hello

i'm new to bb's and bes - just starting to familiarize with them
now, what is the advantage (for a small # of BB users, less than 10)
to have a bes in the office as opposed to not having it?
From what i can see, the bes pulls from exch server but it still needs to go out to net to get the wireless data relay - it just seems for my small needs, an middle step.
so, is it a cost issue or are there real advantages to using the bes?
we are a small office with no web presence or db apps - the need is for email with attachemnts/calendar pretty mcuh.

thx

what does your company do for email? do you host your own email server?

thx for replying
yes we have exch 03

the number 1 reason i would say is so that your 10 users do not have to leave their PC's on 24 x 7.

Another option would be to use one of the BES hosting services, do a search in these forums for some links. Though in the long run the cost of 'leasing' that kind of service from another organization would probably outweigh the cost of deploying your own BES.

Also consider how much administration/configuration time you or other staff have available. Once things are up and running the BES is fairly straightforward, but the initial learning curve can be steep for new administrators.

My executives wanted email going out to be encrypted. The BES<-->SRP relay is 3DES encrypted. I wasn't positive the Exchange<-->BES communications was encrypted, or it is was, that it wasn't decrypted (if even for a second) at some point on the hosted BES server. We also ran into this with hosted GoodLink. The executives wanted an inhouse solution, but it wasn't cost effective for 1-2 users (vs. 11 users on the BES).

Also if you are paying $10/mo, you can probably at least break even at buying BES licenses if you amortize it out 12 or 24 months. And the BES is dead simple to administer. I don't see a reason not to run one in-house unless a company doesn't have the CPU/RAM horsepower, or the space or cooling for it.

thanks to all who responded
I now see one or two good reasons