RIM's Balsillie Touts Wireless Opportunities

"Wireless data is fundamentally about the solution," he said during the final keynote speech on Tuesday. "The opportunities for system integrators are going to soar."

Many SMB integrators are already familiar with the wired version of those solutions and should find that making them wireless is relatively easy now that the tools are in place, Balsillie said. Hot solutions, particularly when they're mobile-enabled with Java technology, include CRM; ERP; business intelligence; network, system and document management; messaging; and collaboration, he said.

Like other keynote speakers and attendees at the show, Balsillie emphasized that small and midsize solution providers, especially those that design and implement technologies in niche markets, have as good a chance as large integrators in capturing wireless and mobile opportunities.

Some of those applications being integrated by SMB solution providers include time and billing for the legal market; case management for the insurance market; and those that allow salespeople or service technicians to use PDAs to print Web-based manuals, documents and contracts at a customer's site, eliminating the need to carry reams of outdated material.

"Wireless will go through the same stream of innovations as the PC. The number of applications and the amount of integration opportunities are very broad," he said. "[Wireless is an enabling technology. But it's not a business opportunity until it becomes a solution."

Balsillie used his speech to tout RIM's new Blackberry 5810, which includes instant messaging, a phone and contact management applications. The Blackberry represents just one of the many products rolled out at the show that highlight the importance of "always on" solutions, those that increase productivity by providing the user with constant, seamless communications to all business entities and crucial databases.

"That is the future of the industry," said Darryl Rekemeyer, director of government sales for Cross Tech, a developer of remote management solutions based in Boca Raton, Fla., after Balsillie's keynote. "If you can't take it with you, it's not worth having."

A wireless or mobile solution also is not worth selling today if an integrator can't prove its return on investment (ROI), Balsillie said. He pointed out that wireless ROI can be presented in several ways, including increased productivity, lowered costs through convergence and the elimination of redundant devices, and higher customer satisfaction driven by a company's immediate response to problems and inquiries.

Balsillie focused much of his speech on the new wireless applications that Java will enable, adding that RIM will release a Java development environment later this month. But, when pressed by an audience member, he said he fully supported Microsoft's .Net strategy, saying that RIM has been urging Microsoft to develop its J# (formerly C#) virtual machine architecture as a way to promote standardized technology for handheld wireless devices.

"We're not a Sun sales force," he said. "We're very excited about what Microsoft is doing. We want to see it happen because that means people are transacting with server-based services. If people find a need for those services at home, nine times out of 10 they'll find a need for them [in the PDAs on their hip."