[TDOERR]

What are other admins using to monitor BES 4.0 on exchange? Just watched one vendor called box tone.

[tgray]

Boxtone is amazing! We implemented the tool a few months ago and it has significantly reduced the amount of time our team spends monitoring the BES.

The last thing in the world I want is to have one of my users (more often than not, one of the executives) give me a call because their BlackBerry isn't working. This tool provides us the piece of mind to be sleep well at night, knowing that we will be notified if our users are impacted, more often than not, before the user even knows!

We are scheduled to upgrade to the latest release next week sometime. For me, the most important part of this release is being able to set up specific alerts for specific users. Because I want to make sure our executives stay connected, the first thing I'm going to do is set up an alert group to notify me if anything looks funny with them. That way I can let the BES admin and our normal support groups manage our entire community, and I can focus specifically on our executives. I can set up specific alerts or I can periodically perform health checks from my desktop browser as well as BlackBerry.

Can you tell we like to keep our executives happy?

Piece of mind is certainly worth it. Imagine the look on your CEO's face when you call him/her to fix a problem they weren't even aware existed yet!

Plus the interface is really cool. Makes me feel like I'm playing battleship.

If you think you don't need this software...
Just wait my friend...
You will!!!!

[TDOERR]

What was the cost?

[rtavares]

TDOERR,

Have a look at our NeedTEXT Monitor for BES (needtext.net). Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Ramon

[tankee531]

Originally Posted by tgray

Boxtone is amazing! We implemented the tool a few months ago and it has significantly reduced the amount of time our team spends monitoring the BES.

The last thing in the world I want is to have one of my users (more often than not, one of the executives) give me a call because their BlackBerry isn't working. This tool provides us the piece of mind to be sleep well at night, knowing that we will be notified if our users are impacted, more often than not, before the user even knows!

We are scheduled to upgrade to the latest release next week sometime. For me, the most important part of this release is being able to set up specific alerts for specific users. Because I want to make sure our executives stay connected, the first thing I'm going to do is set up an alert group to notify me if anything looks funny with them. That way I can let the BES admin and our normal support groups manage our entire community, and I can focus specifically on our executives. I can set up specific alerts or I can periodically perform health checks from my desktop browser as well as BlackBerry.

Can you tell we like to keep our executives happy?

Piece of mind is certainly worth it. Imagine the look on your CEO's face when you call him/her to fix a problem they weren't even aware existed yet!

Plus the interface is really cool. Makes me feel like I'm playing battleship.

If you think you don't need this software...
Just wait my friend...
You will!!!!

no offence but you "sounded" like you work or own boxtone ...

[crstek]

We have demo'd Boxtone. I agree its a great monitoring software tool. ONe thing it doesn't have is the ability to let you know if wireless activation has been completed. We are to demo NeedTExt tomorrow... I guess we'll make a decision sometime down the road, you know the powers at be can take awhile..

I did like Boxtone's interface as well.. and different levels (i.e., help desk vs. admins) can be created. plus if you have different and locations (we have 9 locations nationwide we currently admin) an outage of a particular carrier would be valuable.

And I definitely agree about keeping the big guys happy

[crstek]

Hey Ramon, i guess i'll be talking to you tomorrow morning!

[tgray]

Originally Posted by tankee531

no offence but you "sounded" like you work or own boxtone ...

Ha! That's great. I really did didn't I?!?!?! No, I don't own, work for or have any investment in the Boxtone except that we purchased their application to use in our enterprise. We are a large organization and we needed some extended monitoring aside from what the BES tools can provide.

Per another question, I don't really feel like I can disclaim how much we paid for the software - it depends on how many users you have and we have quite a few so.... I'm sure their sales guys would be more than happy to talk with you though. Talking is free.....

: )

Seriously, it's a good tool. I don't work for them though.

[ISEC7]

Please check out www bnator com too - it a totally different view on the things - perfect tool for a BES Admin.

[jsplit]

Originally Posted by crstek

We have demo'd Boxtone. I agree its a great monitoring software tool. ONe thing it doesn't have is the ability to let you know if wireless activation has been completed. We are to demo NeedTExt tomorrow... I guess we'll make a decision sometime down the road, you know the powers at be can take awhile..

I did like Boxtone's interface as well.. and different levels (i.e., help desk vs. admins) can be created. plus if you have different and locations (we have 9 locations nationwide we currently admin) an outage of a particular carrier would be valuable.

And I definitely agree about keeping the big guys happy

We (BoxTone) actually do have the ability to look at wireless activation...

[mrc7928]

Not to dump on Boxtone, but I have to say that based upon my experiences so far, NeedTEXT is far ahead in the support department. I have sent a couple emails to BoxTone support requesting information on their product and whether or not they will be supporting Groupwise, and have not heard back. I've been working with Ramon over at NeedTEXT and he has responded to my multiple emails within hours.

(edit...I did hear back from BoxTone today (8/28/2006) and they said they would let me know when they integrate with GroupWise.)

[jsplit]

Originally Posted by mrc7928

Not to dump on Boxtone, but I have to say that based upon my experiences so far, NeedTEXT is far ahead in the support department. I sent multiple emails to Boxtone on different matters and never got a response. I've been working with Ramon over at NeedTEXT and he has responded to my multiple emails within hours. We have not yet implemented NeedTEXT yet, but it probably wont be long before it happens. Thanks Ramon.

Where are you sending the emails?
Feel free to contact me directly with any issues or concerns about BoxTone or our Support.

Thanks

[twinkiefan]

Take a look at conceivium.com (Conceivium Business Solutions), too. We're taking a hard look at them due to the very low cost and the per-server pricing model rather than the per user model that Box Tone uses (very expensive in comparison for mid-sized companies like ours). I, too, absolutely loved the interface of Box Tone and the trending capabilities are second-to-none amongst their peers. However, I just cannot justify the higher cost for our organization to purchase it vs. a product with server-based pricing like NEEDText, B*Nator and Conceivium, all of which we looked at as well.

Another plus (depending on how you look at it) for BoxTone, pricing aside for the moment, is the fact that it's installed as a "black box," meaning it's a self-contained app right out of the box, not requiring (but definitely supporting) modularization of the database to a separate server. I have a preference for SQL (another reason I didn't choose BoxTone...they use Oracle) because that's what our org's skillsets align with most closely.

B*Nator is very cool, too...though a bit less "polished" than the others I mentioned. You can do (or customize it to do) almost anything you want it to and the ability to free text search server logs that have already been pre-filtered for legitimate issues for specific users having issues was very nice!

Was impressed with NEEDText, too, but at roughly twice the price of a B*Nator or Conceivium toolset (for us, anyway), it was simply unlucky enough to drop to 2nd or 3rd place on my short list...plus, it unfortunately reminded me of another systems reporting tool we use that's been nothing but trouble. Absolutely nothing to do with the product, but...well...you know how emotional even the most objective messaging admin can get sometimes!!

Happy to discuss our experiences with anyone...including you BoxTone, NEEDText and other vendors lurking out there! We haven't decided anything for sure yet, but I have formed some early impressions and opinions, for sure!

[jsplit]

Originally Posted by twinkiefan

Happy to discuss our experiences with anyone...including you BoxTone, NEEDText and other vendors lurking out there! We haven't decided anything for sure yet, but I have formed some early impressions and opinions, for sure!

How many users does your company have?
And did you get a quote from us for pricing?
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, feel free to drop me a line.

Thanks