Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Cortado (I had to look it up) is a company that is betting big the BlackBerry is staying firmly planted in the business world.  Their new application for BlackBerry Smartphones combines remote access to your files with printing/faxing options.  In short, Cortado is making your laptop a leave at home device.

Cortado Corporate Server Professional increases flexibility and lets users always have up-to-date information available while mobile. The easy-to-use software enables BlackBerry smartphone users to securely access and organize files and folders stored on the company network. In addition, users can print in original format to any Bluetooth-enabled or network printer, send faxes, or present documents on a computer or projector screen.

Slicing through the press release, BlackBerry users can view, save, rename, delete, move files but not edit them which is a bit of a let down.  The printing is nice, I guess for those still printing things; same deal for faxing.  The present to screen feature seems interesting but I couldn’t find info on the site or the PDF download about how they accomplish that.  Cortado is pricing this at $895 for 5 licenses.

The heart of the matter really is how confident are you that you’ll be using a BlackBerry in one year, two, five?  With the slew of hot new phones (mainly from HTC that look awesome), can anyone be that confident?  The iPhone is still gaining ground in corporations (at least where I roam) and corporate managers are starting to spec these out.  The ability to ad-hoc distribute company specific apps is very tempting to me and I’ve got to believe to other corporate drones.

I read their ROI info, and like most ROI reports, I find it hopeful at best.  Here are some of the claims:

■ Mobile device infrastructure is less expensive to
acquire and maintain than traditional desktops

I’d argue no one is really getting rid of a laptop, it might just sit in the car.

■ IT administration is simplified by introducing centralized
mobile technology

Interesting.

■ Lost laptops mean possible security breaches while mobile
devices can be wiped remotely

See #1

■ IT savings can be used towards other company needs

Like marketing?  Haha.

■ Cut transportation costs, travel smarter, and make more
efficient use of time on the road

More efficient time I’ll agree with.  Cut transportation costs?  Not unless Continental starts charging based on the weight of my carry on.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of remote access to files.  I even like it in the clouds and think it is great they are tying it into the trusted Blackberry server.  My time with SugarSync was fantastic and opened up a lot of doors.  But, I’d faster believe most corporate BB users don’t have the confidence in their unit to accomplish many of these tasks.  What do you think?

Company site: [Cortado]