Jason Slater
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Loading ...Which mobile email solution to choose?
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Nokia e61i, Blackberry 8820, Apple iPhone, Windows Smartphone or something else?
In our business email has reached critical mass and the time has come to take it mobile. It’s a revolution in our little world almost as big as the introduction of the mobile phone itself. We already implemented Exchange Server 2007 but now I need to decide which direction to go for our field based personnel. Currently they have a mix of old but reliable Nokia based phones that pretty much just make and receive calls and send and receive SMS - but email on the road is rapidly becoming a requirement.
Looking at what’s available and even more importantly what I can get my hands on for testing I have this shortlist.
• Existing standard mobile phone (I have a Sony Ericsson K800i)
• Nokia e61i (we already have one in test)
• Blackberry 8820 (I recently won one in a prize draw)
• Apple iPhone (someone I know has one that I may be able to experiment with)
• Windows Smartphone (I may be able to get my hands on one for a while)
So the choices are there - unless there is a device I’ve missed of course.
Moving forward I guess the first thing is to decide what we want to achieve:
• make and receive calls
• send and receive SMS
• Send and receive email - preferably using Push with Exchange Server 2007 (preferably headers with the body an option)
• Use Wi-Fi if available to keep the costs down
• Have a decent battery life
• Be easy to use
• Open Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and PDF files
• Keep costs low
As we already have Exchange Server 2007 I am leaning towards using Exchange with Direct Push. The Nokia has a downloadable sync feature with Exchange and I am currently experimenting with that however the end user is using the standard pull facility for email (not without the odd quirk such as deleted emails remaining on the device!). The Blackberry, I believe, requires a dedicated node (BES Server) which could become a problem and the iPhone is on a single network at present which limits its appeal somewhat - though to use one is almost an emotional experience! I have always found battery life on Windows Smartphone’s to be somewhat short but I admit I haven’t used any of the recent ones (I gave up with my iMate JasJar last year because it was just soooo slow).
Have you successfully implemented a mobile email solution? Have you any advice/tips? Have you field tested or are you using any of the above (or any other) devices? If so, how have you got on with them?
Bear in mind depending on your type of business you may actually need to encrypt the device/emails on it or have a v.strong security policy.
This is the reason this corporate entity uses Blackberry over Exchange push. With blackberry we can set a policy so if wrong password entered 10 times the device is wiped. We can also wipe over air in event of loss - and also make the device lock after 10 mins of inactivity or if it is placed in its carry case.
It should be noted that many mobile companies will provide the BES license when you sign up with them, and with a small amount of users it can run on a VM.
Dan, that’s a good point about encryption - we don’t have a specific policy for that but it’s something we should certainly consider.
I will ask our mobile provider about the BES license - if we can get hold of one then that certainly puts Blackberry back in the running.
The smartphone is a good bet as it is the most flexible solution especially as Windows Mobile is starting to find it’s feet.
We use a web-based groupware system called DeskNow, which has a rather convenient web interface for mobile users. Nothing fancy, but means you can use any kind of smartphone to log onto the groupware and peruse e-mail, shared calendars etc. No, it’s not push (although you can set it up to be - see www.desknow.com), but it works well for our small business. We use Windows Mobile 6 devices (Ubiquio smartphones, to be precise, which are available unlocked at very reasonable prices from Expansys).
No, I wouldn’t touch Exchange with a very long bargepole. I’ve tried, I’ve recoiled in horror!
Cheers,
Bill
Oops, sorry - and just to add, we also use SSL encryption (through the wonderful open-source SSL Explorer), which allows for tunneling, reverse proxying and all sorts of other goodies usually associated with expensive SSL VPN solutions (although there have been a spate of cheap’n'cheerful releases from e.g. NetGear and others recently). DesNow does offer an SSL option, however, which we used previously (not bad, but a bit slow).
Bill, thanks for the feedback I will take a look at the smart phones and have signed up for a demo account at Desknow. On the surface, the solution does seem to be something of a cross between owa and sharepoint though there is clearly much more going on behind the scenes - especially with the spam protection and antivirus integration.
I made the mistake of running 2 seperate options for our organisations employees. From a small company perspective, Blackberry is a bit of a beast, in terms of the amount of time we have to iron out sync issues, or otherwise. These are inherent, I believe, to most mobile email solutions, and to be fair, most people seem happy with it. I’d like to see a greater range of blackberry devices that support BES enterprise, touch screen etc.
I much prefer the Windows Mobile solution. We had a fwe problems to start with, but we have several users who use palm treo’s, that have hardly had any problems. You’ve got the infrastructure for it. Go with a telecoms provider that gives you a monthly data tariff to ensure costs don’t spiral if many big attachments are bouncing around.
Thanks for the info Gregory. One of my big concerns is the costs related to attachments especially as we tend to have a lot of artwork proofs flying around in PDF format - I try and convince people to keep these files small but some can be 10MB+ in size.
BES is something of an unknown quantity to me as I’ve never seen it in operation and I’m not sure how it integrates/hooks into Exchange Server.
Thanks for the info . One of my big concerns is the costs related to attachments especially as we tend to have a lot of artwork proofs flying around in PDF format - I try and convince people to keep these files small but some can be 10MB+ in size.
BES is something of an unknown quantity to me as I’ve never seen it in operation and I’m not sure how it integrates/hooks into Exchange Server.
Comment by Jason Slater - November 30, 2007 @
Thanks for the info.One of my big concerns is the costs related to attachments especially as we tend to have a lot of artwork proofs flying around in PDF format - I try and convince people to keep these files small but some can be 10MB+ in size.
BES is something of an unknown quantity to me as I’ve never seen it in operation and I’m not sure how it integrates/hooks into Exchange Server.
Comment by Jason Slater - November 30, 2007 @
We’re running Exchange 2003 with 15 Win Mobile 6 devices - all HTC s710s and 2 TyTN2 (aka Kaiser).
Its brilliant and so easy to use. The killer phone is the TyTN2 - battery last approx 2 days if you don’t blaze the WiFi - activesync works great, and direct push is a doddle. TyTN2 is quick, easy to use, has almost every app you need out of the box, comes with most of the accessories you’ll want (car charger is £9 and car holder is about £25) including a case and screen protector. The screen is clear, keyboard easy enough to type on and the speaker loud enough without it sounding nasty.
Why buy a blackberry when this works out of the box with Exchange and a permanent internet connection!
Mine’s on Vodafone as where I live its got the best 3G and HSDPA coverage - that’s insanely quick.
Only thing is - its a bit of a handful - but then even people with big fingers can type on it quite well!
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