Small organizations can simply use the BlackBerry Desktop Redirector, rather than BlackBerry Enterprise Server, to relay messages from users' mailboxes to their BlackBerry devices. However, the Desktop Redirector requires each user's PC to remain online so that the software can access and transmit messages, so BlackBerry Enterprise Server is more efficient when you're dealing with more than a few mailboxes, especially if your BlackBerry users have laptops rather than desktop PCs.
After you assign a BlackBerry device to a user, you need to register that user with your BlackBerry Enterprise Server to establish communications. Figure 1 shows some of the information that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server user database holds. This information includes statistics about the number of messages that the user's device has sent and received and the number of pending messages that haven't been delivered because of a network outage or because the user's BlackBerry is turned off. (You can purge pending messages from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to prevent a user from receiving a flood of new messages when the user's device becomes available.)
BlackBerry Enterprise Server monitors user mailboxes for new messages. The server is multithreaded and can monitor hundreds of mailboxes for messages to send and receive. When a message arrives in a user's mailbox, BlackBerry Enterprise Server uses a mixture of CDO and MAPI calls to copy the message, converts the copy to plain text, then sends the first 2000 bytes to the user's handheld. If the user needs to read more of the message, he or she can ask BlackBerry Enterprise Server to send more information. Typically, BlackBerry Enterprise Server transmits messages through the corporate firewall to a network provideroperated relay server, which then transmits the messages to users' devices. (For details of the interaction between BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the network, and the handheld, see "BlackBerry Enterprise Server Day to Day," January 2003, http://www.exchangeadmin.com, InstantDoc ID 27220.)
BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrators can generate an All Points Bulletin from the server to one or more users. Typically, this message advises users about a problem, such as an Exchange server outage or the need to take down the BlackBerry Enterprise Server system. As Figure 2 shows, you select which servers will generate the message and which users will receive the message, then create the message subject and body. An All Points Bulletin doesn't use Exchange; instead, BlackBerry Enterprise Server addresses the message to users' PINs. Because BlackBerry Enterprise Server sends the All Points Bulletin directly to the wireless network, delivery is extremely fast.
The Desktop
When not attached to users' belts, BlackBerry devices live in cradles linked to PCs. The connection between the cradle and the PC provides power to recharge the device's battery as well as a channel through which BlackBerry Desktop Manager, which you install on the user's PC, synchronizes the device with the user's email account.
Synchronization compares items in the user's Exchange email account to the same items on the handheld and gives priority to the email-account version. BlackBerry Desktop Manager also uploads new items that a user creates on the handheld (e.g., contacts). Of course, synchronization works well only when users perform it regularly—ideally, at least once a week. BlackBerry Desktop Manager's Intellisync options control how the handheld synchronizes. If users run into trouble, you can click View log to see the results of the most recent synchronization operation.
BlackBerry Desktop Manager's Redirector Settings, which Figure 3 shows, let users create filters to determine which messages BlackBerry Enterprise Server will send to the handheld. In most situations, you can advise users to set the filters to pass along only messages for which they are a To or Bcc recipient, although some users might also want to see messages for which they are a Cc recipient. Users can also create custom filters, as Figure 4 shows, to configure specific instructions for messages to or from specific people.
By default, the filters won't forward distribution list (DL) messages unless Outlook has expanded the list or unless the list is a personal DL. Users can customize their filters to receive messages sent to DLs, but accepting the default protects users from receiving most spam (unsolicited commercial email—UCE—generators often use DLs to target users). By default, BlackBerry Enterprise Server doesn't forward messages that don't match a configured filter, but users can override that setting.
By default, BlackBerry Enterprise Server monitors only the user's Inbox. If a user wants to check other folders, he or she can use the Folder Redirection filter (available on the Redirector Settings dialog box's Advanced tab) to instruct the server to watch specific folders. For example, a user might want to configure this option when he or she has created Outlook filters that refile messages as they arrive in the user's Inbox.
Get Connected
From a mobility perspective, the BlackBerry is an excellent email solution, letting users stay in touch with their Exchange-based email and calendar wherever a supported wireless network is available. Although the device isn't likely to replace all the other mobile devices on your Exchange users' belts, getting to know the BlackBerry a bit better will be well worth your time.
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