Stop Motion: Integrating Customer Relationship Management into Blackberry

Stop Motion: Integrating Customer Relationship Management into BlackBerry

By

Nicholas Bibby

An assignment submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for MGT 608

School of Business Management

National University

Professor Renee Weeks

2 May 2015

Executive Summary

Research In Motion, now known as BlackBerry Limited, was once an industry leader in mobile technology. By designing products that met the demands of business consumers as well as the demands of the everyday consumer; the company was able to build a strong market share of over twenty percent globally. This continued for many years until complacency and a lack of market research led to other companies such as Google and Apple taking over the market almost completely. By instilling a more systematic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, BlackBerry may still have the opportunity to reclaim some of the company’s past success. Only by finding out what the consumers want and innovating new and more effective ways to deliver this does BlackBerry have any hope of making a strong comeback to the smart phone market place.

Background

        BlackBerry, LTD began as a company called Research In Motion Limited (RIM). RIM was founded in 1984 by two Canadian college students who were both studying engineering. Initially the company focused on electronics and computer science consulting. During the late 1980’s the company began focusing on wireless data technology. In 1988, RIM became the first wireless data technology developer in North America. RIM focused on products used in businesses. One of the first successful products developed by RIM was the Mobitex point-of-sale solution, a protocol converter box that would allow wireless communication to be integrated with existing point-of-sale equipment. In the mid 90’s, RIM introduced the Interactive Pager and the RIM 900 OEM radio modem. At this time there were two major companies in the market, RIM and Motorola. In 1999, RIM began selling the BlackBerry 850 pager. The name BlackBerry was chosen because the keys of the keyboard bore a slight resemblance to the actual blackberry fruit. This device was able to send and receive emails, as well as receive Push Email^[1] using a complimentary server. This pager set the stage for the future of the BlackBerry product line and began putting RIM at the forefront of what would soon become a billion dollar industry.

        In the year 2000, RIM released the BlackBerry 957, the first BlackBerry smartphone. This phone intended for business use and marketed as such. The device was well received due to its ease of use and security. These features became the biggest draws for businesses using these devices. After encountering a high level of success in the business market, RIM began to introduce BlackBerry devices designed for average consumers. The first of these was the BlackBerry Pearl 8100; this phone had many first for BlackBerry, including a camera. This phone was highly successful and prompted further successes including the BlackBerry Curve and the BlackBerry Bold. These products and partnerships with most of the major cellular carriers lead to unprecedented expansion and a powerful market share.    [pic 1]Figure 1 ^[2][3]