VANCOUVER - A power struggle at Vancouver's Olympic headquarters has left staff divided into two camps: those who get to keep their BlackBerrys and those who don't.

Since Waterloo-based Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), maker of the beloved communication device, is not a sponsor, Olympic staffers are being forced to turn in their BlackBerrys for an Omnia or a Vice, both made by South Korea's Samsung, official provider of wireless communications equipment for the 2010 Olympics.

The move has been met with a thumbs down by some staffers at the organizing committee, known as VANOC, who are frustrated with the touch-screen devices, saying key functions like sending and reading e-mail are nearly impossible.

Officially, VANOC downplays the concerns, saying staffers with Samsungs just need to get used to the product.

"The value-in-kind we get is fully useful, meets our needs and fully offsets the budget we would otherwise have to spend,'' said Dave Cobb, deputy executive director of the organizing committee.

Still, concerted lobbying at VANOC headquarters has meant a compromise allowing some staffers to discreetly keep their device, a rare breach of official sponsor protocol.

The 64 sponsors of the Games are covering off more than half of VANOC's $1.75 billion operating budget, commitments they make in cash and goods to have give products exclusive status at the Games.

"Getting value in kind for something is in our budget, (it's) as good as cash for us,'' said Cobb.

Cobb said VANOC built its budget in part by looking for sponsors that could provide the goods they neded to put on the Games.

So, value-in-kind deals are how VANOC got the 25,000 volunteer uniforms from HBC, more than 5,000 mattresses for the athletes village from Sleep Country Canada, more than 4,600 cars from GM and thousands of litres of hand sanitizer from ALDA Pharmaceuticals (TSXV:APH), all of it for free.

Samsung will provide 9,200 units for VANOC, the International Olympic Committee and assorted VIPs to use during the Games.

"We expect the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter games to generate more wireless content than any previous Olympics,'' said a statement from Howard Thomas, director of corporate marketing for Samsung Electronics Canada.

"It is our goal to help people - from athletes to spectators, officials to volunteers - capture and share this content with others around the world.''

Value-in-kind is also how VANOC getting some of their staff, whether through sponsors who donate product and the people to service it or secondment deals that see companies cover off the cost of having their employees work for VANOC.

There are also smaller "Friends of the Games'' packages that have seen companies come forward to give goods like medical supplies for free.

But sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.

"As they had to cut back their budget in many areas, actually consuming that (value-in-kind) becomes more challenging,'' said Alan Peretz, a partner with Deloitte, the official professional services provider for the Games.

As part of the deal his company has with VANOC, Deloitte auditors were called in to review how the committee could actually use everything it needed.

"The issue is really in flexibility and being able to consume what you believe you gave a sponsorship for,'' Peretz said.

The company helped VANOC realize $30 million extra dollars by working with sponsors to allow the products to be sold to other members of the Olympic family, like airline tickets and gas.

While companies like Samsung might shrug off the notion their products might not be the best fit for everyone at the Games, the reality is that part of the reason companies agree to value-in-kind deals is being able to prove that if their product works for the Olympics, it can work for anything.

That was the impetus behind Nortel's bid for a 2010 sponsorship deal in the network communications category, an agreement that saw them build the entire technical infrastructure behind the Games.

The sponsorship gained added value when part of Nortel was bought.

New Jersey-based telecom firm Avaya was thrown on the Olympic supplier roster late last year after its $900-million purchase of Nortel's enterprise solutions business.

Dave Johnson, general manager of the Olympic program at Avaya, said the Games are an opportunity to introduce the new company to a global audience.

"It's an interesting time for us to be able to ride that wave of interest and enthusiasm and get people engaged in our new brand, our new company,'' said Johnson, who has been working on the Games sponsorship since it was awarded to Nortel in 2007.

As for the value of the sponsorship, Johnson said Nortel, now Avaya, has stuck to a "very rigidly formed'' return-on-investment model.

"By all business metrics we have done a very good in capitalizing on the Vancouver sponsorship,'' he said.

"It has been highly effective at elevating our brand.''

With files from Canadian Press reporter Brenda Bouw