BlackBerry has announced that Australian investment company QIC has deployed BlackBerry Workspaces, a secure collaboration solution that enables companies and their clients to safely share, protect and track sensitive information within mobile and cloud environments.
QIC is a global diversifed alternative investment frm offering infrastructure, real estate, private capital, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments. It is one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia serving governments, pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and insurers, across Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, QIC has offces in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, London, Sydney and Melbourne.
With billions of dollars under management, QIC ensures that it operates in a strictly secure and confidential environment. As QIC expanded internationally, the company adopted a cloud-first digital strategy to enable its staff, clients and partners around the world to exchange information and documents safely from any location.
Workspaces proved to be exactly what QIC was looking for. Easy to use for employees, it provided the frm’s IT department with complete control over all its fles – and total visibility into how, where, and when those fles were accessed or modifed. Its close integration with Microsoft’s cloud platform also aligned perfectly with the frm’s strategy.
Grant Slender, Information Technology, Security and Risk Leader at QIC, explained,
“Workspaces provides us with an independent and auditable way to manage the collaboration of documents and information with third parties, whether they be internal or external,”
“It also met our cloud objectives – the spirit of being able to fexibly collaborate with others. We found we couldn’t get to the level of sophistication we required with other cloud products.”
Slender added,
“Trust is a top priority in investment management and for QIC. We take all necessary steps to prevent even the slightest security breach to protect our clients and our firm. A key component of that effort is our adoption of BlackBerry Workspaces, which allows our employees to share, edit and control sensitive files securely and seamlessly, both inside and outside QIC, in a mobile and cloud-based environment including Microsoft 365, OneDrive and SharePoint.”
Alex Manea, Chief Security Officer, BlackBerry, explained,
“In today’s digital and mobile age, companies in any industry need to enable staff, clients and suppliers to be productive and collaborative. The challenge lies in adopting flexible next-generation technologies such as cloud, without hindering data security. At BlackBerry, we are helping governments and private companies to navigate these security challenges, as well as manage very complex regulatory requirements.”
BlackBerry Workspaces’ file sync and sharing functionalities are fully integrated into the new Microsoft Office 365 framework, enabling QIC to maintain the highest level of security required to safeguard client information. BlackBerry Workspaces is also used to power advanced collaboration, such as digital “‘deal rooms”‘ for investment negotiations. Using these secure and confidential ‘deal rooms’ is transforming how QIC does business with its clients and partners, making it easier and more secure than ever before to discuss and make strategic investment decisions.
BlackBerry Workspaces gives QIC an independent and auditable way to manage the collaboration of documents and information with third parties, as the IT department has complete control over all files, and total visibility into how, where and when those files are accessed or modified. Additional tools also enable staff and IT to easily trace and protect attachments in outgoing emails, and transfer data while maintaining security and control.
Manea added,
“With European GDPR and Australian Data Breach Notification laws going live in early 2018, many Australian organizations must comply with these strict security and confidentiality requirements, or face serious consequences. The time is now for forward-thinking companies like QIC to take action to address cloud security and compliance challenges and become BlackBerry Secure.”
Slender concluded,
“In our business, it is vital that we minimize migration risks, which is challenging as many next-generation business collaboration apps are still interdependent with legacy systems. BlackBerry Workspaces and Microsoft 365 integrate smoothly, and the transition has been seamless. Our clients and partners can draw confidence from the fact that we have clear, demonstrable file security in place, which is essential to maintaining trusted relationships.”
