BlackBerry Forums Support Community

happdgirl · 01-03-2008, 08:44 PM

Ok so I am totally shocked that the head of my IT department just sent this email out:

"Over the past year you have requested your Blackberry be connected to your pittsburghmoves email through a server called a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server). This is the only way you can connect your Blackberry to your email account. Until now I have picked up the licensing cost under my budget but due to budget constraints and more importantly the significant increase in users I must now pass those costs onto you.

The price per license is $70/yr from RIM (Research in Motion) which is a NRT discounted price(Coldwell Banker makes no profit). I need to reorder the licenses for 2008 for those who wish to continue using this service. Please reply no later than close of business Monday as to whether you are willing to absorb this cost or wish to discontinue the service. No reply will be taken as a no thank you. For those of you who want to terminate I will close your Blackberry account later next week and for those who are willing to pick up the license cost I will get with accounting to figure out how to collect. Please let me know if you have any questions."

FYI, I am a real estate agent rather than an employee of a firm. Does anybody else have to pay? I've been using our BES for more than a year now and this is news to me. Of course, I am going to pay, but I'm not happy. Or, is this the normal thing and I'm just being whiny? Perhaps with the advent of the Pearl, we now have more "users"? Why don't the Palm Treo folks pay up too?? LOL.

kjjb0204 · 01-03-2008, 08:54 PM

Hard to say here, since you're more like an independent contractor, self-employed, really. It's an expense I'm surprised you didn't have to pay sooner. Easy for me to say since I work for a large corporation and of course don't have to pay..

juwaack68 · 01-03-2008, 08:58 PM

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Your IT guy is full of crap. The licenses are a ONE time fee.

They are not 'repurchaed' every year. Ya buy them once and own them. They can be reused even.

Sith_Apprentice · 01-03-2008, 09:02 PM

I could see him charging for NEW licenses, but after he pays once the fee is done

holden · 01-03-2008, 09:11 PM

Hi...

Here is an example of a large corporation that I work at...

We originally charged $500.00 per user annually just to adminstrate the device! This is to allow us to recoup our costs in maintaining the servers licenses, handheld licenses and any of our tech support licenses with RIM. We have a service contract with RIM that allows us to call in and trouble shoot any issues with the server or the handheld devices. This way our IT budget does not get hammered by us supporting everyone in the entire company. Now, since we are up to almost 1800+ users the IT department is amending this rule are no longer asking for this amount but have adjusted it.
The IT dept. has now started thinking about adjusting this to a lower cost... If you do the math on this, it is a bunch of money!! (1800 x $500.00) But, the costs involved to support the servers (we have Exchange and Lotus BES) and licenses, it adds up quickly.

As a suggestion to this user, if your a contractor and not an employee, you may ask that the corporate real estate dept. pay for your device as part of their budget. This is how this is handled in our business.

H.

vZwire · 01-03-2008, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juwaack68

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Your IT guy is full of crap. The licenses are a ONE time fee.

They are not 'repurchaed' every year. Ya buy them once and own them. They can be reused even.

I agree on this. It's a one time fee.

x14 · 01-03-2008, 09:36 PM

I believe they are referring to the RIM support renewal rather than the license itself. Our renewal increases every year cause we keep adding more BB. Our renewal for 2007 was $20K.

John Clark · 01-03-2008, 09:41 PM

In all seriousness, $70 a year is cheap for what you get with BES vs. what you get without. If that's all they're asking, I'd gladly pay it.

happdgirl · 01-03-2008, 09:49 PM

Ok, well how do I break it to him that he doesn't need to pay? Forward him this thread?? LOL.

holden · 01-03-2008, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by x14

I believe they are referring to the RIM support renewal rather than the license itself. Our renewal increases every year cause we keep adding more BB. Our renewal for 2007 was $20K.

Yes, I think this is inline with what we had to pay. Out of curiosity, I will find out tomorrow what our 07 costs were....

H.

ezrunner · 01-03-2008, 10:21 PM

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Yea: forward the thread! I agree with JC 70 bucks is cheaper than the third party BES solutions out there

happdgirl · 01-03-2008, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezrunner

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Yea: forward the thread! I agree with JC 70 bucks is cheaper than the third party BES solutions out there

I am dumb, what kind of 3rd party solutions are out there? They buy licenses and re-sell them at a higher cost?

I'm going to pay it because I rely heavily on my BB, and 70 bucks is pretty reasonable.

Redflea · 01-03-2008, 10:40 PM

If I could get BES sync for $70 a year, I'd jump on it...from free to paid may seem like a pain, but for many, many of us with companies w/out BES support, we don't even have the option!! :(

You're lucky, from my perspective.

happdgirl · 01-03-2008, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redflea

If I could get BES sync for $70 a year, I'd jump on it...from free to paid may seem like a pain, but for many, many of us with companies w/out BES support, we don't even have the option!! :(

You're lucky, from my perspective.

Thanks for making me feel better about the whole thing...I guess I'm not too educated about BES's.

juwaack68 · 01-03-2008, 10:55 PM

Perhaps you could start by asking them exactly what the cost is going to cover. Is it really for licenses, or is it for the support from RIM.

The support does have to be paid yearly and involves 2 different fees: 1 cost per server and then 1 cost for each license. It also depends on what level of support they get (there are 5). We get the 2nd level of support so had to pay $625 per server (x4) and then $25 per license (800 licenses). Our IT dept budgets for this every year (and does not charge the cost back to the individual departments). Thankfully I budgeted right on target since the cost doubled from last year.

happdgirl · 01-04-2008, 11:06 AM

Update: I got this message this morning:

I apologize; the $70 is a onetime charge not an annual renewal. I was confused by RIM because there is a support cost per license which is annual and this I pick up for each of you. I hope this is good news to you.

This is great news to me!

juwaack68 · 01-04-2008, 11:13 AM

YAY! That's not so bad then

happdgirl · 01-04-2008, 11:17 AM

I think he had it a bit confused...perhaps he saw my thread!

holden · 01-05-2008, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by happdgirl

I think he had it a bit confused...perhaps he saw my thread!

Then good times... !

rambo47 · 01-05-2008, 08:26 AM

Your alternative is to simply use BIS. If the only way to get your email is through BES couldn't you set up a rule at your desktop computer in the office to forward that email to your Verizon BB account? You give up wireless sync of contacts and calendar, plus the support of RIM.

I agree that a one-time fee of $70 is cheap for the service. Folks here pay more than that every year for a hosted BES solution. But there are alternatives.

BlackBerry Forums Support Community

My firm is now charging me $70/year to keep our BES? Anybody else pay?