HBES a tough sell?

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on July 7, 2006, at 10:20 AM
in News
.
Comments: 9 responses
9 Comments

Yesterday we told you about RIM’s announcement of HBES deployment — a BlackBerry Enterprise Server hosted by a mobile operator, allowing enterprises to have BlackBerry functionality without the fuss of managing it. We here at BlackBerry Cool believe that HBES is a good solution for small to medium sized business who can’t afford or don’t have the technical knowledge to manage their own BES.

However, Elena Malykhina from InformationWeek doesn’t believe that HBES is necessarily the SMB solution that RIM is presenting it to be. She believes that companies who haven’t yet taken the BES plunge will still be turned off from having to give away IT control to the HBES operator — especially for mobile email devices like the Blackerry, which are always at the front line of security concerns for IT admins.


Malykhina also points to BES using enterprises who wouldn’t be convinced to switch to hosted service.

Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, an investment banking firm with more than 700 employees, has an in-house BlackBerry Enterprise Server for wireless E-mail. The firm can’t imagine going with a hosted service. Even though technology costs and rollout times are much greater for small and medium companies, deploying e-mail internally was worth it because it “delivers on security and compliance requirements,” says Fred Weiss, the firm’s IT manager.

So what do you think, folks? Is HBES a practical solution for most small to medium sized business? Post a comment and let us know.

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  • http://beyondthebleedingedge.blogspot.com/ Andrew

    I am relatively new to the Blackberry world, but a quick search on google brings up lots of hosted Exchange and BES providers.

    What is so new about this announcement?

    As the owner of a small software design firm, it is much easier for us (a technically literate company) to have this type of app., hosted.

  • http://beyondthebleedingedge.blogspot.com/ Andrew

    I am relatively new to the Blackberry world, but a quick search on google brings up lots of hosted Exchange and BES providers.

    What is so new about this announcement?

    As the owner of a small software design firm, it is much easier for us (a technically literate company) to have this type of app., hosted.

  • http://beyondthebleedingedge.blogspot.com Andrew

    I am relatively new to the Blackberry world, but a quick search on google brings up lots of hosted Exchange and BES providers.

    What is so new about this announcement?

    As the owner of a small software design firm, it is much easier for us (a technically literate company) to have this type of app., hosted.

  • http://www.elephantoutlook.com/ Ingram Leedy

    Hosted Blackberry service is a great idea and can cost a company far less than maintaining internally.

    Email and BES are demanding applications that requires a robust hardware and environmental environments to support users with the fastest response time and most reliability.

    A hosted solution also provides technical expertise and support services that gives companies one less thing to worry about and keeps them focused on their business.

    Ingram Leedy
    Elephant Outlook Managed Exchange
    http://www.elephantoutlook.com

  • http://www.elephantoutlook.com/ Ingram Leedy

    Hosted Blackberry service is a great idea and can cost a company far less than maintaining internally.

    Email and BES are demanding applications that requires a robust hardware and environmental environments to support users with the fastest response time and most reliability.

    A hosted solution also provides technical expertise and support services that gives companies one less thing to worry about and keeps them focused on their business.

    Ingram Leedy
    Elephant Outlook Managed Exchange
    http://www.elephantoutlook.com

  • http://www.elephantoutlook.com Ingram Leedy

    Hosted Blackberry service is a great idea and can cost a company far less than maintaining internally.

    Email and BES are demanding applications that requires a robust hardware and environmental environments to support users with the fastest response time and most reliability.

    A hosted solution also provides technical expertise and support services that gives companies one less thing to worry about and keeps them focused on their business.

    Ingram Leedy
    Elephant Outlook Managed Exchange
    http://www.elephantoutlook.com

  • http://www.apeman.org/ Chris Murray

    This really isn’t big news, because this is already available, but it is important to smaller firms that would normally shy away from Hosted BES might be more likely to use a service offered by RIM, or one of its larger partners (IBM, EDS, etc).

    BES can be a pig, and really needs to run on a seperate machine than your Exchange, Groupwise or Notes server. The startup cost for a small firm can be quite large (OS, Hardware, and BES). If you only have a handful of users it makes a lot of sense to outsource.

  • http://www.apeman.org/ Chris Murray

    This really isn’t big news, because this is already available, but it is important to smaller firms that would normally shy away from Hosted BES might be more likely to use a service offered by RIM, or one of its larger partners (IBM, EDS, etc).

    BES can be a pig, and really needs to run on a seperate machine than your Exchange, Groupwise or Notes server. The startup cost for a small firm can be quite large (OS, Hardware, and BES). If you only have a handful of users it makes a lot of sense to outsource.

  • http://www.cashforberrys.com/ Sell iPhone

    I agree with you Ingram Leedy. Hosted Blackberry service is really a great idea.