Wary network administrators are starting to evaluate the mobile-messaging capability rolled out by Microsoft via Exchange Server.

Microsoft's long-awaited push e-mail offering promises to simplify enterprise messaging by leveraging the Exchange Server infrastructure already installed in a company. This approach eliminates the need for third-party software from such rivals as Good Technology, Intellisync and Research in Motion, or carrier-messaging services.

But administrators have concerns about whether Microsoft's messaging can match the ease of use of RIM's BlackBerry, as well as its network efficiency. Some also wonder when their current cellular carriers will offer Windows handhelds that can support the Microsoft messaging feature.

The Microsoft mobile messaging package consists of Exchange Server Service Pack 2 combined with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack now bundled with the first handheld devices running Windows Mobile 5.0. Dubbed by Microsoft as Direct Push, the combination can automatically send out new e-mail, contact and calendar information to a handheld device over a cellular network.

Click to see: Treo 700w

Microsoft last week used the 3GSM World Congress in Spain to promote its latest messaging efforts, airing partnerships with service providers such as Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile and hardware vendors such as HP and Fujitsu Siemens.

Rivals try hard

Exchange sites are already deploying Service Pack 2, and some are talking with Microsoft and its carriers about small pilots. At the same time, rivals, including Good Technology, are trying to persuade these same sites to try alternatives, exploiting the uncertainty about RIM's long-running legal battle over patent infringements.

Integris Health in Oklahoma City runs its corporate e-mail on Exchange, but uses BlackBerries to give about 120 senior managers mobile e-mail. IT Architect Bruce Alcock says the healthcare provider will be evaluating the Microsoft offering.

"We have some clinical applications that run on Palm or Windows Mobile devices, but not on the BlackBerries," he says. "We're looking to see what we can provide to combine e-mail and application access, but we don't want the docs to have to carry two devices."

The complexity at this stage is a bit baffling. As an example, Alcock says Palm's new Treo 700w, which runs the needed Windows Mobile 5.0, seems to be available only through Verizon Wireless. But Integris' mobile carrier is Cingular. "The real hassle is that it's kind of a jigsaw puzzle that you have to put together," he says.

Lifetime Products plans to start testing Exchange-based mobile messaging as soon as it can trial units from Cingular, according to John Bowden, the company's CIO. The Clearfield, Utah, manufacturer makes metal and plastic home products, including tables, chairs and sheds.