Transcript

Fresh Business Thinking VT is at BlackBerry HQ with a group of small business owners to discover why a mobile device that was once seen as a the preserve of CEO's and corporate lawyers is now swiftly becoming a must-have tool for small businesses.

John Galpin, Owner - GHSM Media
Blackberry's really important to our business because it's helped us keep in touch with our customers in a really proactive way, work more effectively than we could be before, and hence the whole company has become more productive.

Greville Waterman, Head of Business Development - 141 worldwide
It's one of these things now where frankly you take it for granted. You expect to have a Blackberry.

Phil Hanlon, Managing Director - media4creative Ltd
Blackberry allows me to have totally continuality with the office: It allows me to be in touch with what's going on. It allows me to make instant decisions, as soon as they're needed.

Lin Dickens, Managing Director - Aricot Vert
I mean, it really is like having a mini-PC.

Karl Graves, Director - Berkley IT
If I didn't have a Blackberry, I wouldn't be able to sit here now. Anytime that I take out of the office is really essential to me.

Why is being able to work on the move especially important if you work in an SME?

John Galpin, Owner - GHSM Media
Certainly from our perspective, it's important that we are with our customers as much as possible. The work we do is really creative so it's important to see their reaction often to what we're doing firsthand and get a real sense of what they think about it. It's important that we're out and about as much as being in the office.

Lin Dickens, Managing Director - Aricot Vert
We're in a deadline orientated industry and I can be taking a brief for something that clients need next week. So if there isn't lots of time to say 'Okay, maybe I'll write the notes up tomorrow, and then we'll get them into the studio the day after.' I need to be able to get the brief into the studio on the same day because people need thinking time - they need to have time to let it sink in and think 'how are we going to approach this?' before they actually physically come up with some ideas on paper that we can present.

Phil Hanlon, Managing Director - media4creative Ltd
I think the speed of business has increased so much - certainly over the last decade - that being able to be totally in touch at all times, when we're not physically in the office means that we can have that instant response that is necessary in today's market place.

Paddy Power, Solutions Engineer, RIM
Mobile working from the point of view of contact with customers is key. People expect immediate responses when they ask questions. They also expect the ability to talk to you immediately although you've got other contacts and different business to deal with. It's the ability to respond to a customer's needs immediately that is absolutely key, especially from a small business point of view - they have maybe 20/80% of the operating factor where 80% of business is coming from that 20% of customers. The key from their point of view is those customers are highly important and they need to be treated very careful and treated with a lot of immediacy.

What exactly is a Blackberry and what can it do?

Karl Graves, Director - Berkley IT
A Blackberry in easy terms is a mobile communications device. They're getting smarter and smarter; originally they started off with sort of email and a bit of calendar and now I class it as Outlook in your hand, which is very generic to Microsoft but you can do it with Lotus as well. And it gives you everything you need - all your pertinent information so your email, tasks, calendar, to do lists. It can all be in your hand and easily accessible. With the newer phones it's a lot easier to integrate with a telephone as well so one device will do everything you need it to do.

Greville Waterman, Head of Business Development - 141 worldwide
The tangible benefits are it's all in one. I can keep up with my emails, I can phone home, I can surf the net, I can do anything I want in one device. I've got a bad back and I don't have to lug a laptop around.

How important is your Blackberry to running your business?

Phil Hanlon, Managing Director - media4creative Ltd
It's made me more focussed on the way that I communicate. Knowing that I can be in touch at any time and that clients and staff can contact me whenever they need to allows me to be more focussed in what I'm doing.

Greville Waterman, Head of Business Development - 141 worldwide
Immeasurably because everyone's speaking of the same hymn book; everyone's connected, everyone can talk. It just saves time. Decisions can be made while people are out of the office; we can be kept up to date with client instructions and communications. Really I don't think I could function effectively without it.

Why is Blackberry the number one choice for small business?

Karl Graves, Director - Berkley IT
We tend to find it that customers prefer it for a security point of view. It's an integrated end-to-end solution so you've actually got a Blackberry handheld working with Blackberry software. With Windows it's 100 different devices and not one of those is designed to work with the software properly and it's more cost efficient in the long-run. It's very expensive to keep a Microsoft device or a Trio-based device up and running but a Blackberry's bullet-proof.

Paddy Power, Solutions Engineer, RIM
It's iconic - people see that you're a serious business person when you have one. So it's not just a toy, it's seen as a business tool whereas a lot of phones are seen that it's a mobile first but it's got all these gadgets. Which is why a lot of companies are a little bit hesitant to give expensive phones to users because they know either they'll lose it or they may walk away from the company and take that with them. But a Blackberry - it's not expensive but it's still an extremely useful business tool with all of the gadgets to be able to allow you to fulfil your day: Email, browsing, instant messaging and it's a phone. All in one.

John Galpin, Owner - GHSM Media
From the moment it sets up, you are literally 20 minutes later you're receiving emails on your phone and that's it, off you go. There's no maintenance needed, it just works.