As a sales rep in the field often and away from my email and web access, I like the always on aspect to the blackberry, but having ALL my PIM info sync'd with my corporate exchange server via the BES seems a little invasive to me considering I'm paying for the phone and the bill and the data plan.

I'm considering other smartphones like the XV6700 and the Palm Treo 700p as well, but I don't want to have buyer's remorse over delays in getting connected to evdo just to get online and then having to read email using outlook web access rather than a synchronized inbox of my work computer. If I was just interested in emulating the email I get on my laptop for work, it would be an easy decision to get a blackberry, but I want to use it as a stand alone organizer, web browser, etc. What do you guys think?

I understand your situation. The very reasons you give are why some people use the BlackBerry strictly for work, or carry two devices. One for work, one for personal. If you don't want your contacts/calendar/memopad/tasks syncing back to the corporate exchange server then disable the wirless sync for each individual task. You can then use the BlackBerry Desktop Manager to sync those items with your home PC.

As I understand the way my company offers me push email, I'd have to set up my phone to their BES which would turn over control of what gets sync'd. I've asked lots of questions and what I'm being told is that the desktop sync tools would conflict with the BES so I'm wondering if the BB is capable of giving me just email connectivity with the company. They're saying no. Does anyone know differently?

I just had a thought: Are there any 3rd party applications I could install that I could use to handle my personal calendar, contacts, etc and would not make sync'ing with the corporate exchange server mandatory since they're pushing mail to me via a BES?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Basically what you're saying is you don't wanna pay hella money for a data plan...you can get a blackberry from cingular with a 29.99 data plan but you don't get the BES connect, I'm pretty sure though that t-nobile has their bes connect plan for 29.99 if you have a voice plan, I use mine for stand alone features as the browser and calender...its not bad to be honest it's all in what you're looking for...feel free to contact me for anymore info

Actually, that's not accurate. I want the convenience and efficiency of having my corporate email inbox available at all times, but I do not want every bit of data that I store in my phone to be sync'ing with my company's outlook exchange server. They use a BES and from what I'm being told, if I get a blackberry, I have to be configured to the BES to get always on email.

I don't mind paying the data plan to get always on instant email for my corporate email, but what I also want is to be able to manage my personal contacts, calendar, to-do's and notes in a separate contact manager like program like Act! that I also have on the phone so that I can stay organized with customers and family and personal information, and I do not want this information to be exchanging with my company for a variety of reasons. I would prefer to keep that information to myself and back it up to my home computer separately. Is that possible?

I was reading in another thread that Handheld Contact might work. It is an interface between Act! 6 and a blackberry. Is anyone using that program? Will it maintain a private database that would not be sync'd with the company BES?

I'm doing what you want to do. You want to have your corporate email forwarded to you BB, but do not want the calendar, task and phone to be synced up with your corporate server.

I'm in sales and my company does not have BES. Too much they say. So, I had my corporate IT guy add my BB email address to my Outlook/Exchange profile so that I get emails on both devices. Just the email, no calendar etc.
They are not synched in any way. So, delete the message on your BB will not impact your corporate server. Works fine for me. I also have my corporate email signature in my BB internet client so that my reponses look like there coming from a desktop. Works fine.

Another option if your IT dept. did not block this is that you can set it out in Outlook to forward all emails that you are in the TO field or CC or BBC to a device. In Outlook, go to Tools, then Rules and Alerts. This is where you can set up this as a rule. I do that for my other email account and this works perfectly.

Hope this helps...

Hand Held Contact for ACT cost about $300 per user. Too much for me plus I'm not on BES. Companionlink is the best that I have found for sync'ing between ACT and a BB.

As was suggested earlier, you can just disable wireless sync on everything except messages. I have a personal blackberry on my agency's BES and this is the method I use. I use Desktop Manager to sync calendar, contacts, etc. with my personal Outlook and there is no conflict with BES.

My personal info stays personal and my work email is conveniently available on my BB with wonderful BES functionality.

I am in the situation you are in where you want your work e-mail without syncing all of your calendar and address items to the BES server.

I had my work turn on IMAP services on the mail server. I connect through IMAP to receive all of my e-mail, and sync my PIM information to my home computer through Desktop Manager. It does what you are describing.

I get what you're saying but I doubt they will do that for me. I installed redirector and I've got the conduits turned off for PIM. I've been on my bb for 1 day and now that I've got pocketday dialed in the way I like, this is really turning out to be a neat device. When I was looking at smartphone/pda's the blackberry was the least desirable because it was missing all the sexy smartphone features like touchscreen, camera, voice memo button and the today screen, and it was only after I tried a 700w for 20 mins I knew that my only hope of getting something that would work was to try a bb.

I'm going to try sync'ing the device with ACT! and hopefully that will take me the rest of the way to a complete solution.