A while back, I talked about RIM's problems, and how there were alternatives in place and on the way. As you can see, I was on target:

Microsoft's flurry of announcements out of Barcelona, Spain, last week promising cheaper, faster, easier mobile e-mail might have awakened the world at large to the benefits of push e-mail and the load of trouble BlackBerry vendor Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) is up against.

But plenty of IT managers apparently did not require last week's Microsoft news to spur them to action.

Several CIOs said yesterday they are already testing alternatives to RIM technology -- and spending time playing company shrink to anxious BlackBerry users.

"My CEO came up to me just last week, again," said Rich De Brino, Compass Health CIO. "I said, 'Don't worry about it. We've got it under control.' Everybody is more nervous than we are." De Brino is among the CIOs who heeded analyst warnings regarding an alleged RIM patent infringement and stopped issuing BlackBerrys to employees at the Everett, Wash.-based not-for-profit.

If BlackBerry service is interrupted, De Brino is ready to go with "Plan B," an alternative solution using a Pocket PC from Samsung Corp. and Good Technology Inc. "We could scale everybody to Good [Technology] within a week, easily. We literally have a written plan in place. We don't mess around."

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