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BES Express?

N

nitrobass24

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - December 2009
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Anyone here setup a BES Express for a small business?
How does it compare to regular BES?

Friend has a business and they all have blackberries. Was trying to decide if this would be good enough or if it was worth it to get a full blown BES or even a hosted BES solution.

Business has 25 users, all have company issued blackberries.
Backend is a SBS 2008 and a Server 2008 R2 Fileserver.
Some users have VPN access.

Thanks
 
I have used Blackberry professional server. I advise against installing it on SBS though, especially 2008, not sure if that would work since it uses mapi to connect to exchange
 
We run BPS in house too - I downloaded BESX as well, but we have yet to deploy. BPS is pretty awesome for small businesses when you just need to activate a handheld and get mail, and that's all you want to do. (and calendar items, blah blah blah)

I'm interested to hear if anyone else has deployed it too.

On topic: If all they want is mail in their hand, I'm sure BESX will accomplish that. I'd have them outline what they want, and just hit up the Blackberry matrix on what supports what feature. I'd be really surprised if you end up needing BES; not to mention the hefty price tag.

Looked at the comparison PDF again too, just to make sure I wasn't off the deep end. Enterprise buys you pretty small stuff, unless you really want to spend money and micro manage mobile phone policies. And PBX integration, I suppose. BESX should definitely fill your need.

k1pp3r is probably right, although it does list SBS on the compatibility matrix. No matter, if you have the fileserver available it can be installed there. We run a virtual with 10-15 users, no issues.
 
Last edited:
Yea they are looking for mostly Exhange integration: Calendar followed by Mail.
Want to be able to remotely kill lost devices
Possibly access documents on file server

I think i will setup SBS in a VM and test it out at home.
 
I just deployed 3 different Blackberry Server Express installs. This is the new version that doesn't require the end user to have the BES Plan, saves em $10-15/month.

Only can activate with wire that way, if want to do wireless need BES plan.

All same functions, simple setup. Video is on the website.
 
k1pp3r said:
I have used Blackberry professional server. I advise against installing it on SBS though, especially 2008, not sure if that would work since it uses mapi to connect to exchange
Click to expand...

previous version was not made for SBS 08, SBS 03 worked fine.

new version has SBS 08 on the tested solutions
 
marley1 said:
I just deployed 3 different Blackberry Server Express installs. This is the new version that doesn't require the end user to have the BES Plan, saves em $10-15/month.

Only can activate with wire that way, if want to do wireless need BES plan.

All same functions, simple setup. Video is on the website.
Click to expand...

What do you mean activate with wire?
Im new to this, never used BPS either...sorry.
 
marley1 said:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express/

video on installation - https://www.blackberry.com/blackber...=636f6e6669675f6c6f76655f707572706c652e786d6c

wire means you wipe there phone (backup and sync to exchange first), plug phone into server, activate that way.

saves the company $10-15/month per phone since they can use the normal Blckberry Internet Plan. if you want the users to be able to do wireless activation (through enterprise activation in options) need BES.
Click to expand...

ahh cool.
Yea we can backup their phones and wipe em, thats not a big deal.
 
I just finished installing a BESX system on SBS 2008 Premium. Since they have SBS premium they get the 2nd Server 2008 Std license. It's used as their file and Hyper-V box. Now it's BESX too.

The install is exactly the same as BES, but you don't have all the features (MDS, PBX Integration, etc.). They give you just one license key that is good for 10,000 CALs.

I'm disappointed that they STILL have issues with the AD integration and the management interface. After you install you're unable to login and have to enable the "Use 3DES encryption" on the BES account you used for installation.

Riley
 
10k cals? really BES Express Licensing has really changed then.

I might be getting rid of my iphone and going back to a blackberry with this now.
 
Skud said:
I just finished installing a BESX system on SBS 2008 Premium. Since they have SBS premium they get the 2nd Server 2008 Std license. It's used as their file and Hyper-V box. Now it's BESX too.

The install is exactly the same as BES, but you don't have all the features (MDS, PBX Integration, etc.). They give you just one license key that is good for 10,000 CALs.

I'm disappointed that they STILL have issues with the AD integration and the management interface. After you install you're unable to login and have to enable the "Use 3DES encryption" on the BES account you used for installation.

Riley
Click to expand...

doesn't seem like a big issue in SMB, i normally just log in with admin, not even AD and configure, just the built in management. Small Biz usually means IT consultant does it all =)
 
Hm this is interesting, I had no idea there was a free option out there.

So a question for you folks that are using it... I don't care about anything other than proper IMAP functionality. It doesn't work properly using the carrier's servers, read notifications never get there, deletions from the server never get to the handset and so on. And I really, really, really don't like the idea that the carrier has my e-mail password. It's crap (why oh why can't I just have a regular old IMAP client on the phone FFS...). If I run one of these, can I attach it to my standard IMAP server and sorta-fix this?

Also, OT: Charging more for 'Enterprise' data is just ridiculous. The provider doesn't have to give you access to their BB infrastructure anymore = less services and less support, why should that cost more
 
Won't the new versions of BES allow you to GPS track all your blackberries as well?


I remember hearing something about that before our company switched to iphones. Funny, right after we switched they were asking about monitoring the phones whereabouts via-gps.... what a genius move.
 
I am was about to install it on our hosted exchange server, but that would be pointless if you can't activate OTA.
Can you activate OTA with the full BES provisioning from your cellphone provider?
 
yes, if your phone has BES Plan the 45/month one not hte 30/month, then you can do wireless activation.

if you have the 30 buck plan you can only do corded
 
i think the 10k users isn't correct....

here's a blurb from the bb website

Runs on the Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Small Business Server
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is certified for up to 75 BlackBerry smartphone users to be installed and run on the same server that runs Microsoft® Exchange 2003 SP2, 2007 SP1, 2010 or Windows® Small Business Server 2003 and 2008. This eliminates the need to purchase additional hardware. If you require greater than 75 users, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express has the flexibility to be installed on a separate server, supporting up to 2,000 BlackBerry smartphone users per server.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express/features.jsp
 
Well we only have 5 or so. I just deployed it today, install of BESX was simple. just activated my BB will do a few more in the office tomorrow. I have to say RIM giving this away now is major points in my book.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Anyone here setup a BES Express for a small business?
How does it compare to regular BES?
Click to expand...

I've done numerous installs of it for quite a few years...mostly on Small Biz Servers, or one some other member servers. It's been free for quite a while...first user free, additional phones were 99 bucks per.

I haven't done the new version on SBS08 yet.
 
R3d said:
i think the 10k users isn't correct....

here's a blurb from the bb website

Runs on the Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Small Business Server
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is certified for up to 75 BlackBerry smartphone users to be installed and run on the same server that runs Microsoft® Exchange 2003 SP2, 2007 SP1, 2010 or Windows® Small Business Server 2003 and 2008. This eliminates the need to purchase additional hardware. If you require greater than 75 users, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express has the flexibility to be installed on a separate server, supporting up to 2,000 BlackBerry smartphone users per server.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express/features.jsp
Click to expand...

That's BES Express on Microsoft SBS.. SBS only supports 75 users.

BES Express supports up to 75 users if you install it directly on the mail server or "2000+" users with dedicated hardware. Here is the comparison sheet.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/business/server/express/ComparisonChart_NA_021610_v3.pdf

When I installed BES Express last week for a client I was given only one key and it was for 10,000 users. The CALs are all free now and you only need to pay for support.

Riley
 
Yes sbs is limited to 75, bes free for all.

Good idea on RIM point though considering that I'm sure a lot of small biz was swapping users to win mobile, droids or iphone.

I will be testing more soon on a hyper v setup.

First support case is free just remember. After that its paid.
 
I've had BES installed at client sites for years- I think the first one was about 2000 or so. While I like that they've kept the "express" versions alive, and free to small business, I really wonder about this latest itteration. Great that they solved its ability to run on SBS2008, that was a huge limitation of BPS, but a lot has changed in this new version. One of the scariest things is no support. Users will need to rely on FAQs, KBs, and user forums to solve their problems. Wow. They've also pulled a lot of functionality out of this release, and one of the worst is the elimination of OTA activation and provisioning. Having to tether to the server, or through the desktop client is going to be painful. Time will tell, but I wish they'd just left BPS alone, or updated it enough to allow SBS08 installs. The free cals is nice, but was never an issue with any of my clients. IMO, they gave away a revenue generator that wasn't necessary.
 
I don't think people read, OTA is not disabled. If you have the BES plan on the phone you can do it.

If you buy a BBerry you have to get the BIS plan, if you have this server free means that you can just tether to activate which takes 30 seconds and can uplug the phone. Its free because you don't need the extrra 15 charge or the 100 CAL.

And forums and kb are good for free support. The install is very simple, you get 1 free support with ever CAL if you have an issue a year end one call will fix it. Forums are very fast either experts-exchange googles or the blackberry forums or crackberry.

What support do you have with Microsoft same type of scenario, google or pay the server team 250 a incident.
 
I'm reading up on this some, what all features does this have vs the professional software. Pointing me to a PDF comparison will be greate :)

Also, i don't see a Lotus Domino version anywhere. Any information on this?
 
<- BES Man this week =)

deployed it for about 3 offices, only 4 handhelds tho =)
 
Well one last question lol.

Is this for excahnge on SBS only? In the comparison PDF it states email platform as SBS.

But in other areas it says any Exchange server.

Has anyone installed this on Exchange 07 std, or would i be the first one ti give it a shot?
 
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