[StriderWA]

I thought I read in the early reports of the Storm that it was supposed to work with either BES or Exchange ActiveSync (to be competitive with the iPhone) but when one of our directors picked one up, I couldn't find where we could set it up with Exchange ActiveSync. Fortunately he had upgraded from a former blackberry so we still had a BES license for him, but now another employee with my organization has picked one up and we are out of BES licenses and are not in the mood to buy another 5-user license pack (we're a smaller group) so I'm trying to find a way to set her up.

Am I to understand that the only way to do it is to have BIS and set her up to connect to our OWA server? From what my boss said, all it'll sync that way is emails, not contacts or calendars. Isn't there a free way to do Exchange ActiveSync with the Storm on Verizon? (I heard there's an app for $99/year, but I thought it was supposed to COME with ActiveSync support)

[lindros2]

I would imagine providing Exchange ActiveSync - for free - would cannibalize RIM's BES business, no?

It could also "duplicate" data and expose organizations.

My company has an explicit policy on this - we can't even use BB Desktop (backup & restore) to conform with IT security policy.

[StriderWA]

Well, I understand that RIM would want to keep people purchasing BES and respective licenses, but I was under the impression that the Storm being touted to either work with BES or with ActiveSync was seen more as keeping BB users from migrating to the iPhone because of it's touchscreen and Exchange ActiveSync support (for free) so they might've been trying to worry more about people continuing to buy their device and be competitive with a touch screen that offers the same (and more) than an iPhone.

I could be wrong, they could be more like IBM and care more about the server products than the end-user products, but since one relies on the other, you'd think their priority would be to keep the handheld business...

[BBStormJan09]

did you try setting the to use Exchange and Blackberry Redirector Service?This is wholly based on my past experiences setting up 7290s,8830,etc. using BES. The place that you select Blackberry Enterprise Service is the same place you can select Blackberry Redirector service. I'm no expert so I could be wrong

[lindros2]

Does the Desktop Redirector send contacts and address book stuff over the Internet? And does it need to be running (on a powered computer w/ Internet access) to work?

That was my experience waaay back...

[StriderWA]

I thought the Desktop Redirector still required a BES license and was only if you didn't select wireless reconciliation...? (We only have 9 BB users and they all do wireless reconciliation)