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Without going down the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) route, most BlackBerry providers are now able to integrate with Outlook Web Access – however it has a major drawback – it will only synchronise with your Inbox, and if you use rules to organise your emails into folders, any emails which are moved into folders will not appear on your BlackBerry. IMAP is another option worth investigating, but if these solutions are not suitable for you, read on for a different idea..

This solution is straightforward and is accomplished by setting up a forward so all emails arriving at the user’s Exchange mailbox are forwarded to the BlackBerry, and all messages sent from the BlackBerry are sent with the Exchange email address in the From field, and are BCC’d back to the Exchange mailbox and moved via a Rule into the Sent Items. It requires a bit of tweaking but works very well. It is not possible to synchronise Contacts, Calendars and Tasks, however this can still be done with a direct connection to the PC where Outlook is running.

The following examples assume BlackBerry from Vodafone and Windows SBS 2003 with Exchange 2003 SP2. The process should be similar for other configurations.

Set up via mobile provider’s BlackBerry web interface

This assumes you have already have a login to the BlackBerry web interface and have associated it succesfully with your device (i.e. registered the PIN and IMEI).

1. Log in and create a BlackBerry device email address:

• Log in to the BlackBerry web interface.
• Rather than setting up an existing email account, we want to create a BlackBerry device email address.
• After doing this you should see a message saying that your chosen email address has been created, and it will be listed in the Valid Email Account table.

2. Alter the account details so messages appear to have come from your Exchange email address:

• Click the Edit link next to this email address, and alter the following fields:
• Reply to: <Your Exchange email address>
  Auto BCC: <Your Exchange email address>
  Your Name and Signature - set as you like.
• Click Save. You will be taken back to the Email Accounts page.

3. Add a filter so that BCC’d emails sent to Exchange do not re-appear in your Blackberry inbox:

• Click the Filters link next to the same BlackBerry device email address.
• Choose Add a filter and set the following:
• Filter name: Filter out emails from myself.
  Apply filter when: “From” field”
  Contains: <Your Exchange email address>
• Make sure “Do not forward messages to device” is selected, and choose Add Filter.

The BlackBerry settings are now complete.

Exchange configuration

1. Create a contact on the Exchange server for the new BlackBerry email address

• Navigate to Active Directory Users and Computers \ <YOUR DOMAIN> \ MyBusiness \ Users \ SBSUsers (or wherever your list of Users is stored).
• Right-click and choose New > Contact, and fill in the details.
  Note: As you will generally be adding a BlackBerry contact for an existing Active Directory user, it is a good idea to prefix the first name with e.g. “Blackberry - “ - so that Active Directory does not complain about duplicate names.
• On the second page, you need to specify the E-mail field. Click the Modify.. button, double click SMTP Address and enter the BlackBerry device email address (as created via the web interface earlier) in the box.
• Click Next and then Finish to add this Contact to the Active Directory.

2. Hide the new Contact so it doesn’t appear on the Global Address List (optional).

• Right-click the Contact you just created, and choose Properties.
• On the Exchange Advanced tab, tick the box which says “Hide from Exchange address lists” and then click Ok.

3. Set up a Forward on the Exchange account:

• Right-click the Exchange User account (not the Blackberry contact you just created) and choose Properties.
• On the Exchange General tab, click Delivery Options.
• In the Forwarding address panel, select “Forward to” and click Modify..
• Select the Blackberry contact you just created and click Ok.
• Make sure that “Deliver messages to both forwarding address and mailbox” is ticked.

Outlook configuration

Create a rule in Outlook to move any emails received from your Exchange email address into the Sent Items folder. Your Blackberry device will Auto BCC you into any emails sent, and this rule catches them and puts them in your Sent Items folder. They will show up as Unread, which helps you to identify them as emails you sent from your BlackBerry.