I have been researching alternatives for our company so that we can move away from the Treo. I am very interested in the 8830 World Edition but my IT department is telling me that in order to push email from our network to the 8830 we need to purchase a "Blackberry server".

We currently have our business account through Verizon, use Treo's w/WM 5, and Active Synch to Outlook for our calendars, email, and contacts.

Is it true that we have to buy new hardware for our network that is proprietary to Blackberry, and software? Or are these guys just trying to get funding for another server?

Help please.

Its not a hardware thing. Its software.

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Enterprise Server | Integrate Enterprise Applications, Data & Wireless Communication

everything you need to know is there.

And a great system, it is.

We are in the process of installing servers in our offices which will work with windows based phones. In order for the system to work with BB I just ordered:
1 BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ Small Business Edition v4.1 for Microsoft® Exchange - 5 user PRD-10459-007 $1,099.00 $1,099.00

No other hardware will be needed, just the software.

Don't ask anymore questions cause I'm already swimming in the deep end of my knowledge pool

there are many companies that provide this as a service, they charge a one time fee for setup and then a monthly fee for emails. I do think you might need your email service through the same provider, but i might be wrong on that front.

Depending on the size of your company, you may not have to purchase the Blackberry Enterprise Server software. You may very well get by with just the lower grade BIS package, which will push email to the devices but will require that everything else be synced with a USB connection to the users computers. I lived on BIS for about 9 months but then upgraded to the Blackberry Exchange Server. Faster, and everything is wireless.