I am wanting to get a Blackberry to evaluate the product for a small business. We use Exchange server and the first thoughts are to use the BES to support about 10 users with Blackberrys, but I want to explore the options and understand the pros and cons of the different approaches.

Here are some questions that so not seem to be answered elsewhere in a straightforward way:-

Does every Blackberry user have to use redirection of some kind or can they simply forward mail from Outlook to, for example, their Blackberry O2 email account?

If I sign up for the simplest/cheapest UK contract with device, will this let me evaluate both the enterprise server and the personal service? In other words do service providers control how redirection is done or is this a user choice (assuming you have BES).

If BES is used, do users have to install anything on their own desktop for redirection?

Can a user get personal mail in their Blackberry even if BES is used - i.e. does it support both methods of redirection at the same time.

Can the BES run on the same computer as Exchange. Must it? What is the advice on this point.

If some users want to stay with Nokia phones that support BlackBerry Conect , will this work with the same central redirection?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Churchie

Lets see here.

Not sure on the first two questions.

Users do not have to install anything on their PC if you use a BES. They may want to install Desktop Manager for backup,media purposes though. But this is free and can be downloaded from BlackBerry.

Users can set up POP accounts on their blackberry to get email from GMAIL,Yahoo,Hotmail etc.

Not sure on the Exchange and same pc....I personally have a BES setup on a server by itself.

Nokias should be ok too, I recently setup a Nokia E-62 on our BES, there is info out there on configuring it for a BES.

Hope this gets your started.

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>Does every Blackberry user have to use redirection of some kind or can they simply forward mail from Outlook to, for example, their Blackberry O2 email account?

Your options:

1. BES. (best)
2. Desktop redirector (worst- note, it is my opinion).
3. Forwarding (could be trouble).
4. Using IMAP protocol exposed by your office mail server (acceptable).

>If I sign up for the simplest/cheapest UK contract with device, will this let me evaluate both the enterprise server and the personal service? In other words do service providers control how redirection is done or is this a user choice (assuming you have BES).

In UK you usually have to pay more for blackberry data plan with BES support. Enquire with your wireless carrier.

>If BES is used, do users have to install anything on their own desktop for redirection?

No.

>Can a user get personal mail in their Blackberry even if BES is used - i.e. does it support both methods of redirection at the same time.

Yes, if user is signed for blackberry data plan that supports BES and BIS.

>Can the BES run on the same computer as Exchange. Must it? What is the advice on this point.

Not recommended.

>If some users want to stay with Nokia phones that support BlackBerry Conect , will this work with the same central redirection?

Yes, it should.

Thank you for the helpful replies. Can you give me a little more insight into the idea of plain forwarding and why it 'could be trouble'

You can use the BIS account from your carrier for email. RIM polls your email servers about every 15 minutes and pushes email to the BB. Much better than forwarding or redirection IMHO, especially if BES is not an option.

churchie, forwarding or Redirector just aren't the best options, because they limit the user options for using the full extent of the RIMs options on the BB, but it does work.