The Canadian-based wireless device company, Research in Motion (RIM), unveiled a new plug-in called Mobile Voice System that will allow a BlackBerry smart phone to be integrated as an extension of an enterprise's PBX system, giving users one "Reach me Anywhere" phone number. Other desk phone functions such as transfer, park and extension dialing will also be made possible through the system.
The BlackBerry business oriented smart phone has become quite popular thanks to its push e-mail capabilities integrated to a company's system as well as serving as a mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing and web browsing device. This integration is a step forward following that same business oriented philosophy that will probably be followed by other vendors.
MVS consists of new code added to the BlackBerry Client, which runs on the BlackBerry smart phone, and to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which manages a bunch of BlackBerry wireless services, including e-mail, through the corporate firewall. The third component is an existing product, the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite, which is server software that works with an array of third-party, enterprise TDM and IP PBXs. RIM acquired Ascendant Systems in 2006.
The service will be offered as a free software update for RIM servers and current BlackBerry phones by the end of the month.