I've noticed quite a few posts here from BIS users asking "Shall I Shan't I?", so I thought I'd share my experiences on my first anniversary of Hosted BES.
If you're wondering whether Hosted BES is for you, I suggest that the features list is just the tip of the iceberg.
What Hosted BES appears to offer is OTA sync of all your Outlook folders and real time push email. This sounds great and it is. But what it delivers in practice is something far more powerful; by enabling you to use your BB like a remote control, it raises its functionality, reliability and usefulness to a whole new level.
Apologies to those corporate BES users who take these features for granted (but possibly have to work within the goldfish bowl of a central IT Policy).
For a self-employed single user, though, the $20/mth average fee seems modest in relation to its benefits. Some examples:
(1) You're in the field and a customer refers to an earlier message. With BIS you can't always answer the question "what did I tell him last week?" because BIS doesn't automatically sync your Sent Items folder. With BES you just know you've got the whole story to hand.
(2) Your desktop PC goes down. Unless you've just backed up your .PST files you've probably lost your messages, contacts, calendar, the works. BES keeps all this data in sync without your having to take any actions. Meanwhile if you need the Big Screen Experience you can view all your Outlook folders on any Net enabled PC via Outlook Web Access.
(3) You lose your BB or have it stolen. With Hosted BES, you log in to your BES account and kill the device by performing a Wipe Handheld remotely, then do an Enterprise Activation on your replacement device and all your data and settings reappear in the right place.
So (and it's always worth checking the market) big thanks to
Hosted Microsoft Exchange - Wireless Outlook Web Access Microsoft Exchange Hosting, Corporate e-mail Hosting for near faultless service and support, and with whom - since you ask - I have no other relationship other than as a satisfied, if distant, customer.