[ecfinn]

I work for a major pharma company and for the past 1.5 years I've successfully used my BB to receive my corporate emails via outlook web access (Exchange.) It seems the company is no longer supporting non-BES BBs and is even recommending that folks purchasing new corporate owned smartphones should avoid BB altogether. So what am I to do? I can either move to an Android, Apple, Nokia, WinMo phone or avoid it altogether.

I'm seriously bummed today as I enjoyed using my personal BB to read up on the email I had waiting for me in the office.

Thanks,
Eric

[nomoredroid]

Our Pharma company got rid of Blackberry too.....went to Apple

[Branta]

Tell them to supply you with "a smartphone for company business" and keep your BB for personal use. You don't care what they give you for work, it's corporate property, corporate choice and corporate problem to keep it working.

[ecfinn]

Here's the problem, I'm not at a level where they supply the smartphone. At my level I supply the smartphone and they (theoretically) supply the access to the email via Outlook Web Access. For personal smartphones, we are no longer allowed to access corparate email via BB, we are only able to access corporate email via anything but a BB.

[Dapper37]

Why, This sounds a little trollish. Just because?

[Laura Knotek]

Here's the problem, I'm not at a level where they supply the smartphone. At my level I supply the smartphone and they (theoretically) supply the access to the email via Outlook Web Access. For personal smartphones, we are no longer allowed to access corparate email via BB, we are only able to access corporate email via anything but a BB.

If you are not at a level that your company supplies a smartphone, is it necessary to have corporate email on a smartphone at all?

[ecfinn]

If you are not at a level that your company supplies a smartphone, is it necessary to have corporate email on a smartphone at all?

No, its not necessary. It was a nice to have that I'm going to miss. I liked having the ability to preview what was waiting for me in the office before I got there. I really liked having my corporate calendar on my phone so I could keep that in sync with my personal calendar when not in the office. It wasn't a necessity, but it made my life easier.

I love my BBerry and would like to keep one (especially since my wife just got one so we can use BBM now.) But if it means I can't access my work email on it (which used to be the benefit of a BB) I'm not sure if I'll be getting the new Bold Touch (which I've been anxiously awaiting.)

I guess the other point to this post is that it seems folks have been saying that BB's big advantage over Apple/Android was corporate email and to me its not only no longer an advantage, but its a disadvantage to have a BB. I'm not a troll and I'm not trying to stir up anything here, just trying to understand how I got into this situation when I thought a BB was the best email smartphone. Very frustrating and hoping to vent a bit too. :-)

[Laura Knotek]

No, its not necessary. It was a nice to have that I'm going to miss. I liked having the ability to preview what was waiting for me in the office before I got there. I really liked having my corporate calendar on my phone so I could keep that in sync with my personal calendar when not in the office. It wasn't a necessity, but it made my life easier.

I love my BBerry and would like to keep one (especially since my wife just got one so we can use BBM now.) But if it means I can't access my work email on it (which used to be the benefit of a BB) I'm not sure if I'll be getting the new Bold Touch (which I've been anxiously awaiting.)

I guess the other point to this post is that it seems folks have been saying that BB's big advantage over Apple/Android was corporate email and to me its not only no longer an advantage, but its a disadvantage to have a BB. I'm not a troll and I'm not trying to stir up anything here, just trying to understand how I got into this situation when I thought a BB was the best email smartphone. Very frustrating and hoping to vent a bit too. :-)

I can understand what you are saying.

Having a BlackBerry still is an advantage for corporate email, provided one is on BES.

I guess the issue is that corporate email is a "convenience" for you, but not a necessity. It sounds like the company provides a BlackBerry and puts it on the BES if an employee's role is such that corporate email is a necessity, rather than a convenience.

[ecfinn]

So is it a concern to RIM that this company is now steering all employees away from BB (including those who qualify for BES because it would be a necessity?) I'd like to see RIM succeed as I don't like touch-screens but this kind of thing has me worried (and disappointed.)

[Laura Knotek]

So is it a concern to RIM that this company is now steering all employees away from BB (including those who qualify for BES because it would be a necessity?) I'd like to see RIM succeed as I don't like touch-screens but this kind of thing has me worried (and disappointed.)

I would imagine losing BES contracts would be an issue to RIM.

I know someone who was a BES admin. His company switched from BlackBerry to Android and got rid of BES completely. He still handles administration of company smartphones, but not BES. The reason the company switched was to save money.

[T�nis]

It doesn't sound like the company has gone away from BlackBerry. It still uses BES, because it's still the best corporate email solution. You could go on BES, but you'd lose privacy and probably plenty of functionality. Or you could get a new job. If I were in this situation, I'd say screw reading company email on my own time and save the BlackBerry so I could messenger the wife on company time.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jefo13]

Why not do BESx, isn't it free?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Denise in Los Angeles]

It doesn't sound like the company has gone away from BlackBerry. It still uses BES, because it's still the best corporate email solution. You could go on BES, but you'd lose privacy and probably plenty of functionality. Or you could get a new job. If I were in this situation, I'd say screw reading company email on my own time and save the BlackBerry so I could messenger the wife on company time.

Good suggestion!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Exiled Bulldawg]

No, its not necessary. It was a nice to have that I'm going to miss. I liked having the ability to preview what was waiting for me in the office before I got there. I really liked having my corporate calendar on my phone so I could keep that in sync with my personal calendar when not in the office. It wasn't a necessity, but it made my life easier.

<SNIP>

I guess the other point to this post is that it seems folks have been saying that BB's big advantage over Apple/Android was corporate email and to me its not only no longer an advantage, but its a disadvantage to have a BB. I'm not a troll and I'm not trying to stir up anything here, just trying to understand how I got into this situation when I thought a BB was the best email smartphone. Very frustrating and hoping to vent a bit too. :-)

How were you syncing if you were using OWA? OWA doesn't sync withe a Blackberry. Not that I know of anyway. If you are accessing with OWA, then whatever device you are using must have a full browser, but there really isn't much they could say about what device you are using. Now, if you are connecting directly to the server, how you are connecting matters.

[ecfinn]

How were you syncing if you were using OWA? OWA doesn't sync withe a Blackberry. Not that I know of anyway. If you are accessing with OWA, then whatever device you are using must have a full browser, but there really isn't much they could say about what device you are using. Now, if you are connecting directly to the server, how you are connecting matters.

I wasn't synching with my corporate calendar/email. I was getting all emails/calendar invites on my BB and accepting them on it. I was not connected. I was keeping my personal calendar in sync with the corporate one. I had to ensure I manually accepted all invites on the BB. Sorry for the confusion.

[Exiled Bulldawg]

I think you may have misread their e-mail. If you are using the browser to connect to OWA, then it doesn't really matter what you use. Heck, even thought it works better with IE, one could use Firefox, or a mobile browser. I bet if you ask, they will tell you this applies only to push delivery. Or in other words, they are shutting down BES.

[ADGrant]

I guess the other point to this post is that it seems folks have been saying that BB's big advantage over Apple/Android was corporate email and to me its not only no longer an advantage, but its a disadvantage to have a BB. I'm not a troll and I'm not trying to stir up anything here, just trying to understand how I got into this situation when I thought a BB was the best email smartphone. Very frustrating and hoping to vent a bit too. :-)

You got in this situation because you believed the people who told you that "BB's big advantage over Apple/Android was corporate email". This is not true and was only ever true for companies willing to pay for BES. Now those companies can use Goodlink instead. However, many companies are cutting costs and switching to direct Exchange sync which Blackberries do not support.

[ADGrant]

So is it a concern to RIM that this company is now steering all employees away from BB (including those who qualify for BES because it would be a necessity?) I'd like to see RIM succeed as I don't like touch-screens but this kind of thing has me worried (and disappointed.)

It is. One RIM response has been BESx which gives BES type functionality for free. It is a great idea, I wish they would encourage gmail and yahoo to offer hosted BESx access to their servers.