desk phone with them anywhere they go, now that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has introduced the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS).

The BlackBerry MVS enables a BlackBerry device to securely connect to a corporate PBX. That means all the functionality delivered through the PBX (News - Alert) – such as four digit extension dialing, access to voice mail, and features such as “hold,” “park,” “transfer” and “conference” can be “pushed” or extended to the BlackBerry device, thus giving the it all the same functionality as the phone sitting on your desk in corporate headquarters.

This feat is made possible through new enhancements to the BlackBerry client, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite from Ascendent Systems (News - Alert) (a subsidiary of RIM). It is the first solution to fully marry the BlackBerry to the enterprise telephony system.

In addition to extending all the features offered through the corporate PBX to the BlackBerry, the MVS also facilitates an intuitive menu-driven interface which makes placing and receiving enterprise calls and accessing desk phone functionality fast and simple. Users don’t have to enter a PIN or mobility access code to securely access the BlackBerry server, as authentication takes place seamlessly via the data channel each time a call is placed. This secure way of connecting to the server enables an organization to route ALL calls through the PBX – which is not only convenient for billing/auditing purposes, but also enables the enterprise to record all of the calls coming through the PBX for compliance purposes.

With the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite working in conjunction with the PBX, users can have their existing corporate phone number ring through to any number of devices simultaneously - or in sequence - including their BlackBerry device. Having one “Reach Me Anywhere” phone number means calls which are urgent can get through, no matter which device you are using (including a POTS phone). Meanwhile, the user has the option of setting their status to “do not disturb” – so that all calls are automatically forwarded to voicemail – or they can set the system so that only calls from certain individuals get through. In addition, they can set which end devices they want the system to ring through to (they can be “toggled” on an off) and can even set the duration (i.e. the number of rings) for each device. Now, with the recent enhancements, all of this can be configured by the BlackBerry user “on-the-go,” through the intuitive GUI.

“We’ve been working with RIM to build the enterprise voice features of the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite directly into the BlackBerry phone application,” explained Heather Howland, senior marketing manager for Ascendent Systems, during a recent interview with TMCnet. “So what we’re doing is allowing the BlackBerry to function as a secure mobile extension of a user’s desk phone. That’s because we’re actually able to authenticate the BlackBerry device with the PBX. So if I’m a BlackBerry user and I make a call – because the BlackBerry is connected to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the server can actually authenticate that device, as authorized to access the PBX.”

“This is something that they haven’t really been able to do before,” Howland added. “They haven’t been able to authenticate callers with the PBX. And for industries like finance and government this is something that is pretty important - because they’ve had the need to be able to do things like call recording. For example, if I’m in finance and I’ve got a broker that’s dealing with a lot of big VIP customers, I can record all those calls, so I have a record of them. That’s something that up until now hasn’t been easy to achieve.”

As mentioned previously, the software also simplifies the billing and auditing of calls tremendously. For example, a legal organization might normally get a huge phone bill at the end of the month for all the calls made to clients. To go through all of those calls manually and figure out who made which ones is a difficult task. But when you have all the calls going through the PBX, you have all the call data in one central location - thus you can accurately track which ones were made by each user (plus you can parse the calls either by employee or by client).

Although there are other software products out there that can push PBX functionality out to landline and mobile devices, the Ascendant Voice Mobility Suite is unique in that it can do it over any type of architecture. The middleware solution works with all types of phone systems - including products from Cisco, Nortel and Avaya (News - Alert) - plus it can support multiple brands simultaneously. Furthermore it works over IP, TDM or hybrid environments, meaning there is hardly a business telephone system out there that it can’t be integrated with.

Obviously this is only going to further propel the success of the BlackBerry, which currently has more than 8 million users and is holding its place as the most popular smartphone on the market. As the success of the device continues, Howland said it has been “fantastic” for both RIM and Ascendent.

“If you looked at BlackBerries before, they were wirelessly enabling data and email and applications – but now, with Ascendent, they’re able to add voice in there as well – so now they have end-to-end data and voice security for the enterprise – and they’re able to wirelessly enable things like unified communications and all the apps that the enterprise is trying to go wireless with,” she said. “So it is pretty exciting for RIM – and very much for Ascendent.”

To learn more about Ascendent Systems and the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite, visit www.ascendentsystems.com.

To learn more about Research in Motion (News - Alert) visit www.rim.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.

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