Phones for Senior Management Team

[m0nty]

Hi, I'm looking to get about 5 smart-phones (probably Android) for our SMT but don't know which provider to go to. Has anyone done anything like this - i.e. phone rental + data plan + talk plan on a "corporate" basis rather than personal? Would appreciate some pointers on how to go about this, if possible.

 

Thanks!

 

--

Simon

[Millgate]

Hi Simon,

 

We deal with corporate mobile phones contracts for all the networks. I've sent you a PM.

 

Thanks

 

Luke

[featured_spectre]

Orange do good deals for corporate sector if you get 3 phones or more. Have a look at them as I did when I wanted to start my own business

[Marci]

Just bear in mind that if they'll be going on the school WiFi, proxy support will likely be required, which tends to rule out Android... I tend to find that the iPhone is by far the most corporate-friendly device at the moment when it comes to co-existing with a fairly standard infrastructure.

[featured_spectre]

Android supports location/WiFi name based proxy...

[CyberNerd]

Android supports location/WiFi name based proxy...

 

http proxy new in 3.1

 

Android 3.1 Platform Highlights | Android Developers

 

not so good for todays phones

[Marci]

Indeed - we have a pile of staff with Android 2.x series phones, none of which can succesfully use our managed wireless... also found such phones can't store static settings per WiFi connection either. If we set them up for a static IP here, we have to give them a lesson on turning it all off and setting it back to DHCP for when they leave here, and then how to set it back again the following day. Major PITA. Some of the newer low-end Blackberrys can be a pest too, alongside the supposedly brilliant Nokia things - neither support WPA2 Enterprise encryption. I'm afraid the iPhone is the only all-rounder that covers all the bases.

[SYNACK]

Windows Phone 7, way cheaper than an iPhone with nice hardware and simple interface, supports push email etc.

 

Don't touch blackberry with a barge poll as they are awefull (well their server side stuff is in comparision to exchange)

[m0nty]

Thanks for the info everyone.

 

(I asked about Android because I have a T-Mobile G2 and the other IT tech has an Android as well; no problems so far. We use a transparent proxy so there's nothing to set up in that respect, and I must say I've never noticed any problems with other settings.)

 

Thanks again.

[imiddleton25]

We got a great vodophone deal with 6 blackberry 9300 and shared minutes for our management team they love them especialy the group sms bit and battery life is very good. I still prefer my Android and my assistant has his Iphone but for management the blackberry are a good solution

[bmdixon]

snipped

Indeed - we have a pile of staff with Android 2.x series phones, none of which can succesfully use our managed wireless...

There is now an app that should allow you to set proxy settings for individual wireless networks. Link (I've not used it but looks promising)

[Sylv3r]

Have you spoken to the procurement section at your LA?

 

I purchase our phones through them and quite often they can drive a good deal due to the number of handsets across the authority and schools etc.

[MatthewL]

Personally I would look at Vodaone, we used to use them till our management decided to change it and thought they got us a better deal, which they haven't. I had a direct number for my account manager and always got sorted cannot fault them. My bill used to only be pence a month as we had free calls mobile to mobile.

 

Worth checking them out.

[Soulfish]

If you're public sector definitely purchase the phones through the Buying Solutions mobile contract framework direct from O2/Vodafone/Orange. I've yet to see normal contracts that come close to what a lot of them offer, although it depends on just what you want. The other framework agreements (like the Crescent frameworks) are also pretty good.

[john]

I get our handsets from the LA, but they have restricted any more orders on the contract due to it coming up for re-tendering thus its not easy to get new kit now But can highly recommend Orange

[MatthewL]

Blackberry's are good if setup correctly in the first place and you have access to an Exchange server. We went onto a hosted Exchange farm and had to use a third party app to make it all work and it was just a pain.

 

But if you have you own you can get BES free if under a certain number of users I think.

 

As regards to Orange/TMobile/Everything Everywhere I do not rate for business as that is what we are on now. Had numerous issues prefer my Vodafone setup.

[SYNACK]

BESx is free for I think unlimited users but you just do't get some of the additional clustering features. At any rate unless you have a day a week spare to hold its hand I would recommend that you stay well clear of BES and just use propper devices that support Activesync off your Exchange box. You will save yourself lots of time, server resources and probably a few psycotic breaks along the way.

[Soulfish]

BESx is free for I think unlimited users but you just do't get some of the additional clustering features. At any rate unless you have a day a week spare to hold its hand I would recommend that you stay well clear of BES and just use propper devices that support Activesync off your Exchange box. You will save yourself lots of time, server resources and probably a few psycotic breaks along the way.

 

+1. I know a fair few large companies that are looking to move away from BES wherever possible (where they don't need the million and one features that full BES provides) to activesync based devices. Activesync has caught up compared to several years ago, and iPhones/Windows 7 based phones are pretty good now

[m0nty]

Thanks again to everyone who contributed, really appreciate the responses.

[plexer]

If you're public sector definitely purchase the phones through the Buying Solutions mobile contract framework direct from O2/Vodafone/Orange. I've yet to see normal contracts that come close to what a lot of them offer, although it depends on just what you want. The other framework agreements (like the Crescent frameworks) are also pretty good.

 

hmm trying to do that at the moment first email from account manager wasn't too good asking for a valid number for him to ring me on, guess what that first number I gave you is my DDI.

 

No reply to email at all today.

 

Ben

[sukh]

1. Depends how "corporate" you want to go. Some companies are now shifting from BES to GOOD.

2. It reduces the costs as the data usage/line rental/phone is down to the end user, all your do is have a backend servers, the users install a little app on the mobile/device and they connect retrieve their email.

3. Compared to some providers, they charge x amont per MB which can be costly, if users have their own personal tariffs, you may a small fee like £5 for pretty much "unlimited", where as data usage sat for even 300-500MB can easily cost more that £5