OneStream

blackberry_v5.0

BlackBerry v5.0 – What it means?

Sometime ago we installed Blackberry Enterprise Server (Version 5) from our original Blackberry Professional Server system (4.x).

Here’s a few things you can expect in terms of the key improvements in end user functionality. First things first, you need to be running with a recent BlackBerry ie a Bold, Bold2, Storm, Storm2, 8520 to benefit from all of the new features. That’s not to say it won’t work with older BlackBerry handsets, it does… however you may miss out on some of the more interesting newer features.

Improved email graphics

HTML emails – If you’ve ever used a BlackBerry, you will know that all emails are text based, meaning they don’t look like they do when you view them in Outlook on your computer.

The new version 5 BlackBerry server system does have this capability, so emails you receive and send will look very much the same as if you were using Outlook and certainly as the sender intended them to look.

Public Folder Access – Ever used these in Outlook? These are now accessible on BlackBerry devices with v5. Our B2B Account Managers have said that this is a common ‘want’ from customers for sometime. In the past, if you wanted public folder access, then you would have needed to attach the BlackBerry to the pc via a cable to sync it.

Network access – In short, this means that when you are out of the office you will be able to access files and folders on the server. This is handset dependent, only Bold 2 and Storm2 have the system ‘out of the box’, the other handsets may need a software update, depending on the device you are using.

For example, in our business, it means that all our B2B team are able to access the ‘B2B drive’ on the servers and open, edit or forward on via email ANY document such as an OCF, PDFor Word document that we currently store on servers at our head office.

Outlook folders – Normally you would be able to view your full outlook folder structure on a blackberry, however now you can create, edit or delete these folders.

Outlook Flags – For the super organised who use ‘Flags’ to organise Outlook messages by colours/importance, this is now available on the blackberry devices also.

Windows Media files – Not a business critical upgrade, however you can now listen to Windows media files on your device (as opposed to standard MP3 files).

So the verdict… well worth considering.

As an IT professional working in the mobile industry. I come across many many new applications and systems that I would consider to be impressive/cool or great to have -  however the increased efficiency that I have seen within our own business from running  Blackberry 5 is already proving to be one of those things we cannot do without.

One more point to note out, this system is the full enterprise system, known as BES. What we generally install or support our customers with is known at BPS and unfortunately many of these new features are not available on BPS, however we believe these enhanced features mean it is well worth considering the upgrade to BES 5.

Feel free to let us know your thoughts by commenting below,  or  for more information and advice, contact james@onestream.co.uk