[smallville20]

Greetings all...

For over a year now, I have been using BIS to view and respond to my work email. During this time, many within the company have acquired a BlackBerry and have gone with BES instead (MailStreet). I'm now considering the move to BES myself, after learning the benefits of it with Outlook and so on. Are there things I should be aware of before making this transition? I recall having to select BIS upon the instalation/upgrade of DM... correct?

Any thoughts as to how I should proceed would be appreciated.

[MrKyoo]

Is this a company owned Blackberry or your personal device?

[smallville20]

This is a personal device.

[MrKyoo]

There are some advantages and some disadvantages being on a BES. Depending on how stricked the IT policy is, you could loose the ability to download 3rd party applications.

[Dubdub]

Are you and the company going to stick with Mailstreet or is the company putting in its own BES?

Keep in mind that if you are moving to a company provided BES solution, they have the capability and the right to view anything and everything on the BB, even though it is your personal device. I am not saying they will, but just that they can. And also, as the previous poster indicated, you may be very restricted in what you can do with the BB due tot he IT policies placed on your BB.

Many BES experts on here never recommend a personal device on a company BES.

[smallville20]

Points well taken. Considering that this is a personal device first... I'm beginning to lean toward retaining my BIS account only.

Thanks so much for your input!

[jsntrenkler]

There are some great advantages to BES, I do however prefer my privacy.

[asrassoc]

Hey Guys,

Sorry to semi-hijack this thread... I own a couple of small businesses less than 50 people total. Currently only 5 of us are on BB BIS the rest are either cell phones or WM PDA's.

I have been thinking about trying one of the 3rd party BES services. In my case I have A VZW 8830 (work phone) and a 8130 for week ends and when I need some down time (just a select few know the phone number).

I sync both devices with both a laptop and desktop. This is a pain and from what I have been able to research BES will allow me to keep all four devices sync'd, correct?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[LarryH]

I use hosted BES from The Message Center Exchange Hosting. They've been great. Of course, if you go that route, you'll no longer be sync'ing your devices with a computer. They'll be fully reconciled with Outlook vis a vis Exchange/BES.

AFAIK, you probably can't use two different phones with one BES account. You'd have to de-activate one and reactivate the other and so on. I'm not positive about this but it would seem to the case.

Since you'll have OWA (with TheMessageCenter) you might be able to set up your "weekend" phone with BIS. Something to look into.

[gadgetjunkies]

I have a 8100, 8310, and a 8820. I use Mailstreet to host my BES account (my personal BB's and email account). If I want to switch between phones I just give them a call and have them reset my password and I run Enterprise Activation on my BB and all is good.

[roseroyce]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

Are you and the company going to stick with Mailstreet or is the company putting in its own BES?

Keep in mind that if you are moving to a company provided BES solution, they have the capability and the right to view anything and everything on the BB, even though it is your personal device. I am not saying they will, but just that they can. And also, as the previous poster indicated, you may be very restricted in what you can do with the BB due tot he IT policies placed on your BB.

Many BES experts on here never recommend a personal device on a company BES.

Thank you for the heads up! I was wondering if company could view anything and everything on BB.

[infernox]

Originally Posted by MrKyoo

There are some advantages and some disadvantages being on a BES. Depending on how stricked the IT policy is, you could loose the ability to download 3rd party applications.

This is the biggest issue I had when I converted from my personal BIS to the company's BES. My company basically locks everyone down from downloading any 3rd party apps. However, I know the IT person so he granted me rights. Best thing to do is to load whatever you want now before you switch over.

[david_uk]

I got the impression that the OP's work colleagues had intended to continue using a hosted Exchange solution, so surely concerns about data privacy and ability load 3rd party apps don't arise?

I use such a solution (from Premium Hosted Exchange 2007 services; Exchange Hosting whose service and support are first class) and, whilst I realise that they could if they wished audit my BB data traffic, that's no greater practical concern to me than knowing that my ISP could do the same, or that the police could intercept my phone calls.

So, to separate the two issues here, BIS to BES means not having to worry about USB, sync, backup, viewing sent folders, and takes BB performance and functionality to a whole new level.

But hooking a personal BB to a corporate server, that suggests placing constraints on something that should be all about freedom... but that's for another day.

[DaBlackberryBoy]

david_uk, I wonder for the folks who want to switch from BIS to BES, if the user sets the device to be password protected, could folks like mailstreet,exchangemymail,etc, override the device password and still get to stuff on a BB hooked to BES? It sounds like a lot of folks want the aspects of BES, with the privacy of BIS...

[mischief007]

You can't override the password but you can reset the password on a BlackBerry via the BES.

[david_uk]

Originally Posted by DaBlackberryBoy

david_uk, I wonder for the folks who want to switch from BIS to BES, if the user sets the device to be password protected, could folks like mailstreet,exchangemymail,etc, override the device password and still get to stuff on a BB hooked to BES? It sounds like a lot of folks want the aspects of BES, with the privacy of BIS...

I assume that a BES Admin in a hosted Exchange provider would have exactly the same access rights as would the same person in a corporate site - that is, he/she could see absolutely everything if they wished.

I guess the difference in privacy "risk" lies in the relationship between user and admin. With hosted Exchange the user is a customer, whereas in corporate the user is usually an employee. That's a very important legal and practical difference, irrespective of who actually owns the device.

With my personal BB hooked to a hosted BES, I can work with government agencies and major corporates, and enjoy all the BES advantages of instant push and sync, responding to meeting requests etc. without needing to worry that my employer is looking over my shoulder... or worse.

Best of both worlds? So far, yes.