Finding the right email solution is a struggle faced by many businesses new and old alike. While there are plenty of free email services available, branded email solutions create the impression of a more established and professional organisation. Free email services are also plagued with spam and come with no service guarantees. Many web hosting services will give you access to limited POP/IMAP accounts however these services can be unreliable and offer a ‘bare essentials only’ email solution. Hosting your email in the cloud with Office 365 or Exchange online services gives you several advantages:
- Increase storage limits – Web hosted POP/IMAP accounts will give you a mailbox storage limit typically in the vicinity of 250MB to 1GB. Exchange mailboxes on the other hand start at 50GB. 50GB is a lifetime supply for many small business users. If 50GB proves to be insufficient, this limit can easily be upgraded to 100GB.
- Mobile device friendly – Exchange services can be operated from computers, mobile phones and tablets.
- Synchronised Mailbox, Calendar, Tasks and Contacts – Nothing is more frustrating than putting the details of an appointment in your computers calendar then looking for the appointment on a different device and realising you haven’t put the appointment in both calendars. The same is true of contacts. Copying the same contacts details into your phone, desktop, laptop and any other devices you operate is a time consuming and frustrating waste of energy. Operating from an exchange service means all this information is synchronised across all devices. Delete an email on your tablet? It will no longer appear on your phone. Add an appointment to the calendar on your computer? You’ll be able to review the time that appointment starts on your phone or double check the location on your way to the meeting.
- Improved anti-virus and spam filtering – Exchange comes with a range of anti-spam and anti-virus options and also allow you to pass email through 3rd party services for additional protection.
- Branded solution – What looks more professional? bobcityplumbing4277@hotmail.com or bob@cityplumbing.com.au? It’s the little things in your branding that tell a customer you are an established and legitimate business who isn’t going to disappear overnight with their deposit. If you’re not prepared to invest in your companies image, why should they invest in your company full stop?
- Cloud service – You don’t need an exchange server, or a server all to operate Exchange online and Office 365. Did your office have a blackout? No problem. You can quickly and easily relocate to another office or your home and as soon as you’re reconnected to the internet your services will resume. Did your office just flood or catch fire? Tick your email off the list of potential collateral damage.
- Aliases and shared mailboxes – Both Exchange online and Office 365 services allow a multitude of aliases and shared mailboxes. Have multiple email addresses all delivered to the same mailbox with aliases or work with others on the same inbox with shared mailboxes. Shared mailboxes offer the additional advantage of shared calendars and tasks. These work well for business wide event calendars or calendars for shared resources such as meeting rooms.
If you’d like to learn more or discuss your options further please give us a call. We’re more than happy to discuss a variety of solutions with you and find a match for your business.