BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and software giant SAP have teamed up to offer tailored versions of business applications which can be accessed using the popular handheld emailing device.

The agreement enhances an existing relationship and will see SAP natively integrate its customer relationship management applications into the BlackBerry device.

Merging SAP CRM with BlackBerry smartphone applications, such as BlackBerry Email, Address Book and Calender Tool, will give sales users universal access to data, said Bill McDermott, president and chief executive of SAP Americas.

Sales professionals are expected to benefit from the partnership through having immediate access to leads and from the ability to continuously review sales targets, he suggested.

Although the enhanced functionality originally targets sales users, there are intentions to roll out the integrated accessibility to the entire SAP Business Suite, including to the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning application and the SAP Supply Chain Management application, said Bob Stutz, SAP worldwide vice president for CRM product and strategy.

With Apple beginning to tweak it fashionable iPhone for enteprise use, some market watchers had predicted that RIM's market share could be under threat. The tie-up with SAP should help RIM deliver enterprise features that the iPhone cannot yet match.