34 replies to this topic

[gilesjuk]

Sonicr360, on Jul 10 2006, 15:16, said:

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever heard of a telephone??? a TELEPHONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I guess push email is a sort of modern replacement for a pager. Of course a text message will do, it's just it's easier typing messages on a PC.

[chucky.egg]

Swampie, on Jul 11 2006, 11:05, said:

...Most people would take the call and ask the other guy you're talking to to wait...

Personally I use the "Hang up" button to send them to voicemail

What would be neat would be to be able to add a "Subject" to a voice call, like you do with email, so the recipient of the call can say "Nah, that's not important to me right now", or "Oh yes, I need to take this call"

[Sonicr360]

Push Email could of course be "seen" as an alternative to a pager... of course an email can be much longer than a 15 - 30 character message! Aka SMS (which we all know about!) Yes its instant, it works, cheap too!

I use a Server for collecting / sending emails, and its configure to retrieve emails every few mins, and it works. I could setup Push Email, but I do not see any real lneed for it. My Emails are required for Support / Consultancy ect and it works fine with my WM5 device. Again there are others that may not use it for this type of setup, and hence no need for push email. Thats not to say I can use it, because I can and its all ready to go, but I just do not need it. And its certainly never stopped me offering a service to customers because of the "lack" of Push Email.

But to say its so essential that you need information from someone as they are going on leave really does beg the question "why not use a phone" or another method.

Sometimes we rely on too much Technology, which was the point I was trying to make. What if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere and your PPC Battery died and have no way of charging.... what would you do..... sit there or use some iniative?

I still see this service as a "late comer" to RIM's (Aka blackberry). However, to some its probably a god-send and means you have a service you always dreamed of !!!!  

Still, each to their own me thinks! and I agree, if it was not for all of our comments and opinions, devices and services like PPC, Smartphones and even the soon to hit up (UMPC) and the NEXT version of the Windows OS Mobile Software would not be in development  

BTW, please do NOT take things so seriously guys; My sister having cancer and the loss of her leg is FAR FAR more important that a discussion about the NEED for Push Email.

There are more important things out there to consider  

Thanks again.

[Sonicr360]

Socrates, on Jul 10 2006, 20:46, said:

I use it every single day, and it's crucial to my business.

Most of my customers now contact me with suport problems by email rather than phone, and it's simply made things far more efficient and profitable.

Profitable.... hmmm unsure where you get that from, but if it works !!
S.

[chucky.egg]

Quote

But to say its so essential that you need information from someone as they are going on leave really does beg the question "why not use a phone" or another method.

I explained that a few posts back.

Voice calls are not always the best way to do things.  Phone a friend and explain how to change your PCs IP address.  They might remember the process, they might even understand it, but will they be able to repeat it later?

We also have an unwritten policy that you don't call colleagues when they are on leave - you send an email.  That way if they want to pick it up they can, but you're not interrupting their time off.

I guess it goes back to to what Swampie was saying about people being rude and answering calls whilst in a conversation.  You do have the option to ignore emails and calls.  

With the technology comes some duty - to be courteous and respectful of those around you.

Quote

...please do NOT take things so seriously guys...
There are more important things out there to consider

True, but nobody is getting too serious IMO and this topic is about this issue

[Sonicr360]

Socrates, on Jul 10 2006, 20:48, said:

I can't always pick up the phone and talk to a customer while I'm sitting in a different customer's office running the meter on their billing. However I can glace at my email and see if it's an emergency  or not.
Plus I also prefer to have customers underlings leave a paper trail of EXACTLY what they told me rather than having them go go their boss later and play he said she said when they forget to describe the problem correctly to me over the phone.

Socrates - Yes I would tend to agree because like myself you cannot take a call from CustomerB if you are seeing CustomerA, but even without PushEmail, I can still achieve comms in minutes (ie 3min retrieval) with no real delays and can still respond back even without CustomerA knowing  

Also... I assume if you have PushEmail, you have a Messaging Server... therefore all the emails are in a papertrail called an Exchange Database. (Unless you are using an alternative technology with PushEmail).

If there is a requirement for it in your Business, deploy it  
If not, then dont  
S.

[Sonicr360]

jimbouk, on Jul 10 2006, 23:04, said:

Some superb points made above - apart from the guy who said we dont need it and he wont ever use it.

I wonder if he said the same about digital clocks and has an old fashioned clock by his bed. If so I wonder if he finds it frustrating if he wants to check the time in the middle of the night, he has to turn the light on so he can see the clockface?

Setting your device to sync/send-receive every 15 minutes is fine - but if there are no emails then it has a data cost for no benefit and potentially a 29 minute lag (as mentioned above) - as this could be the difference between meeting/exceeding a customers expectations and getting/keeping the business, I am all for it.

I run my own business. I pay £50 approx a year to rent an exchange server account off 4smartphone and think its money well spent.

Which guy was that that said "we dont need it and wont ever use it"? Hope that wasnt me  

if you are on a flat rate GPRS, then the way you configure the device has no impact. Again, I would have expected business users to either opted for this, or perhaps do not care what the costs are (if the company are paying).

£50 for a Mailbox on a Server is not too bad! Do you have a link?

[Sonicr360]

chucky.egg
the Topic is out PushEmail And we are all having some good opinions and reasons for using it. and if you have reasons to use it, and are happy thats good.

Also as you said, some policies in business may mean you cannot communicate with colleagues away(leave, sickness ect), but if it was something that essential my opinion is that policy could be broken (especially if it was going to cost your business money, downtime, ect). Again each to their own judgement.

For others there may not be a cost incentive or a real requirement for it.

As Technology comes along, things will always adapt and change. Its up to use to make better use of it where possible to establish better ways of communication.

[Confucious]

I have push email. I already had the MS action pack so extra cost to set up server was nil.

I love it

If you don't fine, but for me it's great.

[Sonicr360]

LOL good Old Action pack... you just GOTTA love it!!!!!

Well worth it in my TRUE opinion... even if you DONT want PushEmail

[nickcornaglia]

I agree PUSH email is better than PULL.
But is it easy to set up for the masses. That is the real question here.
Setting up third party servers for personal use is too much for the average Joe to do. Make it as easy as sms and it would be better.

[Confucious]

True, I use mine in place of SMS whenever possible, it's as quick (or quicker) you're not limited to 160 Chars and you don't pay for it and you can send attachments etc. great when chatting to people at work or home or who also have push...

[Sonicr360]

Confucious, on Jul 11 2006, 17:20, said:

True, I use mine in place of SMS whenever possible, it's as quick (or quicker) you're not limited to 160 Chars and you don't pay for it and you can send attachments etc. great when chatting to people at work or home or who also have push...

My SMS are free    On a slightly different note - you mentioned SMS are limited to 160 - Do you mean sending and receiving 160 is the limit? Only I ask this, because my other phone exceeds the 160 limit and allows me to send as much as I like. The recepient will get as many SMS messages as possible to complete the message.

But of course, its not a replacement for PE

[Confucious]

An SMS is limited to 160 chars, most modern phones will allow you to type more than this but will then charge for another SMS depending on how many chars you type. most modern phones can then receive these long tesxts but on some it comes through as separate messages- not necessarily in the right order and some will only received the first one (I believe)

[jimbouk]

Sonicr360, on Jul 11 2006, 13:31, said:

£50 for a Mailbox on a Server is not too bad! Do you have a link?

Yes - try these guys, the service is second to none - dead simple to configure and they have a well thought out hardware and software failure plan (with redundant backup servers sat there ready to take over). And they do a free trial so you can see if you like it before a) paying and getting it to collect all your mail for you.

The servers are all set up for push email, so if you have a WM5 device with AKU2 rom then all you need to do is to add the exchange server to your activesync setup, and turn on direct push in the comm panel.

If you set your pc's outlook up the same way as me, it can pull mail from any other pop services you use, then it will sync them up to the server - which then syncs them down to your device.

Edited by jimbouk, 11 July 2006 - 05:23 PM.