BlackBerry adds Microsoft Teams link to AtHoc platform

BlackBerry has added new integrations and workflow features to its AtHoc critical event management platform, targeting enterprise and government users facing a shrinking window between warning and response.

The update includes integrations with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Entra ID, along with changes to response comments, mapping and operator dispatch. The additions are intended to extend AtHoc into systems customers already use, rather than forcing them to switch to a separate tool during an incident.

AtHoc is used to coordinate communications and response during critical events, including cyber incidents, natural disasters and civil emergencies. The platform is designed to track who has received an alert, who has responded and what actions follow across the organisations involved.

The Microsoft Teams integration brings alerting and response functions into collaboration software widely used by large organisations, allowing staff to receive and handle critical communications in the same environment they use for everyday work.

The Entra ID integration focuses on user management. IT administrators can now provision and update AtHoc users directly from Microsoft's identity platform, helping keep access records aligned with existing identity controls while reducing manual administration.

That is significant in large organisations, where outdated contact records can slow a response. Automatic synchronisation is intended to help ensure the right people are reachable as soon as an alert is sent.

Other updates focus on the workflow used by control room operators and incident managers. Alert Response Comments let recipients add information when they acknowledge a message, giving operators more detail than a simple confirmation.

Mapping has also been expanded with support for private ArcGIS map layers and the creation of custom map layers. This gives customers a way to reflect their own operational geography inside the platform when targeting alerts or assessing an incident's impact.

BlackBerry has also updated dispatch functions, including alert resend for multiple responses and repeated alerts for mass device notifications, with the aim of improving message delivery across large and dispersed groups.

Rising pressure

The update comes as businesses and public sector bodies face growing pressure to respond more quickly to disruptive events. BlackBerry pointed to cyber risks, severe weather and geopolitical instability as factors that have narrowed the time available to assess a situation and act.

Ramon Pinero, general manager of BlackBerry AtHoc, linked the release to that shift in operating conditions.

"The world our customers operate in is less predictable than it was, and a Mythos-era cyberattack now compresses the time to respond no differently than a severe storm or a geopolitical crisis," Pinero said.

"Effective response comes down to reaching the right people fast, through the tools they already use. This release makes BlackBerry AtHoc better at exactly that."

BlackBerry argues that crisis coordination is often weakened by fragmented communications. In many organisations, incident response still relies on a mix of email chains, group chats, spreadsheets and phone trees that can be difficult to manage when events escalate quickly.

The company cited findings from its State of Secure Communications 2026 report, which said many organisations still depend on those fragmented methods for major incidents. Against that backdrop, the latest AtHoc changes are intended to bring identity, communication, location data and response tracking into a more structured process.

Operational track record

BlackBerry also pointed to AtHoc's use during the global IT outage of 2024, when customers used the system to coordinate response activity during a large-scale disruption. Allied governments also use the platform for national-level critical event coordination.

That history forms part of BlackBerry's effort to position AtHoc as a tool for operational resilience at a time when large organisations are reassessing how they prepare for disruption. Rather than replacing existing systems, the latest release is built to link with software already embedded in day-to-day work.

The new functions are available immediately to existing customers. The update adds Microsoft integrations while extending response capture, mapping and dispatch controls within AtHoc itself.