Exchange is a Corporate Email and Communication solution created by Microsoft that offers many benefits over traditional “POP” email accounts.

Contacts, Emails, Calendar and Reminders can all be automatically synced to mobile devices such as phones and tablets. It works perfectly with Microsoft Outlook, as Outlook was designed to work with Exchange in a corporate environment.

Imagine seeing the same email folders on every device wherever you go. Not only your inbox but all the subfolders too. You don’t have to plug your devices in to sync them either. It is all done via push technology through the internet via wi-fi or 3g.  Send an email on your iPad and it will be in your Sent Items in your Outlook back at work.

The solution works with Outlook 2003/2007 and 2010 and almost all popular mobile devices including Android, iPhone and iPad.

Another benefit is that Calendars and Contacts can be shared between people in an organization. For example, a Secretary could take a call at the office and after viewing a Manager’s calendar from their own Outlook, they could enter an appointment into an available time on his/her calendar and have a reminder appear on the Manager’s mobile phone a few minutes later.

A shared contacts folder can also be created for all company contacts. This prevents the need for an extra CRM solution in small businesses. With shared contacts, if a staff member in the company updates a contact with some new details, it updates for everyone.

Until recently exchange solutions were usually reserved for companies that had the resources to install and manage an a on-premises server that runs Microsoft Exchange. For small businesses this would mean installing an SBS 2003, SBS 2008 or SBS 2011 server at the company’s office. The mobile devices then communicate back to the main office through the internet to keep in sync. This is the perfect solution where a file server or database server is also required on-site. Typically OJ Networks installs servers for companies of around 10 users or more. Depending on your company’s needs, you may not need an on-premises server and could consider a hosted exchange solution.

A ‘Hosted’ Exchange Solution simply means that instead of having an email server on your premises to provide this functionality, you host your emails on a Microsoft server on the Internet (cloud). The server doesn’t store files but only the email solution. You get almost all of the benefits of an on-premises solution (except public folders).

OJ Networks are resellers of Hosted Microsoft Exchange Solutions which start at only $7.10 per mailbox per month for 25gb of storage per mailbox. Speak to us today to get a quote for converting your small business over to hosted exchange. Your business will surely benefit from being so in sync.

Authored by Ian

Ian Johnson is a Director of OJ Networks. He has been working in IT since 1995. Mentored by the best, Ian started as Technical Support Officer for an innovative dialup ISP in Brisbane “Hub Communications”. He progressed to become a Web Design and Programmer in ASP, ASP.NET and PHP during his time at “The Lab Development Group” with David Vandenberg amonst others. Ian has been working as a Consultant on the Sunshine Coast since 2001 and became a Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) Server Administrator in 2010 after which he formed OJ Networks. He has assisted numerous small businesses to reach their potential through IT Infrastructure Planning and Implementation and Web design, Development and Web Marketing. You can connect with Ian on Linked In.