Hosted exchange vs IMAP etc

[mrapoc]

Hey all

Looking to get some material together to really push people using IMAP and pop accounts to a proper hosted exchange.

Can anyone explain the advantages compared so next time I come across a business using hotmail/free IMAP or pop3 from their web host I can convert them to the light

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Secure inter-office e-mail
Ability to be compliant with eDiscovery/journaling
Collaboration ...distribution groups, public folders, ability to assign people rights of varying degrees to access others mailboxes, delegation etc.
True universal/equal access across multiple devices
It's what Outlook was designed for
Much more secure than those ISP hosted servers

...just got waylayed into a phone call/remote session...back to drop more points in a while

 

[mrapoc]

Thanks

I'm just thinking how can I tell average Joe to stop using his free email and cough up for something I know is better in every way - starting with spam and virus control I suppose!

 

[callthatgirl]

Here is what I tell folks, "IMAP is outdated, breaks too much and really doesn't work with the new technology we are all involved with, since you have many computers, phones and tablets, here is what you need, business class email using an Exchange server and then you get all the benefits of your own server, synchronized data, shared calendars, out of office, etc."

that's really my pitch.

"Here is what you need" is the key, telling them they are out of date. Get in with the times and pay up, get on board with something that works.

 

[unclemarv]

Old article, but a good reference to tell a customer what the difference is... especially the "much more" part...

http://acrowire.com/welcome/pop3-vs-imap-vs-exchange/

 

[altrenda]

it's interesting to see the difference in perspective and focus on TN. I realize that this is a Windows centric group, given the large number out there, but I guess I'm kind of a niche operator and an outlier.

Most of my client base is either trying to get away from Exchange or have never used it and is not interested in it. My Desk based clients usually have 2 monitors, one with Chorme always open on their gmail account, and the other on whatever else they are working on.

Many of my clients are in their 20's or 30's, and have grown up with web based Email and dislike Outlook as clunky and slow. I see more Gmail accounts than anything else. A good number of companies, universities, government agencies, and small businesses use Google Apps for Work, so it's what many of them are used to. Many clients that use Office 365 use the Business version, not Premium because they don't want Outlook or it's email, instead want to use their Gmail and Google calendar. It's a simple sell to move them to use Google Apps for Work.


I do have older clients that came out of the corporate world that swear by Outlook, and they get put on Hosted Exchange or O365 Premium. Made for each other.

The problems start when people try to use Gmail on Outlook, just not a good way to go.

 

[allstarit]

I always explain to clients that if you go from POP3/IMAP to Office 365 here are the benefits:
Usually the first 4-5 points are enough to convince people but those still unsure ill add the extra points to persuade them.

1) 50GB mailbox and its backed up on the Office 365 servers not a PST on your desktop
2) Sync across multiple devices - Mail, Contacts, Calendars (good benefit to POP3 users as it doesn't do this)
3) You can share mailbox/calendar/contacts ect with other staff members
4) You get the latest version of Office. (business premium, E3) and you can install on 5 devices per license.
5) Excel and Word Online - can edit documents in the cloud
6) One Drive 1TB - You can save documents on One Drive ( i don't mention One Drive for Business/Sharepoint unless they specifically ask)
7) Skype for Business is another one to add to the list of features

 

[callthatgirl]

Many of my clients are in their 20's or 30's, and have grown up with web based Email and dislike Outlook as clunky and slow

Yep, you have the millennials as clients. I think I spelled it right Many of my clients that are 40 and older complain that their IT tech (younger than them more than likely) sold them on gmail and now they hate it and want back on the good old Outlook.

One of my past migrations I won because the voting team was over 40. The millennials lost. In fact, the one manager asked me "What apps can we use with Exchange" . The VP said "they are selfish and we are doing what is best for the future"

Older people don't want the change, I'm glad.

 

[allstarit]

for me im working with mostly small businesses and i don't see many on Google Apps - I'm seeing mostly Businesses on a SBS 2011 or Server 2008 server with Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 wanting to migrate to the cloud.
Most businesses have Office 2007, 2010 or Office 2013 so its a no brainier for them to go for Office 365.
The few that are on Google Apps are 1 man businesses or home users.

i agree Lisa older clients dont like change.

 

[callthatgirl]

Iphone people love Outlook --older
Android people love Gmail --millenials

Just seems to be how it works out.

 

[mrapoc]

Messagestream whom I use do 365 too but not sure if that includes email hosting too. I guess you are going direct to Microsoft?

Haven't really checked out google either. It can add up if they want multiple mailboxes - we charge about £5/month ex vat ATM a mailbox.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For Smart Phones...both iPhone and Android...Microsofts relatively new (and free) Outlook client. Looks and behaves a lot like Outlook 2013.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.outlook&hl=en
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-outlook/id951937596?mt=8

Only feature I don't like, enabled by default, is the "Focus" feature...but it's quick and easy to simply turn off. It's like their new "Clutter" mailbox version on the smart phone client.

Plus now that O365 has a built in Mobile Device Manager....managing the clients fleet of smart phones is easy.

Explaining the advantages of O365 to clients....fairly easy sell.

POP is an old protocol...came out back in the dial up days, when people generally had just 1 computer. Designed for 1x client. EMailed pulled down and stored on the local computer. Yes yes you could configure several computers and check the box to "download but don't delete from the mailbox"...but we all know how sloppy that gets.

IMAP..a more recent mail protocol...works better for multiple devices...but as we have found, inconsistent. Mostly due to the variety of hosts and clients. Still ends up being a headache to manage...and it's not very universal across all devices.

Hosted Exchange, with proper Outlook clients...designed to work together, smooth. All devices can be the same, very universal. Equal access from all devices. Easy access from anywhere.

A fairly decent spam/virus filtering system is built in, Microsofts ForeFront. No additional cost.

Depending on what package you get, the "retention policies" and eDiscovery option.

Depending on the package, the availability of the "FULL" Microsoft Office suite...which can be installed on up to 5x of your computers concurrently. You have a perpetual rollling subscription to that full Office suite. New version comes out...you get it!

Backup...well, we're still wrapping our heads around this. But the retention policies...ability to go back and pull e-mail that was deleted/lost...covers the needs for most. It's generally considered that you don't have to worry about full backups or disaster recovery...a fire won't take out the server, the server won't crash...since Microsoft has it all spread across cloud data centers. For for "most" SMBs...it's fine. This is worth of another full thread so I don't want to dig into that here...since O365 exploded in the past year or two...backup options for your data up there are still coming out and being discussed.

I don't have heavy users of OneDrive yet....just light users. I use it myself...and love it. I am looking forward to the new OneDrive coming out this fall that addresses many of the current limitations.

Going back to public folders....having a "company calendar"...or having "company contacts", or having mail enabled public folders...once you show the clients the advantages of those, how the office can gain from using them, along with distribution lists, etc...clients get enthusiastic about those.

Sharepoint....I'm hoping that improves....I've been voicing to the new development guy how much "mapped cloud drive" support is really needed, and the ability to tie that in with an on-prem server. It works fine via browser access...but people still love that mapped drive feature. (and I'd love to see it sync with the servers Company Folders). I encourage others here to voice that desire to the OneDrive/Sharepoint team...get up on a soap box and shout!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I forgot to add one point is usually not obvious, and it's hard to place a dollar value on this...management. As some of you probably know, supporting clients with ISP or freebie mail hosted e-mail...to put it politely....sucks a$$.

There is an added cost to the client for the extra time an IT person has to spend trying to support those residential e-mail systems.
Versus our ease of management of these accounts through an on-prem servers Essentials role dashboard, and/or along with our access to their Online account direct through their web portal or through your company's O365 management portal as a delegated admin. We spend much less time managing it..thus bill the client less. Changing users passwords, adding/removing users. Adding e-mail aliases or making other changes to accounts.

Also tagging along for ease of management...MS Office licensing. Quickly reassign licenses, quickly download/install Office on new builds or rebuilds. Instead of spending time trying to locate the clients Office install CD (s) and licenses...which for the smaller businesses are often not able to be found, or often quite oversubscribed (wink). Keeps licensing fully legit.

 

[TAPtech]

Short and sweet:

Exchange can store and sync email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes, and supports team collaboration of all of them. It does this with all of your devices.

IMAP can store and sync email. To all of your devices.

 

[TechSource]

I second TAPtech regarding this.

Basic Breakdown would be the sync options.
IMAP - only syncs emails.
ActiveSync -Syncs 1)Email 2)Contacts 3)Tasks 4)Calendar.

Now GoogleApps VS Office365 is a whole different beast of a question.

 

[trevm999]

Many of my clients are in their 20's or 30's, and have grown up with web based Email and dislike Outlook as clunky and slow. I see more Gmail accounts than anything else. A good number of companies, universities, government agencies, and small businesses use Google Apps for Work, so it's what many of them are used to. Many clients that use Office 365 use the Business version, not Premium because they don't want Outlook or it's email, instead want to use their Gmail and Google calendar. It's a simple sell to move them to use Google Apps for Work.

I'd be all for Google for Work, except that the Collaborative Inbox is a joke, it is a Google Group and not an inbox and doesn't provide the same functionality of a shared inbox.

 

[HCHTech]

Going back to public folders....having a "company calendar".

You have to purchase a separate mailbox just for this, correct? I sold a small business customer on O365 recently, but they balked at the separate mailbox to have a shared calendar. In the end, I just gave the owner access to the employee's calendars, but he can only see them from his computer, not his phone. This didn't kill the sale, but it sure would be nice if this were as easy as it is with Google.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Public folders do not require a separate mailbox/license.

However, from smart phones...yes with the current free mail apps you cannot see public folders.

 

[drpcfix]

it's interesting to see the difference in perspective and focus on TN. I realize that this is a Windows centric group, given the large number out there, but I guess I'm kind of a niche operator and an outlier.

Most of my client base is either trying to get away from Exchange or have never used it and is not interested in it. My Desk based clients usually have 2 monitors, one with Chorme always open on their gmail account, and the other on whatever else they are working on.

Many of my clients are in their 20's or 30's, and have grown up with web based Email and dislike Outlook as clunky and slow. I see more Gmail accounts than anything else. A good number of companies, universities, government agencies, and small businesses use Google Apps for Work, so it's what many of them are used to. Many clients that use Office 365 use the Business version, not Premium because they don't want Outlook or it's email, instead want to use their Gmail and Google calendar. It's a simple sell to move them to use Google Apps for Work.


I do have older clients that came out of the corporate world that swear by Outlook, and they get put on Hosted Exchange or O365 Premium. Made for each other.

The problems start when people try to use Gmail on Outlook, just not a good way to go.

Totally.. If a shop is ok with webmail, gmail and no outlook is perfect. If it's the type of business that has a large workforce that already knows Microsoft Office (word/excel) the transition to google docs can be super disruptive. If they are staying in the Microsoft world (and Outlook) - all these arguments for moving from imap to exchange are totally valid.

 

[Erick]

Many of my clients are in their 20's or 30's, and have grown up with web based Email and dislike Outlook as clunky and slow

Yep, you have the millennials as clients. I think I spelled it right Many of my clients that are 40 and older complain that their IT tech (younger than them more than likely) sold them on gmail and now they hate it and want back on the good old Outlook.

One of my past migrations I won because the voting team was over 40. The millennials lost. In fact, the one manager asked me "What apps can we use with Exchange" . The VP said "they are selfish and we are doing what is best for the future"

Older people don't want the change, I'm glad.

At my previous job doing MNS I used to joke with my boss that I could tell him whether they'd go for Exchange based upon the first meeting. If the "boss" had an iPhone, was over 40 or seemed in any manner portrayed himself as being technically deficient they'd go with Exchange.

If the IT guy seemed browbeat and abused by "cup holder" type questions from the staff, then they'd go for Exchange.