How BlackBerry Powers MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team

Hundreds of members of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team use BlackBerry devices to stay connected on the go. In addition, their 60 + member team that travels around the world during the F1 season put the devices to their ultimate test.BlackBerry provides them a solid platform to communicate securely whether they are at home or on the go.

Matt Harris, who heads the IT department for the Mercedes F1 team, explains how BlackBerry helps them going.

Matt oversees all devices used by the team. Right now they have over 200 BlackBerry phones running on BES10. They also use about 20 other devices including iPads and iPhones. There are enough PlayBook users too. The Z30 is undoubtedly the most popular among the team members. The team has also started checking out BES12.

Initially everyone was on the Z10. But Matt feels that that device aged quickly and want to upgrade every team member to the Z30. He feels that the BlackBerry Z30 is much better than the Z10. Also the Z30 gets longer battery life. In spite of this, many team members still carry external batteries to keep them charged on the road. This also shows how much they use their BlackBerry. Some team members are reluctant to adopt the Z30 simply because they don’t want to give up their Q10. The Q10 has got one of the best QWERTY keyboards. Matt thinks that is fine. He also feels that the upcoming BB Classic will be ideal for people who seek a physical keyboard. Some members of the team will also get an opportunity to try out some of the new BlackBerry devices that are going to be launched later this year. This will help them see what upgrade options they will have going forward.

It is evident that battery life is a big seller. People who use their devices extensively will definitely want a handset with long battery life. Security is equally important. The team has always put a premium on security. Before deploying the current lineup, they used Curve and Bold devices on BES5. Matt says that when they use BlackBerry, they don’t have to worry about security.

Actually that is the main reason the team decided to adopt BlackBerry. Since these devices are used by so many people on a regular basis, every piece of information on them needs to be secure. In fact, the device has to be secure even if it is lost or stolen.Other vendors can’t give such a guarantee.

In addition, the BlackBerry Messenger plays a crucial role in helping the team communicate and get things done. In fact, they use BBM for everything from chatting with their colleagues, to scheduling and detecting technical problems on the go. Only two IT members accompany the team but engineers are always accessible. The messenger supports simple chats, group chats and video chats. Using video chat the engineers can remotely see problems and fix them up.

They use BBM constantly because keeping track of all members of a big team is nearly impossible. BBM makes it easier because when you use BBM you know whether the message has been delivered and read.