Press Release
May 6, 2004
Diageo Making Time and Saving Money with O2
O2 UK today announced that Diageo, the world's premium drinks business, has selected BlackBerry® from O2 to provide a cost-effective means of communicating with its mobile workforce via email, freeing up an additional two business hours a day for each user. Since trialling BlackBerry from O2 with 15 senior board executives, use of the BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds™ has grown organically within the company and filtered to all tiers of management and travelling staff. It is now being used by 172 staff.
BlackBerry’s push technology means that Diageo staff can collect and respond to emails instantaneously, without wires, even when traveling overseas. BlackBerry from O2 provides a hassle free, cost-effective and financially controllable solution to the problems their remote workforce face, including high call charges, a critical requirement for vital email and spiralling hotel dial-up charges.
Jonathan Breedon, Diageo IS Manager Corporate and Global Functions, said: "We have been a long-term voice customer with O2 and, after examining all the different options, it made sense to look at exploring mobile data with the company. I think all users would agree that it's an incredibly useful system and feedback is that it frees up to two additional business hours for each of our users per day. Everyone is always in contact and its high levels of security exceeded all Diageo's stringent guidelines. It's become part of our culture to the extent where many of us wonder how we ever managed without it".
Through the incorporation of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server™, BlackBerry from O2 will keep Diageo's employees in touch at all times, in any of 40 countries in the world at the simple touch of a button. No wires, no bills, and no need to dial-up to a connection.
Hugh Griffiths, Head of Data at O2 UK, commented: "O2 is providing a number of mobile office solutions and devices, including BlackBerry, which are designed to meet the changing needs of modern business. Increasing numbers of UK workers are on the move or working remotely for large parts of the week, and it is important to provide them with a way of maintaining contact with the office. It is great to see a long-standing voice customer such as Diageo reaping the cost- and time-saving benefits of data services on BlackBerry."
O2 is a leading European provider of the BlackBerry wireless communications solution, with 55,000 devices sold to over 2000 corporate customers including IBM, Deutsche Bank, Bertelsmann, DHL and Anglo Irish Bank.
About O2
O2 aims to enrich customer's lives by enabling them to get the most from their mobile. As a leading provider of mobile services to consumers and businesses in the UK, O2 offers a range of services including text, media messaging, games, always on data connections (via "GPRS"), music over mobile, mobile video and much more. O2 is the UK market leader in mobile data services such as text, with over half a billion messages being sent by O2 customers each month. O2 has approximately 13 million customers in the UK.
About BlackBerry
BlackBerry®, developed and manufactured by Research In Motion, is a totally integrated wireless communications solution, with an always-connected GPRS handheld with integrated phone and a full QWERTY keyboard. The BlackBerry solution for enterprise use lets employees quickly and securely:
- use existing business email addresses
- send and receive corporate emails, with wireless synchronisation of all email functions - no dial-up required
- access corporate data
- access intranet and Internet facilities
- remain ‘always on, always connected’ and benefit from GPRS technology
- send and receive text messages
- read email attachments such as: Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF
- look up contacts in a Global Address List or a Lotus Notes ® Address Book
- make and receive voice calls
