BrightTALK Professional Network Launches Mobile App

As many of you know, I have moderated several webinars on the BrightTALK platform. I am excited to learn that they are making available a mobile app for viewing the great professional content available on their site. If you get a moment download it and check it out. Who knows, you might even learn something! Complete press release below.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Professionals want to make the most of every minute of their day, especially while they are on the go. With this in mind, BrightTALK is pleased to announce the launch of the My BrightTALK app. Subscribers can now view webinars and videos anytime, anywhere, straight from their mobile devices. By streaming and downloading content through their smartphones and devices, professionals have unlimited access to knowledge and insight that can inform their business decisions and advance their careers.

BrightTALK CEO, Paul Heald, said, “At BrightTALK we believe that knowledge should be shared. The My BrightTALK app provides great quality thought leadership content to professionals for free. The app will enable professionals to learn from their peers at times and locations that suit them.”

One subscriber commented on the app saying, ”It’s fantastic and I’m totally in love with it! Now I can listen in a comfy chair, not just at my PC.”

The easy-to-use app enables BrightTALK subscribers to stream and download recorded webinars and videos using WiFi or 3G connections. Users can browse the channels they have already subscribed to from the app. Live webinars and videos will be ready for viewing through the app just minutes after the event concludes so you can stay up to date.

Don’t have an account? You can join for free at www.brighttalk.com. Then browse BrightTALK to discover thousands of webinars and videos relevant to your profession and interests.

The My BrightTALK application is compatible with Apple devices and available for free from the App Store.

About BrightTALK

BrightTALK provides webinars and videos for professionals and their communities. Every day thousands of thought leaders are actively sharing their insights, their ideas and their most up-to-date knowledge with professionals all over the globe through the webinar and video technologies that BrightTALK has created.

Bitzer Mobile – Enterprise Mobility without Missing a Beat

Greenfield and enterprise do not usually go hand-in-hand. Enterprises have spent years, if not decades, building up systems, processes, and the applications to support those endeavors. The introduction of mobile shouldn’t throw a major wrench into those systems. Unfortunately, for many organizations mobility represents either an add-on to existing enterprise systems or severely feature-reduced tool. Bitzer Mobile’s Enterprise Application Mobility solution provides a way for enterprises to fully leverage mobility and their existing technology infrastructure.

Bitzer’s Enterprise Application Mobility (BEAM) solution is comprised of three main components, a secure container on the device, a gateway server, and an admin console. These three components working in concert provide a unique approach to enterprise mobility.

The secure container is achieved through app wrapping, Wrapping an app consists of adding a layer of code around an existing mobile app after it is compiled, but before it is signed with an enterprises own distribution certificate. Bitzer Mobile takes a unique approach to app wrapping though. Instead of treating each app as an isolated security island, Bitzer adds a ‘policy engine’ around each app. This allows administrators to create and leverage shared security policies and data across apps. Admins can also change policy in real-time without having to recompile or redistribute an app.

Bitzer Mobile’s gateway server, BMAX, provides another distinct advantage over other solutions. First, it offers an integrated solution with Windows authentication infrastructure for secure Single Sign-On (SSO) to corporate applications. Beyond authentication lies the capabilities that the gateway server provides, namely the secure browser, file manager, and document editor. These three apps work in conjunction with the gateway server to provide full enterprise application capabilities in a secure environment.

What does the capabilities of Bitzer Mobile’s solution mean for an enterprise? It means that mobile users can access custom internal web applications directly from their mobile devices. It means that employees have full access to the file system on the corporate network from the sidewalk. It means users can access SharePoint at a client location. It means that users have the ability to fully edit Microsoft Office documents on the train from their iPad. It means that mobility can provide users on-the-go the same capability as users who sit at a desk.

The introduction of mobility shouldn’t force organizations to develop entire new systems or even applications. This is expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the core of what a business provides. Technology should support not strain your enterprise efforts. Bitzer Mobile provides enterprises with a way to continue to derive value from existing systems and solutions whilst providing maximum capability to mobile devices without the need for a technology overhaul.

I also got a chance to speak with the Bitzer Mobile team about challenges, opportunities, and the future of the secure container. I asked, Naeem Zafar, CEO of Bitzer what he thinks are the biggest challenges with a container approach?

“The biggest shortcomings are the lack of standards.  Each MDM and mobile security company is touting a “secure” container. Yet none of them offer comparable features, so a company has to do extensive evaluations to understand what they may be buying.  One has to address the data-at-rest, authentication, data-in-transit, and fine-grained control issues.  What about FIPS 140-2 certification?  This confusion is slowing down the adoption en masse.”

I was also curious to hear what he envisions for the future of the secure container? Zafar commented:

“I see the secure container having a bright future and progressing beyond just mobile devices.  I see a day when a new employee gets a yellow sticky note on her first day or work – it will have a URL and a password.  This will allow the new employee to download the Secure Container onto their mobile device, laptop or desktop.  The companies want to get out of device or hardware business yet not lose control over the data.  This container-based approach is exactly the ticket.  It provides much deeper control over the corporate data and minimizes the non-strategic functions that IT provides today.”

Bitzer Mobile Inc., enhances employee productivity by allowing secure access to corporate apps and data from mobile devices while preserving rich user experience. Its secure container solution creates the enterprise workspace on any mobile device – corporate owned or personal, and for all mobile platforms. Employees get seamless access to intranet, corporate data and apps with enterprise-grade security and deep integration with Windows Authentication for true Single Sign-On. For more information, please visit Bitzer Mobile

MobileOnly Video Episode 2 – The Office/Office Space Parody

What is the role of a PC in your office? Got someone at your workplace who thinks that mobile devices are just for playing games and not for ‘real’ work? If you are a fan of The Office and loved the comedy flick Office Space, then you should check out how we have a little fun with the PC strereotype in the second episode of the Mobile-Only video series, The Office Space, on The Guardian.

Mobile UX vs. Data Overload

Whether you like it or not or not, we are data producing machines. Our basic mobile existence spits out more data in one day, on multiple systems, than any one person realizes. The data we do have access to is growing so fast that you have to wonder if our current slick and simple mobile users experiences will be able to take us to the right data at the right time. What can be done about it? Read this week’s mobile-only post, Mobile – Drowning in Data, to find out!

Benjamin Robbins is a Principal at Palador, a consulting firm that focuses on providing strategic guidance to enterprises in the areas of mobile strategy, policy, apps, and data. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Mobile Devices – Can You Keep Up With the Joneses?

The time between device model upgrades is shrinking. Consumers and businesses are feeling further and further behind in keeping up. For those that do try to keep up it is getting expensive. How should individuals and organizations approach this new reality of near-constant refresh? Check out this weeks Mobile-Only post, The Mobile Refresh Rate, to find out!

Benjamin Robbins is a Principal at Palador, a consulting firm that focuses on providing strategic guidance to enterprises in the areas of mobile strategy, policy, apps, and data. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Microsoft Office on iOS and Android – Missing the Mobile Mark?

The Verge this past week released a story that disclosed details of the upcoming 2013 release of Microsoft Office. These details leave lots to ponder around the upcoming debut of the dominant office productivity suite on iOS and android. Read this weeks’ Mobile-Only post, Mobile Productivity – A Room With (Just) a View, and see if Office will meet all of you mobile needs.

Benjamin Robbins is a Principal at Palador, a consulting firm that focuses on providing strategic guidance to enterprises in the areas of mobile strategy, policy, apps, and data. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

The Mobile Ecosystem – The Power Rangers of Technology

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!, It’s…mobile!? There are many different ways to look at mobile; carriers, connectivity, devices, apps, ect. Everyone has their angle. But thinking about mobile as individual parts is a limiting view that misses the bigger opportunity. In this week’s Mobile-Only post, What is Mobile?, I explore the topic of defining mobile and how we should approach  discussing it. I even bring in the Power Rangers to help explain it all!

Benjamin Robbins is a Principal at Palador, a consulting firm that focuses on providing strategic guidance to enterprises in the areas of mobile strategy, policy, apps, and data. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

Mobile Master Oliver Bussmann on the Future of Enterprise Mobility

What have you done lately on your iPad? Can you run one of the world’s largest enterprises on it? What’s going to happen when Mobile and Big Data collide? I got a chance to sit down and disucss these questions with CIO of SAP, Oliver Bussman. Bussmann shared some great insights on  mobility, the enterprise, and the future. Be sure to check out what he had to say in the first Mobile Masters post on the Guardian Mobile-Only site. Feel free to ping me if you have a nomination for other mobile masters – those who excel in the use of mobility in the enterprise.