Mobile E-Mail For Cost-Conscious Enterprises

Research In Motion's BlackBerrys may be the ultimate enterprise mobile e-mail devices for now, but not everyone is interested in them, nor the headaches that go with them. Same goes for Windows Mobile devices.

You've probably also heard about mobile e-mail systems from the likes of Good (part of Motorola's enterprise division), Sybase, Visto, and what used to be Intellisync (now part of Nokia). These are all fine products that will -- similar to RIM's -- sync smartphones with corporate e-mail servers, including e-mail, contacts, and calendar information. They all have their pros and cons and are solid solutions for enterprises that need full smartphone support.

Smartphones are powerful tools that are becoming more widespread each day, but the fact of the matter is, they aren't for everybody. "Based on customer preferences, some love BlackBerrys and some are always going to want it," said Mike Tomassi, marketing manager with Verizon Wireless. "Many just want some type of mainstream handset, some want devices that can slide into their pockets." That doesn't mean the non-smartphone crowd should have to do without access to mobile e-mail.

The good news is, mobile network operators have started to realize this. They are offering alternative products that take the place of servers and smartphones and will push e-mail without the need for your business to drop a boatload of cash just to get started.

"The technology is there, the phones are there, and the customer demand is there," noted Jason Guesmann, senior VP and general manager of the Americas of mobile messaging software provider Seven. "People don't want to pay an arm and a leg for smartphones, but still need to connect with mobile e-mail. A lot more consumer phones have QWERTY keyboards, including the LG Rumor, the Danger Sidekick series, and the Palm Centro. These are all really good for mobile e-mail."

Who's Using It?

You don't have to be a CEO to have a real need for mobile corporate e-mail. When you look at how pervasive it is in daily life, the amount of communication going over e-mail is phenomenal. No one wants to be buried in e-mail and many can benefit from having access to mobile e-mail as part of their toolset. But the IT department usually draws the line at where they will stop providing BlackBerrys or other smartphones. That means your average Joe and Jane employees need something else.

"What we're seeing is the demand for this type of solution is really starting to crest," said Guesmann, "People like the fact that it is a retail-oriented offer. Right now, 85% of devices are sold in the retail environment, and there's a lot of appeal in the solution that can be enabled by the individual."

Think about salespeople. Their first day on the job, they can set up mobile e-mail all by themselves. They don't need to wait for a new phone or new device. It's a matter of deleting their old account and setting up a new one. Power is put directly into the hands of the end users. It gives them a lot of flexibility.

If you have an Exchange server, there are so many cool devices that can access corporate e-mail, there's no need to go with smartphones any more. "Some companies just don't need Windows Mobile," said Verizon's Tomassi, "and they don't want to pay for RIM or WinMo services. They have employees out there who want different form factors."

Of course, many large enterprises prefer more hardy devices and services that offer everything under the sun. Something to keep in mind, however, is that even heavy users of BlackBerrys are simply triaging e-mail, and not often responding at length from their devices. These non-smartphone solutions allow users to triage e-mail and sync contacts and calendars, all on the cheap. It gives businesses more options. The most important aspect of these services is support for ActiveSync. Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync is a synchronization protocol that was built to work with high-latency and low-bandwidth networks. Because the protocol is based on HTTP and XML, it lets devices such as browser-enabled mobile phones access a business's information on a server that is running Microsoft Exchange. In other words, mobile device users can snag their e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks, and always have access to this information while they are working offline.

Without ActiveSync, access to Exchange is pretty much a no-go. Device manufacturers, reading the writing on their phones, er, the wall, know this. In order to prevent a mass exodus of customers to smartphones, manufacturers of mass-market phones have begun to license and include the ActiveSync client on many of their phones.

Companies such as Samsung, LG, and Nokia have fantastic hardware capabilities with great product designs. Previously they've missed (to a degree) how to get corporate e-mail onto their mass market phones. A solution like this really gets them back into the game. Sony Ericsson, for example, loads ActiveSync on many of its newer devices, including the W580. Samsung has done the same, and made sure to put ActiveSync on the new Instinct phone. Apple has also added ActiveSync to the iPhone.

Easy As 1, 2, 3

Setting up corporate e-mail on consumer-grade devices is simple and does not require a long or difficult provisioning process. "Someone can buy a phone at retail," said Seven's Guesmann, "and get their phone accessing corporate e-mail in no time."

The Instinct, for example, has an e-mail icon on the home screen. It lets you connect to just about any e-mail system, and includes all the popular ISPs, as well as work accounts. You enter the same URL you would use for Webmail, input your login information into the provisioning screen, and the device auto-configures itself. Sprint calls this service Sprint Mobile E-mail Work, and it is backed by Seven's technology.

"We have constructed it so that e-mail is pushed from the Exchange mailbox to the end user," said Guesmann. "What we do is handle it with our server. So the handset doesn't need to constantly connect. We have a NOC [network operations center] that is a signaling channel. We don't store e-mail, just facilitate communication with the e-mail server. You don't want to have the device checking for e-mail every 10 minutes. That is a network feature on our end and not a phone feature. The inbox is robust, supports hyperlinks, can view attachments as well as popular media attachments." Right now, it will also allow viewing of Microsoft Word documents in a text file, and will soon support Excel and PowerPoint.

Sprint Mobile E-mail Work won't cost your business anything extra if your users already subscribe to Everything plans starting at $69.99 and the $30 Sprint Pro Pack data plan. With any other plan from Sprint, Sprint Mobile E-mail Work costs $9.99 per month, in addition to voice and data charges. Sprint says 12 of its handsets will support this service, including the Rumor and Fusic by LG; the RAZR, RAZR2, and KRZR by Motorola; the Instinct, A900, A900M, and M500 by Samsung; and the Katana, Katana II, and 8400 by Sanyo.

Seven's software also powers the Axcess e-mail and Office Sync products at Alltel Wireless, as well as the XpressMail service that is provided to AT&T's wireless customers. It supports both enterprise push Exchange e-mail, as well as POP and IMAP e-mail accounts. The base price of AT&T's XpressMail is $4.99 per month depending on which plan you have, and is included in certain data plans.

A similar service is available for Verizon Wireless users, though it has two different offerings. The first product is called Wireless Sync. It can access POP3, IMAP, and corporate e-mail using technology from Intellisync. It offers e-mail retrieval at timed intervals, and does not offer direct push. Wireless Sync though Verizon's Get It Now services costs $20 per month before data plan charges are tacked on. It does, however, suffer from some limitations. Using this software you cannot, for example, accept or decline meeting invitations sent via Outlook.

Verizon Wireless' other e-mail service, RemoSync, is truly aimed at the corporate crowd and it uses technology delivered by a different company, Remoba. "For push Exchange you get real-time e-mail delivered to the Voyager, Dare, and other consumer-grade phones," said Verizon's Tomassi. "Essentially it allows corporate access from these types of handsets. Push e-mail goes directly to your handset, notifies you, you can accept or decline meeting invites, and of course sync your contacts and calendar information."

There are some limitations with RemoSync, as well. You won't have to ability to open or view attachments, or even download them to your phone. There's no document support, though you can see what file types e-mail attachments are. Tomassi said he and his team are working to change this.

RemoSync costs $10 per month, without a data plan. Users can choose to pay $1.99 per MB or subscribe to a V PACK plan. You can get unlimited data for $15; tacking on the $10 charge for mobile e-mail totals $25 per month.

Right now, T-Mobile offers consumer-level e-mail plans using RIM's BlackBerry Internet Services. If you want to use something other than a BlackBerry for e-mail retrieval, you are limited to POP3 and IMAP accounts on devices such as the Danger Sidekick series of messaging devices.

Final Thoughts

So if you want to arm your employees with mobile e-mail, but don't want to deal with the solutions provided by the larger players out there, products from the likes of Seven and Remoba exist. They offer full push support through ActiveSync, including e-mail, calendar, and contacts. They are often easy to set up, are available on a wide selection of consumer-grade phones, and don't cost all that much.