How BlackBerry outage blacked out businesses .

With millions of BlackBerry device users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (including Nigeria) currently affected by service disruptions, Alexander Chiejina writes that this has seriously affected businesses globally with stock dropping by 20 percent.

With recent advancements in technology, the world has indeed become a global village as people are able to reach an individual with a lot of ease through the use of the mobile phone; seen as an electronic device used to make telephone calls. Little wonder it is believed that without telecommunication, development in all strata whether in government or business will be at a standstill given its enormous impact.

Driving this matter home, it has been revealed that the lunch of GSM (an open standard telephony platform) in 2001, has revolutionised the socio-economic status of Nigeria by reducing unemployment, creating entrepreneurs, improving business processes, encouraging globalisation, etc.

With increasing number of Nigerians craving to have at their disposal a mobile phone that supports push electronic mail, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) services- a universal open standard that enables easy and interactive delivery of internet-based services to mobile handsets, telephony, instant messaging and short message services, the growth of smart phones such as Android, Blackberry, etc. increased by leaps and bounds within a few years in the country.

Interestingly, recent investigation by BusinessDay revealed that the number of BlackBerry smart phones in use in Nigeria exceeded the one million mark with 1.2 million BlackBerry handsets active within the four network providers (MTN, Globacom, Etisalat and Airtel) put together.

It is now a common feature at street corners, banking halls, shopping malls, and in restaurants by youths, business executives, etc. the telltale signs of BlackBerry addiction are everywhere: pursed lips, a distracted look, and thumbs working furiously. People don't just use BlackBerry (BB); once they have discovered it, they can't live without it.

Though the device can be used as a phone, the BlackBerry's power lies in its ability to push e-mail automatically from the company server to the end user. That simple concept has revolutionised corporate life with better productivity derived from effective business processes; real time e-mail service delivery for roaming employees to connect to their company e-mail where ever they are, easy access to Yahoo Messenger client, Google Talk client and a powerful medium for the deaf community in Nigeria.

Given numerous features inbuilt in Blackberry phones, millions of BlackBerry device users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (including Nigeria) – the EMEA region – were on Monday unable to utilise these services for communication following a power outage that impacted server systems in Slough, United Kingdom, thereby disrupting service of web access, email, and messaging capabilities to users of the phones.

The power outage which appears to have impacted server systems in Slough, U.K. that belong to Research in Motion Ltd., BlackBerry's parent company has led to the loss of service which has continuously spread sporadically for customers since the outage began around 11 a.m. BST.

Furthermore, disruption of BlackBerry services continued its spread to Latin America more than a day after users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India suffered extended outages. BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd, which is losing share of the corporate email market it once took for granted, said it was working on the progress but gave no detail of the cause.

“Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible,” it said in the statement.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused,” said RIM, which earlier on Tuesday revealed it had resolved problems disrupting its services in EMEA. RIM is already facing calls from some investors for a break-up, sale or change of management following dismal recent results and a lackluster reception of its PlayBook tablet computer, designed to challenge Apple Inc’s iPad.

Its previous dominance of the corporate email market, in which it looked organisations into its proprietary, secure servers, is being challenged by other smartphone makers led by the Apple iPhone.

In Nigeria, the disruption is taking its tolls on businesses and social networkers as users could not have access to their mails and BB messengers. Rasaq Olaegbe, e-payment expert, said: “With the global shut down of internet service on BlackBerry platform on October 10, 2011, it has been confirmed again that no business, small or large, conglomerate or corporation, can survive without internet connection. Not only were several businesses shut down for 24 hours, personal communication between wives and husbands are equally affected, as BlackBerry instant chat did not function.

“For me, it was a pain because broadband internet access in the office was not up to speed and I had thought it could attend to some business via the BlackBerry platform. But I was shocked when over 20 email messages I sent to over 50 individuals kept returning undelivered. At first, one was unaware of the true position of the issue at stack until a colleague in the office got a report, guess from where, from the internet that the blackberry message platform has been shut down.”

Lending his view, Daniel Egwunyenga, a real estate agent in Victoria Island, disclosed that since the blackberry outage, he has not been able to get push e-mails from clients as it concerns business transactions.

According to Egwunyenga, “Whenever a mail hits your inbox, it transfers the e-mail to the wireless provider data network, which in turn delivers the message to my handheld device instantly. Since this outage by BlackBerry, I have been finding it increasingly difficult to reach to my clients via email since I normally send proposals of houses to buy and rent through this. I am left with the option of sending the message when I get to the office or any cybercafé which is not really secured.

Mutiu Adeyemi, a banker, told BusinessDay that he and his colleagues now rely on the BB to perform their daily tasks. Adeyemi noted that his bank encouraged employees to buy the phone through a special in-house scheme “in order for us to be more efficient as we are able to work as if we are in the office for it helps to attend to assignments more quickly and easily.” This, of course, means they have to continue working even at home at odd hours.

While noting that this BB outage has seriously affected work, Adeyemi revealed that this has placed huge pressure on getting to the office and spending more hours in order to complete an assignment which could have been done with ease should the BlackBerry hadn’t suffered service disruptions.

Echoing his sentiments, Patrick Egbulefu, Business Development Manager, Slots Systems, revealed that until the service disruption, more Nigerians now throng the company’s outlets daily requesting for BB, a situation he described as not surprising because of the enticing features of the phone.

“BlackBerry phones are more secured when you send email especially, if you have the PIN number of the other BlackBerry owner. The BlackBerry platform offers two communications solutions.

The first is BlackBerry Internet Solution, which is designed for single individuals who want to access internet tools like email, social media, and web while on the move.

“The other is BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, which allows mobile workers to access enterprise (corporate) information while on the move keeping them well informed at any time. I think this is why some organisations want their employees to acquire it to increase their efficiency and task delivery. With this disruption, the number of people coming to purchase BB hasn’t dropped significantly but this may happen should the current impasse continue without imminent solution by the parent company,” Egbulefu revealed.

Many Nigerians who use BlackBerry phones are now worried as to what becomes of their monthly BIS which they have paid and is currently running without their ability to utilise the functions which they have paid for?

No doubt, the current service disruption by BlackBerry has affected many corporate types who rely on the device to improve their productivity. According to experts, BlackBerry outages can occur for several reasons: power failures, software bugs, viruses and critical component failures.

Many of the BlackBerry service outages have happened as a result of glitches in upgrades. While some BlackBerry users get annoyed with the temporary outages, other customers have viewed them as a relief.

Being constantly connected to e-mail isn't always easy; it has a way of disrupting that so-called work-life balance. The devices can be so addictive that they earned the nickname "crackberries," and users may even develop "BlackBerry thumb" from overuse. It will be recalled that BlackBerry users in the Americas faced similar disruption last month. That meltdown led to the company's stock dropping 20 percent — £1.9billion — in value