Research in Motion has announced a push to get small to medium-sized companies signed up to the Blackberry push-email service by offering their server software free of charge if you purchase a Blackberry device.

"Mobile access is an increasingly essential requirement of doing business and this is especially prevalent in smaller businesses," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. "BlackBerry Enterprise Server is renowned for helping companies become more productive and responsive, while providing industry-leading security, functionality, manageability, and back-end integration. With BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, we're now making it easier than ever for new customers to derive the full benefits of the BlackBerry solution."

The software, which is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell Groupwise for push email comes with a single-user license, which can also be upgraded to support up to 15 people with additional licenses.

More information about the offer and the server software can be found on the Research in Motion website.