Yesterday and today, I focused on setting up and testing a Blackberry Enterprise Small Business Server.  I have to say that I was originally not happy with the price of the Blackberry Enterprise server ($3000 for 5 users), but then they released the SBS version ($1100 for 5 users).  I was willing to jump on board for that price but when I called Blackberry to get it set up, I found out even better news.  Since we had recently purchased a new Blackberry device (within 30 days) we were eligible for a free 1 user license of the SBS server.  We would only have to purchase a 5-user license pack ($490) to get our other devices working.  Talk about excited, this went from $3000 to less than $500 to get our small but loyal Blackberry crowd taken care of.

About the installation and setup.  Yesterday I spent most of the day setting up the prerequisite accounts and installing the prerequisite software before even installing the SBS server.  I know this sounds like a DUH, but follow the directions that are in the docs folder of the Blackberry software and you’ll make it through painlessly.  This morning I borrowed Rob’s old Blackberry and called T-Mobile to have my current account setup with Blackberry access temporarily.  I have to say I was impressed with T-Mobile.  I was told they would turn it on for as long as I wanted, and I could call to turn it off and I would only be charged a prorated fee for the time used.  I was expecting to have to sign up for a month minimum and potentially a longer contract, but they made it very easy.  I took the SIM card from my phone and put it in the Blackberry and pretty soon it was up and running.  At this point I needed to get the Enterprise activation working, but I couldn’t find it.  Between looking it up on the internet and asking Ado I was able to “find” the hidden controls and get to the Options menu.  (There is a button on the left hand side of the keyboard that they call an “alt” button, but Ado and I decided looks like a StarTrek symbol.  Press this button and hold then press the wheel and all the hidden icons will show up.)  On the server I created a user account and had it send the password via email to the Exchange server account.  I ran the Enterprise activation and the device was up and running in no time.

I’m really impressed with the capabilities of the Blackberry Enterprise server.  Today, I was able to get the device up, running and receiving emails including emails with attachments (docs, txt, images, xls), all in a few hours.  The server allows software to be pushed out to the devices, devices to be locked remotely and devices to be wiped clean and disabled.  Tomorrow I am planning on trying out the software push feature.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

Robba