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When I am working with clients and their Blackberry devices, particularly on new deployments, one of the issues I frequently have is  discovering whether the device is enabled for the BES use. It is very common for the service providers to NOT enable the Blackberry device for BES correctly. As anyone who has dealt with mobile phone provider support, when it comes to Blackberry, most of them haven't got a clue.

For some time I have been aware that RIM have a tool available to people with a support contract which allows you to query their database, but none of my clients have a support contract. I actually considered getting a contract just to get access to that database!

However I discovered that recently RIM have released a new web tool, which is free to register and use, which allows you to check the status of the device. In RIM speak "Enterprise Activation Readiness".

It is free for all users of Blackberry Professional Server, Enterprise Server, Server Express and all the other names they have used for their software in the past. All you need is your identifier and CAL key for the server.

You also get a complimentary support incident which is also another good reason for signing up.

From the site itself:

"The BlackBerry Expert Support Center is a Web 2.0 application, which is designed to allow direct access to Enterprise grade tools and resources, and to give you the ability to manage your Technical support agreement and support related inquiries easily and independently.

• One Complimentary Support Incident to receive expert advice from a member of the BlackBerry Technical Support team at any time 
• Online self service tools and resources designed to help with installation and ongoing management of your BlackBerry solution including step-by-step demonstrations 
• All the relevant guides, articles and other resources to increase your BlackBerry solution know-how "

https://www.blackberry.com/besc/dashboard/