BIS or BES?

[Rockdog97]

my company just switched from Nextel to AT&T with PTT. With the switch, AT&T provided 30 Blackberry 8310 phones for our managers. We have not established how, if ever, the company wants to set up these phones - be it separate BIS accounts (@$30/month for AT&T unlimited data), or set up a BES for 30 users.

I've been asked to research this. BIS is simple to understand and cost.

BES is different. So here is the question: what is the most cost effective way to set up a BES system for 30 users?

I need to know the following:

1. what equipment do we need (separate stand alone servers?)
2. what software do we need.
3. Annual costs for renting/leasing. etc the hardware and software
4. do 3rd party people offer BES hosting and if so, will we need to set up our own servers?
5. do we need to do everything in house (ie, our own servers, purchase the applicabe software, etc)?

I see on the blackberry site tha they offer BES software based on number of end users, but are those costs on an annual basis or one time software purchase? I'm assuming we would also need a server? or again, are there companies that would host this information on an off-site server?

Thanks in advance.

[HawkFantastic]

BES is on the $$$$ side. However, that provides a great deal of control and security. Sure, you could do the BIS route and people could send/receive company emails via POP3/SMTP, which means opening up your firewall/mail server the outside world. I believe taking this approach would mean you lose the ability to do PIM OTA PIM Synch.

BES Provides-
Secured connection between hand helds and your organization for email, PIM synch, etc.

Security- user loses a hand held and you can simply lock/wipe/etc. the phone so nobody else uses it.

Policies that control how people can and can not use their devices.

You will need another server.

[Rh1noo]

Just to add.

BES is supported on VMWare 2.5.2 to 3.5 so you don't have to buy a server if you already have a virtual environment.

[HawkFantastic]

Good point Rh1; that's they way I'm running mine.

[Rockdog97]

what about a Exchange Hosting Service such as AppRiver or one of the other services?

[chaznsc]

Have you considered BPS? You appear to be at the threshold, but it might be an idea.

[pi_admin]

Chaz is right ... BlackBerry Professional Server (or BES Small Business) max is 30 phones/users. It might be a good way, but will provide no future upgrade capability without upgrading to BES.

1. It can be run on an existing server, and is fairly easy to integrate with an e-mail server such as Exchange (provided that box is on the same network). BES doesn't seem to be a resource hog, either..

2. Software from RIM, BPS/BES SB or BES

3. Just the cost of the phones, and any "support" agreements you set up with the software (first year comes with at least 1 free).

4&5. Honestly, not my specialty; I run everything (Exchange and BES) inside.