BES Express vs BES

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NotSoSimple

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We are up for TSupport renewal and my boss thinks that going BES Express would be better.

Are the TSupport prices for both products the same? Anyone regret switching? We are a modest ~25 user BES and do not use IT Policies or anything.
 
I don't know about the support costs or anything. You don't need to buy a support contract at all to use BES Express, can get per incident support I think. I just setup a new BES Express server on Monday and have to say it is much improved over the older versions I've worked with. Nice web interface, can manage it without having to RDP in. You can still use IT Policies and remote lock/wipe devices like regular BES, only for free.
 
Difference between BES and BES express are basically this.

Enterprise features!

Things like clustering (natively in the app), the BES console instead of the web admin page (IMHO the console is miles ahead of the web page when managing multiple phones), writing and deploying AD based IT policy, etc etc etc.

I find unless you have multiple (More then say 3) dedicated BES admins then the enterprise version makes sense (because most likely you have more then 2 servers, and they are probably clustered, and probably have more then 1,000 phones). But for most people BES Express and a support contract (if you call a lot, pay per incident if you don't) is more then enough.
 
Do you know how much the incidents are?

Sounds like BES Express does tons. We are already using the web interface with BES.
 
BES can activate remotely

BESX you have to have the phone connected to the server to activate it. BESX has 75 device limit.

(go with BESX) Not only is it free, but then your BB's don't have to have the "enterprise" activation on them through the carrier which I know that ATT and Verizon charge an extra $15 per month for that "feature"

It was a no brainer for me when I told my staff that not only did we not have to buy the software, but they could remove enterprise activation and save themselves cold hard cash every month. (our users pay for their own phone and service)
 
cyr0n_k0r said:
BES can activate remotely

BESX you have to have the phone connected to the server to activate it. BESX has 75 device limit.

(go with BESX) Not only is it free, but then your BB's don't have to have the "enterprise" activation on them through the carrier which I know that ATT and Verizon charge an extra $15 per month for that "feature"

It was a no brainer for me when I told my staff that not only did we not have to buy the software, but they could remove enterprise activation and save themselves cold hard cash every month. (our users pay for their own phone and service)
Click to expand...

No shit? Any impact on useability though without the Enterprise Data Plan?

Hmm having to have the device local though is a problem. Our BES is located in our Colo in San Francisco. I am in Portland :p
 
NotSoSimple said:
No shit? Any impact on useability though without the Enterprise Data Plan?

Hmm having to have the device local though is a problem. Our BES is located in our Colo in San Francisco. I am in Portland :p
Click to expand...

From what I have heard (I haven't tried it yet) you can install some kind of desktop agent on your machine and then plug your phone into it then activate.

The point is that the BB has to be kinda in your hand when activating. It can't be done "remotely" over the air.
 
cyr0n is sorta right.

bes express is free and limited to 75 users. you can still pay the extra 10 or 15 a month through your phone service for the enterprise plan for wireless activation - good for those users that are away from office or remote.

you can keep the free BIS cell phone service (just a normal data plan for the blackberry), and can plug into the server to activate and you will still work over the air for sync, you just lose benefit of wireless activation.

you can still get support with either, signing up for BES Express gives you 1 free support when you call.
 
right. you still have to have the data plan.. which is X per month. But all the carriers charge ANOTHER X per month for the "enterprise" activation. ATT I think its an extra $15/month.

So my users were happy we are saving them money out of their own pocket.
 
Good info, thanks guys.

Wireless activation is a big thing for us. I have been searching but cannot find the cost of a one time support call or a TSupport for them.

Edit: Yeah it is a no go. No wireless activation was the killer. Dang, I was hoping to save $15/m myself. Guess I am still switching to Andrioid in January :p
 
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Nothing beats bes, I am not liking supporting droids.

Do you have field users? What's the nred for wifi activation
 
marley1 said:
Do you have field users? What's the nred for wifi activation
Click to expand...

We have a couple remote users with BBs, but our BES sits in our Colo which I do not have access too. I am the BES admin and the colo is 630 miles away. So if we cannot do wireless activation and HAVE to connect the devices to the BES, it will not work for us.
 
Not sure how it works, but apparently there is an IE Active X control that probes your machine for the phone, but I've activated phones from my laptop. Would kind of have too since my BESX box is a VM.

Guess I didn't realize that it was a 75 user max. I thought it was a 75 user max for SBS? In fact I'm pretty sure I read the 75 users was a cap because of SBS and if you had a regular server / exchange environment there wasn't a cap.
 
You can activate over the air with BES Express. I just did it Monday. You create an activation code, email it to the user, have the user enter the enterprise activation code and in a few minutes it starts working. I did not have to physically attach the phone to the network or a computer at all.
 
Some knowledge bombs for y'all.

Enterprise activation (OTA): THIS DOES WORK. It does require you to have an enterprise data plan on the phone, but OTA updates, activation etc, all work.

Non-Enterprise Activation: This is done through the blackberry web desktop manager. Essentially it is the desktop manager software that interfaces to your phone with activeX. It can be done but can also be a pain in the ass.

User limit: 10,000. The License you get for BESX is a 10,000 device license for single server. I personally would never run more then about 2,500 devices off a single server but you can do it. BES is what allows you to distribute that load over multiple servers actively.

Cost of single support case: $250. I don't know if that is one size fits all, but when I called RIM today for my BESX install issue I asked and that's what they told me.

Bottom line, for SMB you can't get a better Blackberry solution then BESX, HOWEVER IT IS NOT THE BEST MOBILE SOLUTION. ActiveSync is a much better protocol for managing phones, and it is caveman stupid if you are running Exchange 2007 / 2010.
 
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