TheMadPeacock On The Sofa

Phones for a sales team, what is the best solution? We have been planning to get a blackberry server for some time but implementation issues continued to delay the project and as time rolled on the iPhone came out. This led to many internal debate about if the blackberry server was the way to go.. I though I would outline where we got to and how we got here.

The iPhone is the phone to be seen with but it is definitely a consumer smartphone not a business smartphone. I am sure Apple will fix it eventually but a number of critical features are missing, most notable the lack of contact search and the lack of cut and past. On the plus side (and it is a big plus) the iPhone is the only phone I know that allows full access to salesforce.com from a phone! This feature alone nearly won us over. In the end however I think it was the iPhone’s AT&T relationship that was the real deal breaker.

The new blackberry server is now up and running at work. I have been using a blackberry for years now and was never very impressed, it never struck me as being much better than any other smart phone but hook it up to a blackberry server and things change.

On the day I got my phone IT came into my room, configured the new phone and once the configuration was done they handed me a phone that already had my entire contact list, all my todo’s my calendar, everything… with no need to sync! EVER! Now that’s cool. I can accept or reject appointment invites, I can read email, move it, delete it etc. and my laptop reflects all that activity. After years of blackberry usage I finally like my blackberry.. Its finally the personal assistant it promised to be.

I still want an iPhone… all the cool kids have one!