Blackberry for Small Biz w/ 1 User

[thebarge]

We're a small business and are using Windows Small Business Server 2003. We have a mix of cell phones being used by employees. A new employee starts this week and has a Blackberry 7130e and is the first employee to have a BB.

We'd prefer not to pay $1K for BES Small Business Edition for a single employee. It would be cheaper to dump his phone and buy a Treo and use Exchange Activesync, but he just bought his phone and really likes it.

I read where there's a BES Express license that's available and it looks like it's free with 1 CAL. Is Express still available and could we use this for this one employee? If he likes it, we may upgrade the rest of our employees to Blackberry's. If we do we just have to buy separate CALs (up to 14 I think) right?

So that's my first question, the second is will the Express version sync up his email and calendar with Exchange 2003 on our SBS box?

Sorry for the noobish questions, but it's our first BB user :oops:

[Dubdub]

Why not let the person get his/her mail via BIS/POP3? The contacts and Calendar will not wirelessly synch, I don't think, but once the person synchs to the desktop, Exchange should also be updated. At least that is how it is with me.

IMHO, I would not opt for the Treo. I have had 3 Treo 600s and a 650 and all four were crap. My BB 8700 is so much better.

[thebarge]

Why not let the person get his/her mail via BIS/POP3? The contacts and Calendar will not wirelessly synch, I don't think, but once the person synchs to the desktop, Exchange should also be updated. At least that is how it is with me.

IMHO, I would not opt for the Treo. I have had 3 Treo 600s and a 650 and all four were crap. My BB 8700 is so much better.
Well the new employee is a "satellite" employee and will be located in Chicago for the first few months so he'll be offsite most of the time. He'll very rarely be at a desktop to sync with (other than his laptop over VPN). My bosses Treo 650 (which I dont really care for, too big and bulky and I hate Palm) works well though. Once connected to the office network via VPN he can sync his calendar and email and view it all on his phone, which is terribly useful when he's out of town.

I was just hoping for some similar functionality with his BB without having to shell out a grand for BES just for one person.

Thanks for the input though. Oh, and POP3, I could do that because I have the POP3 server enabled in Exchange, but I don't know how Exchange decides what email is new/etc (based on if its read? no idea) and that wont sync his calendar. Sure, he could sync it manually with his laptop, but it would be nicer to have it sync with the Exchange box instead.

[balibe]

Search thru the BlackBerry Architecture (http://www.blackberryforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5) Section of this site. There are 2 forums with alot of threads on the BES for Small Business's.

[thebarge]

Search thru the Architecture Section of this site. There are 2 forums with alot of threads on the BES for Small Business's.I saw those a few minutes after posting this so I posted over to the Admin Corner also. Thanks for the heads up.

[Mr Pink57]

Maybe just setup a hosted exchange? I use 1and1 for my exchange on my Pocket PC but I believe they do have Blackberry support. This will give BES however not at the terrible cost, also there is another one in the sponsers area that gives a discount.

pink

[thebarge]

Maybe just setup a hosted exchange? I use 1and1 for my exchange on my Pocket PC but I believe they do have Blackberry support. This will give BES however not at the terrible cost, also there is another one in the sponsers area that gives a discount.

pinkWe deal in some sensitive information so having the Exchange server in-house is a requirement. I also just got done configuring our new server, so going to my boss and suggesting we have it hosted is definitely not an option. I have to get paid for doing something :smile: