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Research in Motion, the company that makes the BlackBerry Server Software actually offers a free version of its Blackberry server software for small businesses looking to field up to 30 Blackberries. This free version is called “Blackberry Professional Software”. This server software comes with one free user license.
This means that if your company has it own Exchange server, you can go to the Blackberry site and download, for free, all the software that you need to start synchronizing your email, calendar, task list and contacts with one blackberry smartphone. This software easily installs on your current Exchange Server.
This free server software is well featured and will be indistinguishable to the end user from the full featured Enterprise Server.
When using the “Professional Software version”, you can add 29 users licenses, called CALs (Client Access License) for a total of 30 users. Expect to pay about $90 per additional license. Slightly less if you buy 10 at a time.
The gotchas are:
1 – As Dennis points out below, this is a limited time offer as the product is being discontinued. So , you can use it, but there will be no tech support from RIM.
2 - You can’t just get the basic phone plan with the Blackberries. You will also need to get your phone provider’s “BlackBerry” plan otherwise the Blackberry will not sync with your server. Expect this plan to cost an additional $45 a month, per Blackberry.
3 - Blackberries are quite addictive and in short order you will it impossible to operate without Blackberries. However, to field 6 blackberries, aside from the Blackberries all you will need to buy is 5 CALs for about $400. You can also put the first 5 Blackberries on a “Family plan” to share minutes to cut your monthly cost slightly.
4 - If you ever need to support more than 30 users, for a fee you can upgrade your “Professional” server to a full fledged “Blackberry Enterprise Server” by buying a “BlackBerry Enterprise Server Trade-up Key”. Be aware however that the “Enterprise Server” needs to run by itself on a separate, stand alone server (or a virtual server which we’ll describe another time). So, for this upgrade, budget about $2,600 for the upgrade key, about $4,000 for server hardware and about $1,500 for the annual tech support subscription.
Here is a fun Blackberry tip for after you become addicted to your Blackberry: When you finally go on vacation to that cabin in the woods, to get away from it all, and you begin to get the shakes because there is no cellular reception anywhere near the cabin; you can give your Blackberry to the mailman and ask him to drive it around while performing his appointed rounds. Then have him return it to you the next day. You should do this because your Blackberry will surely sync at some point during its travels with the mailman….
Comments
Blackberry Professional Server is EOL. This is no longer a viable option with support being eliminated.
Good point Dennis. The lack of Rim technical support will be a serious drawback going forward. I have a few implementations of Blackberry Professional at client sites, fielding 2-4 blackberries each that have been rock steady for many months since implementation. These clients are not-for-profits and small shops and I do not see them spending the money to set up the Enterprise version anytime soon.
Important notes on the "gotchas":
1. BlackBerry Professional Software is not EOL'd. It is absolutely still available and fully supported. In fact, downloading this 1-user BPS will include 1 free Support incident so if you run into any problems installing it, you can get direct support from RIM.
2. You actually need the "Enterprise" BlackBerry plan. There is another "Consumer" BlackBerry plan which provides basic access to wireless email from your POP3, IMAP, or oWA accounts.
To be clear, RIM has not officially announced that it has any plans on discontinuing Blackberry Professional Software Express. It is more a persistent rumor at this point that RIM will no longer further develop the product, which is what End of Life (EOL) means. At its core it is the older 4.1.4 product, which I found to be solid.
If you call RIM tech support, the product is supported. If you go to the Blackberry site you can download the software today, and I expect that you could use it for many years.
In fact the only official statement from RIM on the issue is that they plan on always having a product for small business.
We have BPS in use now and it works well. A question I'd like answered is if RIM plans to update BPS in the future. Current version does not support html email- a real drag. Even "consumer" accounts accessed through pop3, etc. support html. Before the news that BPS was dead there were widespread rumors that RIM was releasing an update to BPS w/ html support. It's been a long time since an update - and BPS is certainly lagging behind technology RIM employs for consumers. Unfortunately, I do think BPS is dead (EOL'd, whatever) but I have to believe RIM will replace it w/ something other than the expensive enterprise server. Well RIM, we're waiting . . . .
As a free download, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is definitely worth a try for SMBs wanting to enable the mobile workforce.
Once we’d installed it, creating users and managing their access levels was quick and easy – particularly as you can roll out settings for entire groups in one go, rather than having to do so on a one by one basis. This meant we were quickly up and running with BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express.
Having not used a similar product before, it’s difficult to compare BlackBerry’s offering with other products on the market. But I would recommend it to all small companies with a BlackBerry enabled workforce. It’s quick and easy to install, and gives you immediate control over business- and employee- owned BlackBerrys.
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