• Technology Reviews
• From the Experts
  • Exploiting Bandwidth
  • Going Mobile with Blackberry
  • Information Management
  • Introduction to Mobile Applications
  • Managing Email
  • Managing Email - Part 2
  • Software as a Service
  • Using IT
  • Web Portals: Business or Pleasure?
  • Web Portals: Changing Business - Part 1
  • What is CRM?
• Press Clippings

Going Mobile with BlackBerry

If you don't have one, you've probably heard about them. BlackBerry is the ultimate wireless email solution that allows users to stay connected with access to email, phone, web and organiser features on the go.

They are handheld devices engineered from the ground up for email. If email has become a vital part of your business or personal life, then you would no doubt benefit from using a BlackBerry. The old, ugly and bulky models have been replaced with swanky, highly desirable bits of kit which include many standard PDA functionalities. They have now become the only mobile communication device you need to carry.

'Always On, Always Connected'

With BlackBerry push technology, you don't need to retrieve your email. Your email finds you. No dialing-in or initiating connections. The devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, allowing users to be discreetly notified as new email arrives.

Until recently, BlackBerry was a luxury reserved only for large corporations. Only they had the funds and resources to install and maintain the complex server configuration needed to power the mobile devices. However, things are different now and the BlackBerry revolution has reached the SME and consumer mobile markets.

BIS or BES?

For the individual user, the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) provides basic email functionality. Users configure their BIS account, through a network provider web admin system, to ‘Poll’ their personal email account and deliver changes to the handheld device. This can prove clumsy, in the same way as POP, meaning a user must manage multiple inboxes. There is no wireless synchronisation and no wireless access to calendar and contacts.

To provide the full business synchronisation (email, calendar and contacts) a corporate email server, such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus notes and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) are required. Traditionally this is an expensive and complex server configuration, the BES alone costing £3,000.

Today, businesses will discover that a Hosted Exchange provider may also provide a Hosted BES service. For a simple monthly subscription a business of any size can reap the benefits of an advanced mobile email solution without the requirement for capital investment and in house IT skills.

So while the BIS service is perfectly adequate for many individual users, the BES service used in combination with a hosted email solution is a must for the power user or the business user. Once you actually experience the difference you’ll understand the true meaning of the term ‘Crackberry’.

Paul Griffiths, Product Manager