BlackBerry is reportedly in talks with Amazon to launch an enterprise-grade Alexa device for enterprise usage.
BlackBerry CEO, John Chen, asserts voice control will become a focal point in both the consumer and enterprise world. In his keynote presentation at the BlackBerry Security Summit Thursday, Chen said that BlackBerry and Amazon were collaborating on frictionless workflows.
“We believe the world is going to come together with enterprise and consumer. These devices that sit in your home could become the front point of a workflow engine.”
The forthcoming ‘BlackBerry Alexa’ device will reportedly integrate some of BlackBerry’s security expertise – e.g. alerting administrators when connections change, or an unknown connection is detected.
BlackBerry Chief Technology Officer, Charles Eagan, confirmed the companies are building a “BlackBerry Alexa” enterprise device, for release in Q1 next year.
“Some of this grown-up behaviour is needed as you bring consumer devices into the enterprise,” asserts Eagan.
A BlackBerry Alexa device for the enterprise will be able to alert administrators if its connections change, he said. For example, if a new unknown Bluetooth connection is detected that could create an alert. There could also be some role-based controls. For example, an employee that might use an Alexa device at home to connect to enterprise applications would lose that access after they left the company.
Other sources state the rumoured device will also include “multi-factor authentication”, though it’s unclear what exactly this entails.
In November last year Amazon announced its ‘Alexa for Business’ managed service arsenal, enabling businesses to streamline certain processes via voice controls.
