[bchealth]

Hello - I am from a small hospital and there are 4 of us here that are getting new Blackberrys (8830's) in about a week. We have a corporate exchange server here (Exchange 2000). What is the the optimal way to have our Exhange Email (Clients use Outlook) forward to our Blackberry's? I am assuming the best way would be to implement Blackberry Exhcnage Server? My problem with that is I doubt our budget will allow that - that is over $3,000, correct? Is there another way to have e-mail forward? Can we set up a PC with outlook that would forward it? What is everyone doing? 2 of the users have laptops so they are not on all the time to forward email, and 2 have PCs which I suppose could be left on though I'd rather not have to do that. What are others doing?

thanks!

[Dubdub]

If you can access your email via POP3 you can most likely use BIS. I suggest you check out the FAQ, as that will provide you with some good info especially if you are new to the BB. Have all of your users check it out.

And welcome tot he BB World

[PhillyGuy]

That's probably your least expensive option. You could use BES Express, which is free for one license and about $100 for each additional (I could be wrong on the exact price). But you'd have to set up and administer your own BES server.

[gibson_hg]

If you download BES Express you will get 1 free license (CAL) and 2 extra would be $99 each. A way around that would be to sign up for BES Express 3 times and use all 3 CAL's and it won't cost you a thing

That might make getting the BES easier for ya and you will also get wireless syncing of your calendar/contacts/memos/tasks as well. The BIS solution will only get you wireless email.

[Dubdub]

Another option is a hosted BES solution.

[Alex Alexzander]

I like hosted myself. But depending on how much email you get, it may or may not be right for you. I use Mail2web hosted exchange which is $14.95 for a 1 GB hosted exchange, and another $14.95 for BES. So that's $30 a head. You would be at $120 per month.

Other hosted systems cost less, but typically give you less storage as a result, and I personally think 1 GB is pretty small already. But there are ways to manage your way around that issue.

Here is what I do.

My hosted exchange account is tied to my Outlook client on my PC same as your Outlook client is attached to your exchange server in house. What I do is I archive every 2 weeks and move anything over 75 days to a local PST. What that does is it keeps my storage online at about 600 MBs. On the client I have all the email, but if I were to use the Web Outlook client, I would only see 70 days worth of email. For older email I have to be on the PC with the client as it has the archived mail that is older.

Now, on the BlackBerry I only keep 30 days of email. So it essentially doesn't really have an affect on the storage one way or another. But if you are a mobile person such as myself, it helps to have a plan about how you will be able to search and find any email. For me it is like this:

30 days = BlackBerry has it.
70 days = Web Outlook has it.
Unlimited = PC based Outlook client has it.

And I use Vista's search to find any email on Windows Vista. On XP I use Windows Search, which is really great for finding anything in email very quickly.

Others here have mentioned other exchange hosts. Some are $10 for exchange and $10 for the BES, being only $20 a month per person. But I think those are 200 MBs of storage, or 500 MB of storage. And I believe they all had expensive SharePoint services compared to Mail2Web, which does 1 GB of SharePoint for $22.95. Many here might not factor sharepoint into all this but I do. Sharepoint lets you share documents with others connected to your exchange account. As half of what I do is sales, I keep a running excel file with client codes and assigned quote numbers in excel. Quotes are excel documents which are turned into PDFs and emailed to clients. I have 600 MBs of these excel files, and through Sharepoint, a few of use have access to this files as well as a SharePoint Progress application which shows timelines for projects. I also use TodoMatrix, and WorldMate which both have web applications to them. So basically, most everything I do can be done via the BlackBerry, the Web, or on the PC. It makes it simple to get at everything I might need no matter where I am or what PC I happen to be using.

The nice thing about SharePoint is, there isn't a head count cost. It's just $22.95 and you can give access to 2 or 3 or more people an it's still the same $22.95.

I've been using this system since March 18th, 2007. So closing in on a year now, and it has been very solid. Some would consider this a bit pricey as it is added costs on top of whatever you are paying from the cell phone company. But I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't feel it was all worth it. I don't need any IT at all for this to work. I can travel and not worry about any hardware. Let the hosting company worry about maintaining my server. I worry about my clients, which is enough for me.

-Alex Alexzander

[jc01108]

I use sherweb.com. They are $8.95 for hosted exchange and $9.95 for Blackberry service. They give me 3gb of storage and have been great...no outages and good help response when needed.

[Alex Alexzander]

Originally Posted by jc01108

I use sherweb.com. They are $8.95 for hosted exchange and $9.95 for Blackberry service. They give me 3gb of storage and have been great...no outages and good help response when needed.

That's a fantastic price. I am going to look at this. Hopefully, SharePoint is also priced well.

Thanks,

Alex