RIM Launches BlackBerry Professional Software

[BESadmin]

RIM Launches BlackBerry Professional Software, A New Wireless Solution for Small and Medium Businesses
5th November 2007
www.rim.com

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the immediate availability of BlackBerry® Professional Software - a new wireless communications and collaboration solution that tightly integrates with the industry leading email servers and is specifically designed and priced to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. BlackBerry Professional Software is based on the core functionality of the best-in-class BlackBerry® Enterprise Server software used by governments and large organizations worldwide, but it is streamlined and tailored to meet the needs of smaller organizations with up to 30 wireless users. BlackBerry Professional Software is priced at $499 for 5 users.

BlackBerry Professional Software enables small and medium-sized businesses to enhance communications and collaboration with an enterprise-grade mobility solution – allowing user-friendly wireless access to email, organizer, Internet and intranet applications with advanced security – while addressing the desirefor an in-house solution that is affordable, simple to install and easy to manage.

"Small and medium-sized organizations have many of the same business requirements for a mobility solution as compared with larger enterprises, but they often require more streamlined administration features," said Carrie MacGillivray, Senior Analyst, SMB Markets: Mobility, IDC. "It has become increasingly important for smaller companies to be able to easily and cost-effectively deploy and manage mobile technology solutions in order to remain competitive and responsive to customers. An offer that combines a mobility solution with enterprise grade middleware, and an intuitive user interface, will resonate with this increasingly mobile segment."

Key features and benefits of BlackBerry Professional Software include:

• Small IT Footprint – Installs on the same server as the email system, saving customers the cost of additional hardware and operating system licenses.
• Support for the Leading Email Systems – Provides tight integration with Microsoft® Exchange or IBM® Lotus® Domino®, allowing a full complement of synchronized wireless services including access to email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.
• Simple Installation – A Pre-install Assistant utility performs a technical assessment of the environment and provides a recommended configuration making installation fast and easy with little or no requirement to determine configuration settings.
• Easy Management – Simplified BlackBerry Manager Interface is a one-stop location for most management tasks, and wizards and quick-links enable customers to easily change common functions such as adding or deleting a user. IT policies are also easy to set up with pre-defined IT policy templates.
• Advanced Security – Utilizes the same certified security architecture and encryption system of the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which is trusted and accredited by more organizations around the world than any other wireless solution.
• BlackBerry® MDS (Mobile Data System) Support – Provides customers with the ability to extend internal applications to mobile employees and use any of the thousands of third party applications developed for the BlackBerry platform.

“Productivity and flexibility are obviously important for small and medium-sized businesses and we know that the majority of these businesses are interested in a wireless solution, but many have been waiting for a server product that can afford greater IT simplicity while still allowing a superior quality of experience for users. We specifically designed BlackBerry Professional Software to provide a more simplified and affordable solution for small and medium-sized businesses, while maintaining industry leading performance, security and control,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

Pricing, Upgrading & How To Buy

BlackBerry Professional Software is priced at $499 USD (MSRP) for 5 users and $849 USD (MSRP) for 10 users. Either package can be expanded to support up to 30 wireless users with the purchase of additional standard Client Access Licenses (CALs). BlackBerry Professional Software can also be easily upgraded to BlackBerry Enterprise Server. BlackBerry Professional Software is available in multiple languages (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) and can be purchased via electronic software download from www.blackberry.com/professional.

Special Introductory Offer – Limited Time

With the launch of BlackBerry Professional Software, RIM is also announcing a special introductory offer. Beginning today and running until November 30, 2007, customers who purchase any 5 new BlackBerry smartphones will be eligible to receive a 5-user BlackBerry Professional Software package ($499 USD value). Visit www.blackberry.com/professional for details.

About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

[BESadmin]

Compare

Not sure if BlackBerry® Professional Software is right for your business?
Compare it to BlackBerry® Enterprise Server options that are also available:

[GaryCutri]

As a "brief" summary of BlackBerry Professional Software and it's differences from BlackBerry Enterprise Server Small Business Edition refer to the points below:

• User limit has been increased from 15 user to 30 user
• CALS are now for unified for all versions e.g. This new Professional Edition will accept Enterprise and Small Business CALs
• The software now has a pre-install check to assist self installers
• This version is designed to be installed on the Mail server. i.e. It was not recommended to install BES on the mail server
• A new and simplified GUI interfaced has been applied to this new version.
• I.T Policies and now predefined and allow anyone to fully secure their BlackBerry server
• New wizards have been added to allow easy management of BlackBerry users e.g. “Add User” know asks for the person, then prompts for I.T Policy and then shows you all the ways to activate the

[West]

Hello. Please clarify something for me.

What will the Blackberry Professional Software synchronize from Exchange ... all of which is running on a Windows Small Business Server 2003? More importantly, what will it NOT synchronize?

Obviously, your previous post (above) states that Calendars will indeed be sync'd ... but I've read conflicting information on the web from so-called experts in an "experts exchange" forum.

Currently, we utilize the free Redirect Service you offer ... but are looking into other more robust options.

Thanks in advance.

[GaryCutri]

Hello. Please clarify something for me.

What will the Blackberry Professional Software synchronize from Exchange ... all of which is running on a Windows Small Business Server 2003? More importantly, what will it NOT synchronize?

Obviously, your previous post (above) states that Calendars will indeed be sync'd ... but I've read conflicting information on the web from so-called experts in an "experts exchange" forum.

Currently, we utilize the free Redirect Service you offer ... but are looking into other more robust options.

Thanks in advance.

Using BlackBerry Professional you can get wireless Synchronize for all Outlook Data. To clarify this covers the following items:

1. Email
2. Calendar
3. Contacts
4. Tasks
5. Notes

[West]

Gary, thanks for clarifying.

I apologize for sounding paranoid but are there any tricks to getting the full sync working on a Small Business Server 2003 running Exchange 2003?

Additionally, does this solution offer the "push" feature that we've seen with Windows Mobile solutions? To clarify, changes are pushed to the relevant BB device; a manual sync is not required.

Thanks, again. This solution is exactly what we're looking for. Otherwise, we would have to trade in all of our Blackberries for a Windows Mobile solution which Exchange communicates with by design.

[GaryCutri]

Gary, thanks for clarifying.

I apologize for sounding paranoid but are there any tricks to getting the full sync working on a Small Business Server 2003 running Exchange 2003?

Additionally, does this solution offer the "push" feature that we've seen with Windows Mobile solutions? To clarify, changes are pushed to the relevant BB device; a manual sync is not required.

Thanks, again. This solution is exactly what we're looking for. Otherwise, we would have to trade in all of our Blackberries for a Windows Mobile solution which Exchange communicates with by design.

Basically RIM\BlackBerry are the pioneers of Push email so this feature is 100% confirmed. It actually works a lot better than the Microsoft solution in this regard. Now to install BES Pro on a SBS Box you can follow this guide: BES on SBS 2003

Please note that steps 10-12 are a little different in BlackBerry Professional but you need to look for the same Enterprise Activation option on the "Users" tab.

[West]

Gary,

Thanks for all the feedback - and great news at that.

As a final question, does the BB Professional Software solution also synchronize:

Public Folders
Public Calendars

If not, are there alternate ways to allow these public entities to be synchronized to our BB devices?

Thank you very much!

[GaryCutri]

Gary,

Thanks for all the feedback - and great news at that.

As a final question, does the BB Professional Software solution also synchronize:

Public Folders
Public Calendars

If not, are there alternate ways to allow these public entities to be synchronized to our BB devices?

Thank you very much!

At this stage a Blackberry Server/Device is only able to sync public folders via cable. To trick the system you can use an application such as Add2Exchange will sync a public item to a private item. As an example you can sync a public contact list to your personal contacts which will then wirelessly sync with your device.

[West]

Great; thanks.

Do you have a definitive and trusted download URL for "Add2Exchange" ?

Google produced a list of RED FLAGGED sites, according to Site Advisor.