...Noob Blackberry Question.

[konman]

Hi All,

Bit of a noob Blackberry question..never used blackberry or set it up...
...the guys that I consult for (who have Scalix Small Business) said "Oooh Oooh, we want one of those as well!!" pointing at a Blackberry...

Only about 10 users max (most likely only 5)

...what extra hardware/software does one need for the 'complete blackberry experience' for 5 users?

Single User 'Mode'???

I had a quick look at a friend's Blackberry from Optus Mobile (Australia).
eg. He walked into a telco store (Optus) and said that he wanted a single Blackberry.
He was given a username and password and he can log into a setup page and set-up POP email and IMAP

..so, with the 'Connector' for Sclaix, can a 'single' Blackberry communicate with Scalix via IMAP?
How is this different to the complete 'Push' experience?

Cheers,
KonMan.

[sgreen]

IMAP would mean email only, no contacts, calendar, etc.


For any amount of users you will need a windows 2003 server, which can be in a vm or on real hardware and either BES or BPS. If you never see yourself going over 20 users BPS is the way to go.

[florian]

correct. blackberry can be used in two modes; one is strictly a carrier-type service where a machine located with the carrier is configured to poll an arbitrary mailserver for new messages, then push them to the device. This works fine with Scalix, and no connector is required. There are a couple of drawbacks, though:

- no contact/calendar/tasks sync
- no other folders besides inbox
- no GAL/System Directory lookup
- no server side search
- no out of office functionality
- messages are stored/forwarded through a proxy at the provider. there is no end-to-end encryption, so the provider has access to message contents.

You get all this with BES, and to connect BES to Scalix, you need our just-released Blackberry Connector. We generally do not discuss actual pricing on these forums, as prices differ in various markets, however the pricing model is such that for Enterprise and Hosting Editions, BES Connector is free for use for all Premium Users, while for Small Business Edition, you need to purchase the optional BES license addon, which is a one-time, per-server fee. Again, once this is added, all Premium Users can use BES.

Hope this helps,
Florian.