A second model sees the customer sign a contract with the integrator, whilst maintaining a billing relationship with the carrier. It takes advantage of the convenience of carrier billing, but leaves contract risk in the hands of the integrator.
A third - and the method Andersen says most carriers are looking to evolve to - is for the carrier to own the customer and contract the integrator to fulfil work on their behalf.
Andersen says that at the end of the day, companies like MSC have to make a choice between funding its own direct sales force or "leveraging other people's assets" .
"A carrier has a large access to market - it is a natural conduit to market," Andersen points out. "It would be crazy of us not to use that - you can't beat a sales force that is 300-strong."
Extending the BlackBerry
RIM may be light-on in channel strategy, but the vendor literally offers a world of opportunity for those partners that have software development skills.
The focus at present is on moving the BlackBerry beyond its traditional mobile email function and more broadly into corporate and consumer applications.
"RIM has certainly been very carrier-aligned, which has meant partners follow a similar model," says Andersen.
"But as time goes on, there is a need to look deeper into the relationship between the handset in your pocket and mobile data. RIM is looking more broadly at the application and ISV [independent software vendor] space."
IDC analyst David Cannon says that while RIM has started to see some success with encouraging American BlackBerry users to connect to enterprise apps, there hasn't been much traction in the Australian market.
"There has been a lot of hype around mobile enterprise applications over the last few years, but the reality is that there is very little real world deployment in Australia today," he says.
"The launch of 'off the shelf' application portals like RIM's BlackBerry App World is helping to generate interest and making it easier to deploy enterprise applications [overseas] but there is much work that still needs to be carried out."
Cannon feels a lack of standards and high integration requirements are "holding back this market from reaching its true potential."
Andersen agrees - and says the Australian market is two years behind the US when it comes to accessing corporate apps on the BlackBerry.
"The large banks and financial companies are notoriously self referencing and conservative in the way they look at applications," he says.
But MSC is well placed, he says, to be able to capitalise on the opportunity when the market is ready.
"As an organisation, we have to prepare for when sales force and field force automation, ERP applications, are going to take off on the BlackBerry.
"I've a strong view that quick wins are important. Customers can start off with some push information as step one. There are plenty of scenarios where middle management can gain quick access to sales information.
"Then the next level you offer them is basic functional extensions - where a customer can improve purchase orders or sales quotations very quickly for reduced [sales] cycle time.
"The third area is where we change the way the business works, the true business model differentiator that happens when you put certain features and functions at the fingertips of those in the field."
The carriers, while working hard to train their staff around the idea of a "solution sell", are unlikely to match the skills of the systems integrators once enterprise customers are seeking to connect to corporate applications.
Several carriers have attempted to acquire their way into providing IT services - but Telstra's purchase of Kaz and Optus' buy of Alphawest has not set the world on fire for either party - and more often than not these IT integrators are losing bids to the larger outsourcing specialists such as IBM GSA, EDS and Fujitsu.
Specific to BlackBerry, carriers with their own managed services clients still routinely outsource Blackberry support and integration services to the likes of MSC.
"From our perspective, managing a fleet of Blackberry users and the platform that it runs on is just the very first drinks station in a very long race," says Andersen. "The next part of the journey is providing support around applications.
"It doesn't make sense to be a BlackBerry user and call up one number for support with a BlackBerry problem, but call a different number for the core functions, the ERP tools, intranet, field sales applications you access on that same device.
"As a customer, I don't want three or four companies to call for that support. I want to call one number and have that sorted out and escalated and dealt with."
It's all about the apps
In the consumer market, RIM's Lam says the most lucrative opportunity to partner with RIM comes from developing apps that extend the functionality of the BlackBerry platform.
With three carriers in the Australian market offering BlackBerry solutions at more or less the same price point, what the carriers require most are locally developed applications that help them differentiate themselves.
"The carriers are always looking for a compelling reason why someone should buy a smartphone from them rather than their competitor," Lam reiterates. "Customers aren't just going to differentiate between the carriers on service plans, but on applications."
Those who want in on such business opportunities need only to ask themselves a simple question, he says. "What am I going to offer a carrier that would trigger a customer to walk into a Telstra shop rather than a Vodafone shop, or vice versa, to buy a BlackBerry Storm?
"Or in other words, do I have a compelling application that will attract bundling deals for the carriers? This is not like selling a computer," Lam concludes. "It's not even like selling a cellphone. The BlackBerry is a smartphone. It's about applications."
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