[omkhar]

It looks like I will soon be parting ways with my current employer and moving to a new company. I have a number of questions regarding how this will effect my BlackBerry (I will be keeping the device).

1. Will I still keep all my BlackBerry data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store) when I am removed from my current employer's BES?
2. Will applying the "Blank IT Policy" to remove my current employer's policy info AFTER being removed from thier BES adversely effect any of the data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store)
3. Will being activated on my new employer's BES adversely effect any of my old data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store)?
4. IF the BlackBerry data stays with the device and does not get nuked when I leave my current employers BES, will it automatically show up in my new mail client (Addresses, Calendar entries?)
5. Are there any gotchas I should look for as my current employer uses Lotus Notes (BES4.1) and my new employer uses Exchange/Outlook (BES 4.1... could be 4.2)?

Any other hiccups you can think of?

[x14]

#1 depends on your company policy. The data belongs to the company and they can wipe it out before removing it from your old company BES.

Since you are going to a new company BES, your new company is going to wipe out that unit before adding it to their BES.

[Dude]

1. The data should not be affected by removal from BES, but if you truly care about the data, do a backup before the removal.

2. The only way I know to apply the blank IT Policy AFTER removal from BES is to wipe the device. So, do a backup.

3. Normally the data should be safe when registering with a BES, but they may have some unusual procedure. So, do a backup.

4. When you sync with the client, you can get your calendar, address book, and probably some other things like notepad. Messages will NOT get uploaded to the client.

5. As you can see from 1, 2 and 3, my advice is to do a backup at every step of the way. Then, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.

[omkhar]

Originally Posted by x14

#1 depends on your company policy. The data belongs to the company and they can wipe it out before removing it from your old company BES.

Since you are going to a new company BES, your new company is going to wipe out that unit before adding it to their BES.

hmmm you have a point wrt to data policy.... I think I'm alright from this perspective though.

[d_fisher]

1. Will I still keep all my BlackBerry data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store) when I am removed from my current employer's BES?
Depends on what your company policies are. At my employeer we would sent the kill packet to the device before removing it from the BES server. This does the same thing as wiping the device.

2. Will applying the "Blank IT Policy" to remove my current employer's policy info AFTER being removed from thier BES adversely effect any of the data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store)
Yes. The first step of removing the IT Policy is to wipe the device.

3. Will being activated on my new employer's BES adversely effect any of my old data (Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store)?
Yes. If your device still has the prevoius employers email address on it you will be prompted to wipe before completing the activation. You can choose not to wipe it but I have experienced more issues when this method is used.

4. IF the BlackBerry data stays with the device and does not get nuked when I leave my current employers BES, will it automatically show up in my new mail client (Addresses, Calendar entries?)
See my recommendations below.

5. Are there any gotchas I should look for as my current employer uses Lotus Notes (BES4.1) and my new employer uses Exchange/Outlook (BES 4.1... could be 4.2)?
This should not be a problem.

Any other hiccups you can think of?
I recommend that you use BlackBerry Desktop Manager to make a complete backup of your device. Then have your current employer send the kill packet to your device. If they don't send the kill packet simply wipe the device yourself. There is no real need to remove the IT policy as the one from the new employeer will overwrite it.

Now that your device is clean and removed from the BES restore the backup data. Use the advanced option instead of a complete restore. A complete restore puts back some information you dont want from the old employeer. I would restore the Calendar, AddressBook, Password Store, MemoPad, Tasks, bookmarks, and anything else you specifically want.

When you activate your BlackBerry to the new BES server all the information on it will sync to your new Exchange account so you wont have to manually enter everything.