RIM to return to business focus; new BlackBerry strategy promised

Research in Motion's future is getting iffier each quarter as it signs on fewer new clients and has had to discount large numbers of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets to clear inventory. The company revealed today that its revenue dropped 25 per cent in the last fiscal quarter versus a year before, a decrease of $5.6 billion, with the decline in earnings accelerating afterwards it launched its BlackBerry 7 smartphones in fall 2011 and had to deeply discount the poorly selling PlayBook tablet in the same period.

New CEO, Thorsten Heins, said he would reveal a major reorganization of RIM tomorrow and said the company would abandon most consumer markets and refocus on its historic area of strength, the business market it has largely tried to escape from through a series of unsuccessful efforts to transform the BlackBerry into a gaming or social device for young adults.

But Ovum analyst Jan Dawson says, "I'm not convinced that's best way forward.... I'm not sure Heins but understands, or meanwhile isn't able to articulate, that consumer appeal is key to future 'enterprise' success." That across-the-spectrum approach is what Apple used to make iOS the new platform for choice for business and what Android device makers like Samsung and Motorola Mobility are trying to do with Android.

In its presentation today to investors, RIM executives said they were willing to explore other business models, just as licensing all or some BlackBerry technologies to other companies. Some investors have recommended that RIM license or sell access to its secure messaging network or its BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service.

Whatever it does differently in terms of getting earnings from its BlackBerry innovation, the company intends to continue to make and sell BlackBerry devices. "It would be a big mistake for RIM to shut down the devices business, which drives the vast majority of earnings today," Dawson said, supporting RIM's decision to not abandon its device business as some investors have recommended it do.

The meanwhile

In the meanwhile, RIM is trying to sell its unwanted BlackBerry devices in developing countries, in hopes they'll have more appeal and help create a new market for the future. Nevertheless, Nokia is aggressively targeting those same countries with its Series 40 OS-based Asha devices and already commands the majority of the non-smartphone market in most of them. Samsung is as well increasingly targeting such countries with a mix of Android and Bada smartphones, and Apple is aggressively targeted the growing middle and upper classes in those countries with its iPhone and iPad.

RIM co-founder and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has as well left the board of directors, RIM acknowledged in its revenues statement today. Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis had been co-CEOs until 10 weeks ago, when they were replaced by Heins, the former CFO, however both remained on the board. Both had been blamed by investors and the press for RIM's clinging to its original messaging-oriented business model. Balsillie's statements in fall 2010 that mobile apps were a fad were lambasted at that time as a sign RIM's leadership was unable to see the change in the mobile market.

New trend is evolving in enterprise resource planning

A new trend is evolving in enterprise resource planning. It's the concept of two-tier ERP, and it has become a growing area of discussion in corporate finance and information innovation departments. Done so then, it promises to taking everything into account attain the global visibility, standardization, and efficiency we all imagined large-scale ERP would bring back previously those systems proved too complex, costly, and slow to deploy.What is two-tier ERP, and when is it right?