Windows Mobile in a corporate environment

Howard

Howard

Howard

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Hi all,

I presume this is the best forum to post this in!

Has anyone had any experience with rolling out Windows Mobile devices to users at work, with Exchange push email?

We are considering replacing our Blackberry (BES) system with Windows Mobile devices for a number of reasons, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience to share? How did the users take it? How do they find the usability of the devices?


Thanks :)
 
Advantages:

Free, all you need is the device and a good data tariff
Very easy to configure / maintain
Lots of windows mobile devices to play with and gui is identical so easy to support

Disadvantages:

Even though they have improved the "home" page, the overall gui is fairly dated and in my opinion not a particularly pleasant experience.
The touch screens keyboards by default have to be use with a stylus in most cases

I am just implementing mobile email at the moment, we had one user trying out the Onmia which is has kept although I personally am not a fan. Battery life is under a day and the whole interface is just not enjoyable. I found myself getting very frustrating doing simple tasks (I had windows mobile phones for 3 years prior to my iphone).

I’m leaning towards using the iPhone for the standard device (I currently run mine syncing calendars, contacts and mail via active sync). It does pretty much everything needed and it does it so well. Although there (at present) is no cut and paste which might be an issue. The gui is a dream to work with and will just be a much more positive experience for your users.
 
The simple solution to the "touch screen keyboard" being crap, is to get devices that have a keyboard. Given that they are better and more productive anyway.
 
Thanks :)

Yeah, we were looking into using the HTC Touch devices, and offering our users a choice of the HTC S740 or Touch Pro, for example, to address the "clunky interface" issue. I have a Touch Diamond and think it's fantastic.

iPhone is another option I guess :) I didn't know it integrated so well with Exchange
 
howardcanning said:
Thanks :)

Yeah, we were looking into using the HTC Touch devices, and offering our users a choice of the HTC S740 or Touch Pro, for example, to address the "clunky interface" issue. I have a Touch Diamond and think it's fantastic.

iPhone is another option I guess :) I didn't know it integrated so well with Exchange
Click to expand...

I was quite surprised too, it does it very well and again is no harder to setup than a windows mobile device.

If you are to go windows mobile i'd def look into the pro with the keyboards :)

Again, I'm not trying to run down the windows mobile devices, they do everything needed and are certainly excellent devices.
 
I'm a big fan of WinMobile, I have been since way before companies like HTC started making fancy interfaces :) Thanks for your input.

There's certainly one or two directors here who would fancy an iPhone ;) And one member of staff here even has one, and configured it to pick up her email without any intervention from us.
 
My company use Windows mobile devices for the majority of users, they swapped over a few years ago now. Crackberry's are still used but only for certain job roles (I.E the ones that earn £200k+ lol)

The vast majority of users dislike the HTC devices but I think this is just a case of not liking change.

The software for the Winmo devices is awesome, we can build devices remotely, send kill packets to lost/stolen devices and we use a piece of java software on them for VPN purposes (Instead of RSA Secure ID's)
 
I was involved in rolling out and demonstrating, and doing 1-1 sessions with the Partners of a major engineering firm before the decision was made. They had had BB before, and all seemed to love the functionality of the Winmo devices, and this was two years ago now. They were the MDA vario.
Went down very well it seemed.

*edit*
I have a couple of MS certs on the subject, Windows Mobile Specialist 2008 (I also hold 2007), and Windows Small Business Retail Specialist
 
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im curious, a lot of people talk about their work giving them winmob phones. But what jobs are theese exacly? How many jobs do you really need to be able to check your emails everywhere or is it an excuse where you all like toys so you get them. Rather handy if you have a manager like taht id imagin :) lol.
 
8igdave said:
im curious, a lot of people talk about their work giving them winmob phones. But what jobs are theese exacly? How many jobs do you really need to be able to check your emails everywhere or is it an excuse where you all like toys so you get them. Rather handy if you have a manager like taht id imagin :) lol.
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Can't answer for the rest of everyone, but from my own experience it was a case of having reports (sales, purchase, changes, server downage) emailed to an account which in turn was pushed to my mobile.

Far cheaper than an SMS, sometimes a little more legible (more characters/pictures with an email) and far easier to maintain.
 
8igdave said:
im curious, a lot of people talk about their work giving them winmob phones. But what jobs are theese exacly? How many jobs do you really need to be able to check your emails everywhere or is it an excuse where you all like toys so you get them. Rather handy if you have a manager like taht id imagin :) lol.
Click to expand...

Most of the support staff and senior staff in the IT department had these devices.
Partners, department heads, and engineers were all candidates for using the devices.

Quite a lot of the staff would have to be out on site, and e-mailing pictures/documents and information wherever they are.

I have to say that a lot of users with these phones really don't need all the features, but when people do they are indispensable.

This was a multidisciplinary consultancy partnership.
 
Yeah i gues i can see what you mean. It just kinda seemed on this forum like everyone bullies their work to get them regarless of if they need them. I mean im only 17 and cant really imagin walking around all the time thinking omg i need to check my emails. Having sid taht i happen to be getting a HTC HD touch anyawy lmao.
 
I work in nonfood and food retail, so head of depts, it, etc all need mobile email to check on reports, emails, store issues etc

Kimbie
 
i have the HTC touch, very simple to use, great extras you can add to it, and very cheap with the right people. Im on a £26/month contract that is unlimited texts, 600 mins, didnt pay for the phone, and im getting a data plan for 500mb for an extra £5 a month, and this is with orange. well worth a look at.

(and yay, 1st post :D)
 
Just a word of note, Nokia have a MS Exchange compatibility - this avoids the dated Windows Mobile OS. The E71 and E63 seem to work well at my company.
 
Christo said:
Just a word of note, Nokia have a MS Exchange compatibility - this avoids the dated Windows Mobile OS. The E71 and E63 seem to work well at my company.
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But no support for any subfolders of emails - so if you have your emails neatly organised into subfolders, you won't be able to see any of them.
 
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