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Old 09-30-2004, 08:05 AM   #1
headtailgrep
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Default Best BES option for a small company / What will it give us?

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Well, thanks to Guess for opening this forum.. admins don't like to mingle with end users in the same forum =) We are a completely different breed as I have stated..

I know ABOUT BES but have never used it. I am considering BES for my organization, but i have a few questions:

a) What is the best option for deployment of BES for a small organization with approximately 5 Blackberry users? What about moving forward, is it easy to add more, to what end and licensing cost?

b) What does BES do insofar as integration with Microsoft Exchange from the end users perspective? Discuss this with the focus on Exchange feature integration such as:

i) Calendaring
* Create meetings, view free/busy information, send/recieve/accept/reject meeting requests, view your calendar, view others calendars?

ii) Contacts
* Is the global address list available direct from the Exchange server?

For BES, i'm wondering what features my end-users will benefit from IF we deploy the latest version of BES, which would be 4.0. It's ok to talk about the next latest version (i believe is 3.6?) since 4.0 really isn't out yet..
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Old 10-01-2004, 05:02 AM   #2
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I will let someone else answer the rest of the questions, however, I will reflect on BES 4.0:

A very major advantage of 4.0 is wireless PIM (Outlook) synchronization to BlackBerries running BlackBerryOS 4.0. If that's not critical, and your users are not using BlackBerryOS 4.0, then end users won't really notice a difference. (For the most part)
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Old 10-05-2004, 06:18 PM   #3
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Yes, well that's very useful, but the killer apps for Exchange are e-mail (doh!) and the integrated calendaring.

What does BES Give users for calendaring features of Exchange?

Any users care to chime in? We do not use BES, and I never have seen what a Blackberry user can do with it..
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Old 10-05-2004, 06:56 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by headtailgrep
Yes, well that's very useful, but the killer apps for Exchange are e-mail (doh!) and the integrated calendaring.

What does BES Give users for calendaring features of Exchange?

Any users care to chime in? We do not use BES, and I never have seen what a Blackberry user can do with it..
If you use BES, then a user can create a meeting and send invitations from his BB. Users can also 'accept' meeting invites on their BB and it will be automatically added to their calendar on their BB and wirelessly synched to their Outlook calendar. These features are not possible without BES. Also handy was when my assistant would manage my calendar from the corporate office while I was traveling. The next time I viewed my calendar on my BB, I would see new appointments that she added to the calendar, due to the wireless sync. Again - not possible with just BWC.

So depending on the types of users, BES may or may not be a big advantage to you. I would say if your users are Execs who have assistants that manage their calendars, then BES is a must. If they are users that manage their own calendars, it's a toss-up (as long as you can still enable email-forwarding to get the pushing of corporate email).
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Old 01-07-2005, 01:38 PM   #5
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Default Re: Best BES option for a small company / What will it give

Quote:
Originally Posted by headtailgrep
What is the best option for deployment of BES for a small organization with approximately 5 Blackberry users? ...What about moving forward, is it easy to add more, to what end and licensing cost?.
Your best choice for your size deployment is BlackBerry Enterprise Server SMB Edition for MS Exchange, includes 5 user licenses. Cost: $1599/server

For future growth your costs are:
1 Additional Client Access License Cost: $399/license. or
5 Additional Client Access Licenses Cost: $1599/pack

You can have up to a maximum of 50 users on the SMB edition of BES.

For larger deployments you have to move up to the Enterprise edition: starting at $7999.00 for first server license including 20 client access licenses.

Add to this your hardware costs, maintainance, management & upgrades etc. You can download a Ipsos-Reid white paper from RIM's website which covers the TCO for BB
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Old 01-07-2005, 02:44 PM   #6
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In effect, BES allows you to have a mobile desktop (email speaking). Though we use groupwise, probably 80% of what we can do from our desktop groupwise client we can accomplish with a blackberry, and those on the other end (receiving email), rarely can tell a difference.
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Old 01-08-2005, 12:50 PM   #7
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Quote:
Your best choice for your size deployment is BlackBerry Enterprise Server SMB Edition for MS Exchange, includes 5 user licenses. Cost: $1599/server
WOW, that's a big price jump. V3.6 was listed at $999. That's a 60% increase in price and I know you could get V3.6 for less.
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Old 01-08-2005, 01:12 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aau007
Quote:
Your best choice for your size deployment is BlackBerry Enterprise Server SMB Edition for MS Exchange, includes 5 user licenses. Cost: $1599/server
WOW, that's a big price jump. V3.6 was listed at $999. That's a 60% increase in price and I know you could get V3.6 for less.
Your other option is getting hosted BES/MDS and then you don't need to spend all the money on the software/hardware or IT staff to keep it up and running....

BTW - I was looking on the RIM site. The 100 CAL pack for BES used to be $4,999 it is NOW $5,999 I suppose as a result of the 4.0 BES/MDS software upgrade. So your observation of price increase is correct.
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Old 01-08-2005, 06:34 PM   #9
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CAPT,

If one can justify 100 users, $60 per user is not bad. Add about $5k for decent hardware, you are talking about $110 per user on a 100 users startup cost. On the SMB edition, you are paying a wobbing $320 per user, just on the BES software. :O Don't forget the dedicated server you need to buy. I have a feeling RIM does not like small installations since they make it hard to cost justify.
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Old 01-08-2005, 07:16 PM   #10
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I believe there are sources where you can still get V3.6 for reasonable prices. Can you upgrade from that to 4.0 more cheaply, than buying 4.0 outright?
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Old 01-08-2005, 07:36 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aau007
CAPT,

If one can justify 100 users, $60 per user is not bad. Add about $5k for decent hardware, you are talking about $110 per user on a 100 users startup cost. On the SMB edition, you are paying a wobbing $320 per user, just on the BES software. :O Don't forget the dedicated server you need to buy. I have a feeling RIM does not like small installations since they make it hard to cost justify.
Dont forge the cost of exchange server license, user licenses, the BES server cost (seperate from the user license), the cost of the high speed dual direction inet connection (asynchronous DSL wont cut it), the IT guy to make sure it's all working, outlook licenses, the nightly backups and data protection, battery backups, and a myriad of other items that I am just overlooking as I respond to this post.

It is absolutely more cost effective to be hosted on someone else's BES.
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Old 01-08-2005, 07:38 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Rejhon
I believe there are sources where you can still get V3.6 for reasonable prices. Can you upgrade from that to 4.0 more cheaply, than buying 4.0 outright?
Mark:

It's not just the cost of the server software, but the licenses as well. And the related hardware, etc. See my previous post in this thread. You would have to be a computer enthusiast who would put 100% of your time into running your BES to save money. Costwise you lose. IMHO.

Just my 2cents !
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Old 01-09-2005, 02:44 AM   #13
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CAPT,

That's not fair to add the system cost to the BES setup. The full Exchange system setup becomes a common cost here whether you use BES v3.6 SMB at $1000 or BES 4.0 SMB at $1600 for 5 users. There is also no significant hardware requirement difference between 3.6 and 4.0

I was only comparing cost difference between the 2 versions of BES. If we are going into the cost of setting up a full blown MS network (just to use BES), the list goes on a lot longer.
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Old 01-09-2005, 02:56 AM   #14
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Mark,

As far as I can see on the blackberry.com web site, BES 4.0 one time upgrade is $999. If the pricing is that simple, then the buying v3.6 + $999 upgrade = 4.0 is more expensive.

If you look at the pricing table here:
http://www.blackberry.com/purchasing...g/us/bes.shtml
They obviously charge a big premium for using SMB. While Microsoft is pushing their SBS products here and there, Blackberry pricing sure does not promote their SMB product.
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Old 02-04-2005, 04:35 AM   #15
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Default for a 5 user BES 4.0 hardware

would you need a dedicated server? or can it reside on any server in the domain? or just not on the exchange server? -len
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Old 02-04-2005, 08:05 PM   #16
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I would not advise sharing BES with other servers. As a matter of fact, I think at least with the GW version of BES, it specifically tells you NOT to put BES on the same server as your post office.

If you are looking at consolidating and will not be hosting a terribly large system, you might consider other options such as VMware. That might suit your needs well.
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Old 02-04-2005, 09:43 PM   #17
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BES 3.6 - 10 user license
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/def...spx?EDC=428313
$510

Tx1 Support
http://www.blackberry.com/support/tsupport/index.shtml
$499 + $19.00/device (thats dropped 3x but added device costs)

The Tx1 Support will cover your upgrade to BES 4.0. So thats BES4.0 with 10 licenses and support for a bit more than $1,000.

Hope that helps.
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