Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 As posted at The Register... Orange and Microsoft are partnering on a series of offers to tempt businesses small and large into trusting their corporate data to mobile devices. The UK tie-up higlights the sort of marriages of convenience we are likely to see more of, as vendors, operators, service providers and systems integrators scramble for a piece of the expanding mobile data pie. The companies will offer businesses with more than 50 employees a 60 day trial of its Windows Mobile-based SPV C500 smart phones, which together with Microsoft’s Exchange 2003 comms platform, will allow trialees to experience the joy of pushing out a full range of corporate data to mobile users. The trial period runs as long as 60 days. Companies with less than 50 employees, or put another way, the rest of us, can have a 30 day trial of the SPV C500. Perhaps Orange and Microsoft reckon such teensy organizations will actually be able to fit all their corporate data on a single smart phone. Orange has worked closely with Microsoft in the past, as well as with mobile data pioneer, Research in Motion. Shaun Orpen, marketing director for Orange business solutions, said that while RIM, with its Blackberry, had done a “brilliant job of increasing awareness” of the potential of mobilizing data, companies were now looking for ways to roll out the concept beyond senior executives and specialists in the field. But Orpen insisted the latest crop of promotions did not mean the operator was hitching itself to Microsoft’s particular platform, saying “It’s very clear… no one size fits all.” That said, aligning with Microsoft could mean a pretty broad fit for Orange’s mobile data service Orpen said that telecoms operators had to evolve the way they approach accounts as telecoms and IT purchasing are brought closer together by customers. On the one hand this means working closer with IT product and services vendors. At the same time, the telco is taking on more IT industry veterans to help it target large accounts face to face. Woohoo! Dusty Smartphones all round ;) P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest whitestar Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 Paul, I work for an IT dept within an NHS organisation and we use Blackberry's for email access, how does what Orange offer differ from this & could a C500 be used with a corporate Blackberry server? Any information greatly recieved as I much prefer my C500 to Blackberry!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 There is no Blackberry client for C500... What is your core e-mail system? Exchange? Notes? P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest whitestar Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 Exchange is our corporate email server, however my team run a Lotus Domino server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 If your mail is on Exchange (2003), you can use Server ActiveSync to hook up. If your mail is on Notes, you will need a 3rd party application such as mNotes or OneBridge running in the organisation to get synced... P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest whitestar Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 Exchange 2003, we are talking the NHS here!! As for our Domino server we use it as an application server rather than a mail server, any mail generated from the application is passed to exchange to process Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest st3ph3n Posted April 21, 2005 Report Share Posted April 21, 2005 I whacked the Reg article over to my boss (head of IT) and the procurement guy who deals with buying phones earlier in the day. I voiced my great delight at being a C500 user since launch weekend. We trialled blackberry a while back and the users, who were only really 3 or 4 high flyers, they didn't like it. I think their main complaint was the size of the handsets and not really being easy to use for standard phoning. I'm hopefull they'll take a chance with the C500. I want a second for my work mails! I don't see why they don't at least give them to people and let them sync at the outlook/desktop level rather than full blown OTA exchange. I'm fed up seeing people with dodgy 33XX nokias who will inevitably complain to IT when it breaks and they lose their contacts, despite us not being in charge of the phones, officially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest whitestar Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Found out today that our exchange server is 5.5!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Typical eh? ;) P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest C500mad Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 Orange can still supply you with Push email and calender with Exchange 5.5 onto the SPV C500 or M2000 using their service Orange Office Freedom until you upgrade to Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 with MMIS - Cheaper to run than Blackberry - no cost for licences, the software is a fraction of the cost and monthly running cost is less - you need to have a PIII server with at least 512 Meg Ram to run the application - It also works with Lotus notes - Post me if you need any further help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mork Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 Orange can still supply you with Push email and calender with Exchange 5.5 onto the SPV C500 or M2000 using their service Orange Office Freedom until you upgrade to Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 with MMIS - Cheaper to run than Blackberry - no cost for licences, the software is a fraction of the cost and monthly running cost is less - you need to have a PIII server with at least 512 Meg Ram to run the application - It also works with Lotus notes - Post me if you need any further help <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi, I would like to sync the SPV C500 with Lotus Notes, can you help me please 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest C500mad Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 you will need to speak to you Orange business account manager who will be able to set up a free trial for your company - more details here http://www.orange.co.uk/documents/business...f_factsheet.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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