Sametime App without BES - Ideas?

Hello,

I am a recent Blackberry Convert (Z30 10.2.1) and loving the experience. My company uses Lotus Notes suite for email & collaboration. However, BES wasn't upgraded (and they don't plan to do so). I am comfortable using iNotes for email but would really like a sametime app that doesn't use BES. On Android, I managed with QuipIM (works decently with frequent crashes).

I have installed QuipIM on my Z30 but the experience sucks (especially lack of gestures, frequent crashes, slow scrolling,etc.,). I am wondering if there are any Blackberry Apps for sametime (I have googled but found none) that works without BES. One other thought I am seriously considering is to develop a native app for BB 10 OS. I haven't done a feasibility study yet (Found the sametime api from the IBM website but it's pretty dated). I have developed for android and would have to spend time learning native app development for Blackberry.

Would love to hear some thoughts on the idea. Especially if this sounds like a crazy idea.

Cheers
Santhosh K

Welcome to the forums!

You don't need BES for apps. BES10 is a device maagement platform. It does indeed connect you to some resources on your company's servers but don't you need it for anything else (in your case, the Lotus part of it).

You have an android app finished? Put the APK in your SD card and (priovided you're on 10.2.1) have the device install it. You'll probably find your app already runs just fine!

Thanks. Perhaps I should have been a bit more elaborate. Enterprise im does require BES. My company hasn't upgraded to bes 10 (and has no plans to do so) . Hence the thought of a native Sametime client.

Sk

Posted via CB10

Well if you guys have BES CALs, this is the time to upgrade. You can get BES10 CALs which can be upgraded to BES12 (full support of ANY device out there).

The BlackBerry 10 Sametime client requires the device to be activated on the BES, because it will only run in the work space, not the personal space. It also uses the BES to further secure the communications.

I've been using the android Sametime client from the Google Play store on my Z10 and it's been working well. No BES required.

Originally Posted by diegonei

Well if you guys have BES CALs, this is the time to upgrade. You can get BES10 CALs which can be upgraded to BES12 (full support of ANY device out there).

If the company decides not to upgrade to BES10/12 at all then this is not an option.

I am in the same situation - a native Sametime app would be brilliant - I cant get the Android version to work.

I have a bit of success with the Android version of Lotus Notes Traveler but this is really not the best emailing experience - especially when coming from BB9900 which was supported by BES.

I'm assuming that your company is setup to allow android and ios devices to connect to use Sametime. If this is the case, those clients actually connect to a webchat server, not directly to the actual Sametime server. In my companies case, to use the android Sametime client (since they are not using BES10), I had to use the webchat server in the Sametime client connectivity server community configuration (you need to add a server community) to get the client to work, i.e. wwwwebchat.company.com. All of course assuming that your IT folks don't have everything completely locked down.

For email/contacts/calendar, I setup a lotus traveler account (need to manually set it up through the advanced account settings and pick the traveler option). In my case with the account setup, you can't even notice that the device is not on a BES, with the exception of not having a separate work space. In the account setup, to get it to work in my case, I had to leave the domain field blank. I also had to leave the To Do server settings blank.

Both of these options should work, once you find the right settings, assuming that things aren't locked down.