New job, old phone!

[tom_0787]

This is my first post

I have just started a new job as an onsite representative for a huge client of my new employers.

I am the only off-site worker in the company as everyone else is based at head office which is 300 miles away.

I have been given a Vodafone work cell (someone elses old phone) its a crappy basic sony ericsson. And a new laptop with a broadband dongle. I dont have an office as Im all over the place.

I need to be able to repond to company emails as quick as possible and this is going to be difficult if I have to boot up the laptop everytime to check.

My boss has agreed I need a phone that I can recieve emails on but the IT guy seems very reluctant to help me out and told me to go buy a phone and he would opgrade my plan to include unlimited data.

There's the background info, so finally here's the question- As its only me who needs this service I can see the company being reluctant to pay for and set up the BES service just for my benefit. How do i go about setting up push email from my work email address via outlook?

From what I understand I will need BES to be able to get instant email from my company email as BIS would only work with web based email. Am I correct?

[VZWman1987]

Not necessarily. It depends on the companies email servers. My company has a BES option, and they don't reimburse so I go with the BIS and can still receive them as fast or faster than when I'm signed on to a computer.

[tom_0787]

My company has no BES option and everyone else is office based so I doubt they have a server that has web based access.

Anyone have a solution?

[Motorcycle Mama]

Can you access your work email via Outlook Web Access (OWA)?

[tom_0787]

I have just had a look and I dont appear to have OWA

[Motorcycle Mama]

You are pretty much out of luck, then.

You might be able to set up an "Auto Forward" rule in Outlook and forward the emails from there to an email address that you do have on your BlackBerry. The problem will be that when you reply, it will not be from your work email address. And it won't necessarily be "instant".

[tom_0787]

If I can get IT so set up OWA for me, what are my options then?

Thanks for all the help by the way.

[Motorcycle Mama]

If you can get access to OWA (which I'm guessing they won't do just for you), then you can use this process to have the emails pushed to your BlackBerry.

KB03133-How to integrate a Microsoft Outlook Web Access email address with a BlackBerry Internet Service account

The emails will not be pushed instantly, however. They will have the standard 3 - 15 minute BIS delay. But when you reply, the emails will come from your work email address.

[tom_0787]

Thanks again, Is setting up OWA a big deal?

Mu employers want me to answer emails asap but have no systems in place to help me do so!

[Motorcycle Mama]

I'm pretty sure that they would need an Exchanger Server in order to use OWA.

Configuring Outlook Web Access

[tom_0787]

Thanks for all the info. I will talk to the IT dept tomorrow and see what they say. On friday the IT guy was telling me that the guys in the office with blackberrys setup outlook to forward their emails but they always have their pc's on whereas I carry a laptop.

If they have no OWA setup what would you suggest as the easiest and cheapest option to impliment? OWA or BES or other?

Is it just blackberrys that this is difficult with? Would it be the same with an android phone?


Tom

[deRusett]

Originally Posted by tom_0787

Thanks for all the info. I will talk to the IT dept tomorrow and see what they say. On friday the IT guy was telling me that the guys in the office with blackberrys setup outlook to forward their emails but they always have their pc's on whereas I carry a laptop.

If they have no OWA setup what would you suggest as the easiest and cheapest option to impliment? OWA or BES or other?

Is it just blackberrys that this is difficult with? Would it be the same with an android phone?


Tom

Unfortunately, yes it is Just Blackberry that is this Difficult, your Android phone would use ActiveSync,

What I did for a short while with my company email was build an AutoForward Rule into my email that sent ALL my emails to my BIS username@carrier.blackberry.net email address, and set the reply address as my work address.

EVEN with your computer off the Autoforward rule works, since the rule is applied server side, not client side.


Your company COULD use BESX which is free.
BlackBerry - Enterprise Server Express - Free Download
to give you push access.
Also this would be something the few people that use BB's could be linked to at the company

[tom_0787]

Just found out that the reason we dont have BES is because we use a Linux server. The IT guy says there is a work arround tho ??

[PestPro]

Just forward all you mail from Outlook, I do that with my company and it works great. You can do as many E mails as you want to.

[swathe]

Making BES run with a Linux server (guessing you guys are using postfix) from what I hear is a bit of a mongrel to deal with. As mentioned above, the auto-forward rule is the best option. You get better productivity and it cost nothing.

I also want to make it clear that it is not a fault with Linux. RIM haven't developed a BES solution for the Linux platform, and it cannot be developed as some required code cannot be used without RIM's permission.