[dcghost]

Just wanted to get some insight on this from everyone. Honestly, I am a bit pissed off at RIM atm due to the fact they don't really seem to care about the SMB market and only cater to the companies and can fork over thousands for BES.

I recently rolled out a BES to a client of mine and love it. However, I am wanting to roll out a BPSE for myself and I only have 3 BBs in my company that need to use it. I have done more research on their so called "SMB product" and am highly dissapointed. It seems currently it is not supported on ANYTHING...no Server 2008, no Exchange 2007 (which is about to be the "old" exchange) no Exchange 2010. Does it work with anything that people are currently implimenting???

I find it very frustrating that I can go out and by a Droid, iPhone, or Windows phone that works with Exchange OUT OF THE BOX..and get this...FOR FREE. How can you offer a product (which I do love), charge for it, but yet don't support it for SMBs.

Enough ranting...I just would like to get feedback on what solutions or workarounds have been found for any of the above issues.

[southwestcomm]

BES Professional won't work for you? SBE BES was discontinued a while back.

[dcghost]

I said BPSE not BESE...thats blackberry professional express, not blackberry enterprise express

[knottyrope]

BPS does work with exchange 2007. You have to install it on a 2000 or 2003 server OS V or P. BPS was never designed for 2008 neither is BES 4.1.x.

BPS is free and you get what you pay for.

[vhato]

I am with you. Small and Medium Business looking to leverage the strength of the Blackberry devices and its network will be stuck years behind any other technology. It burns my butt when people walk in with WinMo, Android, iPhone, etc and sync right up to Exchange without issue with all the great eye candy features.

Its almost like RIM feels they are in a league of their own. I rolled out BPS to a Judge who wanted to be like her coworker Judges with BES or ActiveSync access only to disappoint her with text.

[jeffro01]

I couldn't agree more. I can't understand why RIM continues to ignore this market. It's frustrating and is seriously testing my patience with RIM, love my blackberry but... I'm tired of not having HTML email... It's 2009 almost 2010...

Jeff

[dcghost]

Originally Posted by vhato

I am with you. Small and Medium Business looking to leverage the strength of the Blackberry devices and its network will be stuck years behind any other technology. It burns my butt when people walk in with WinMo, Android, iPhone, etc and sync right up to Exchange without issue with all the great eye candy features.

Its almost like RIM feels they are in a league of their own. I rolled out BPS to a Judge who wanted to be like her coworker Judges with BES or ActiveSync access only to disappoint her with text.

This is exactly what I have been thinking, your reply included jeff.

I recently traded in my Storm 2 for the android. It broke my heart. As a phone...I LOVE the android, but as functionality, its a change. It works very well with exchange, but not quite as smooth as iPhone or WinMo (I tried all the Verizon Winmo phones and did not like any...the HTC Imagio has no portrait view...wtf!!!)

I am not having to get used to a new phone, but guess what...ITS FREE...no extra money to spend.

I have a client with a BES and outside of the rediculous descriptions and repetitoin of Policies, I love it. But I do not have thousands of dollars to spend on another server and software. Plus BES does not even work with Exchange 2010 yet...I am using it since I need to get familiar with the newest and best...all I have to say is RIM, watch out....Google and MS are taking advantage of your "slackness"....they are coming out with better competition every day.

[phrider]

I've found the third party Exchange providers are a far cheaper and more reliable solution for my small business. For example, Mailstreet.com offers MS Exchange for under $10 per user per month for a 1GB mailbox and premium spam protection. BES service through them adds another $9.95 per month.

I've seen professionally managed small business (30 user, not mine) MS Exchange and BES setups, and they cost 10x what Mailstreet costs with far lower reliability for Exchange, BES, and backup/ recovery.

I've now been a happy customer of Mailstreet's for over 5 years.