One of the best features of The BlackBerry Solution is not the smartphone most people think of when they hear the word "BlackBerry", but the behind the scenes power of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and the Network Operations Center (NOC) that enable push email and centralized device management.
With BlackBerry Connect, organizations have the flexibility to enable BlackBerry service for non-BlackBerry devices. This article reviews the supported platforms and devices, the advantages of using BlackBerry Connect, and alternative ways to accomodate non-BlackBerry users in the enterprise. A brief discussion of how to get started is also included.
BlackBerry Connect Supported Platforms and Devices
BlackBerry Connect software has been written for devices running the Windows Mobile Operating System, the Palm Operating System, and the Symbian Operating System. Devices with BlackBerry Connect software can be purchased from many device manufacturers, such as Nokia, HTC, Motorola and Palm.
BlackBerry Connect Advantages
The primary advantage of using BlackBerry Connect software is that it allows for central adminstration of the organization's devices all from one place. While a BlackBerry environment might be more simple to manage if all users had BlackBerry smartphones, the reality is that if a user high enough in the organization is loyal to a certain device, the IT department will have to support it. While IT may not be able to wrestle the CEO away from his Palm device, if all the devices in the organization can be managed from the BES the environment will be more standardized and more simple to manage.
Using BlackBerry Connect provides an alternative way to push email to devices without having to invest in Good Technology's back-end software that competes with BES, saving the organization software licensing fees and training costs of having two competing products performing the same basic function within the organization.
BlackBerry Connect Alternatives
If an organization would like to accomodate devices that do not work with BlackBerry Connect, or would like to use devices outside of their BlackBerry Environment, many alternatives exist.
For Exchange users, Windows Mobile phones can be set up to work directly with the email server. The organization would lose some of the security and managment features of BES, but email could be accessed.
For Lotus Notes/Domino users, many Windows Mobile and Nokia devices can directly access email using Lotus Traveler, a product that is free to organizations with current Notes/Domino licenses from IBM. The iPhone can access email via Notes UltraLite, a scaled down version of webmail.
Other alternatives exist as well. Before purchasing a device, the user should check with their organization's IT department to be sure their device is supported.
How to Get Started
If an organization wishes to take advantage of the BlackBerry Connect software's features, the user would need an approved device, a carrier data plan, and a carrier BlackBerry plan. The synchronization software would then need to be downloaded from the manufacturer's site and added to the user's computer. Then, the user would visit the service provider's site to download the BlackBerry Connect software to the PC. Finally, the user's IT department would add that user to the BES.
For more information, see this Case Study, or read more on RIM's site.
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