French car maker Peugeot Citroën is to deploy 10,000 new Blackberry Z10 phones and migrate to the firm’s Enterprise Mobility Management platform, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10).
The deal is the latest announced by the smartphone firm since it hit the headlines earlier this year over poor sales.
Lower than expected performance prompted Blackberry’s board to announce a sale of the company to its biggest shareholder, although this was later dropped in favour of raising new cash to finance its restructuring.
Blackberry has been seeking to draw attention away from its internal woes by announcing a series of major public and private sector deals.
In October the National Police of Colombia said it would move to BES 10 and new Blackberry 10 handsets and later the same month KPMG Italy bought 3,500 smartphones.
“BlackBerry 10 is the best mobility platform for us in terms of integration, security, connectivity and price,” said Eric Marchand, Head of Telecom at PSA Peugeot Citroën.
“Every day, our employees need to share and access confidential information so it’s critical that we have the most secure and user friendly smartphones. With BES10, we are assured that the confidentiality of our information is maintained while also ensuring that Peugeot’s employees can enjoy the best experience for personal as well as professional use.”
Hervé Liboureau, BlackBerry’s Western and Central Europe Managing Director, said: “This significant investment by PSA Peugeot Citroën demonstrates the value and benefits that BES10 with BlackBerry 10 smartphones brings to enterprise customers.
“BES10 was chosen for its complete end-to-end security, simplified integration with existing IT systems, and numerous enterprise applications.”