Question : Problem: Advice on short term Blackberry integration with Exchange 2000

Our company is keen to try a Blackberry for the first time, and would like to do so on a trial basis before taking the plunge into Enterprise Server.
We are looking to get a Blackberry 8830 (Global email) through Verizon as the intended users travels to Europe & Asia. The intended user is primarily interested in availability of contacts, calendar, and email functions, as well as cellphone.
Longer term we will look to integrate Enterprise server with Exhange 2007 if successful.
Can you let me know how we can best integrate this with our current Exchange 2000 server, and whether the user might find it a positive experience (at present he uses a PDA , carries a laptop for email + cellphone).
Will/is it possible to push data to the Blackberry in this scenario?
If you can tell me what would work well, what not so well, and what improvements we'll see moving to Enterprise server I'd appreciate it.

Answer : Problem: Advice on short term Blackberry integration with Exchange 2000

Before you install anything you need to look at what servers you will have available to install BES onto and then you need to consider the impact of when you change to Exchange 2007.  It would be best to setup the Blackberry trial on a new server (doesn’t need to be highly spec e.g. P4 3Ghz, 1GB RAM will run up to 40 users perfectly) running Server 2003 (minimum SP1).  When it comes time to switch from Exchange 200 over to Exchange 2007 all you will need to do is uninstall Exchange System manager from the BES and then install "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1" and then BES will work with 07.

As a overall solution The BES software will do everything you need.  All you need to do is consider the different versions such as full Blackberry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry Professional.  So you can see a full comparison please review the link below:

http://www.blackberryforums.com.au/forums/blackberry-news/1453-rim-launches-blackberry-professional-software.html