Today, we all are using smartphones, tablets and PCs to perform our work and to communicate with our business partners, suppliers and clients. It’s therefore important that your devices are all synchronised with one another, to save you time and ultimately make your more efficient.
However, there are a few different types of email accounts, including POP, IMAP and Hosted Exchange. This article explains what each of these is, and why Hosted Exchange is the way to go.
POP3
This email protocol is very much out of date and isn’t designed to allow multiple devices to manage email. When you receive an email, the message is saved locally to your computer/device. You can normally set your email program to either leave a copy of the message on the server, or delete it as soon as it’s downloaded.
If messages are not set to be deleted, those same messages will be downloaded again on every other device you use, and you’ll have to re-sort them into folders or delete them. If messages were set to be deleted after download, you won’t receive a copy on your other devices at all.
You also won’t have copies of any sent emails except on the device you sent them from.
The only benefit of POP email is that it is inexpensive and keeps mailbox sizes small (if you’ve chosen to delete messages automatically after downloading).
IMAP
This email protocol is an improvement over POP because it does synchronise messages across multiple devices. The email stays on the server, and reading a message flags it as being read. This allows a user to be able to view, delete and manage their emails on any device, with the changes automatically reflected on other devices as well.
The downside is that if your local email file becomes corrupted or you change to a new hosting provider, your emails will likely be lost forever. IMAP is also notoriously fickle on some devices, and particularly on Apple computers.
Hosted Exchange
Microsoft Exchange is software which provides all the syncing capabilities as IMAP, but with many more features that go well beyond a POP or IMAP email service.
Exchange was originally designed to be installed on a server which would reside in your office, which would also require IT staff on hand to manage the software and services. Hosted Exchange is the same software, but accessed from the Internet instead of your own server. This reduces your costs and software management time exponentially without losing any of the functionality.
In our busy day-to-day business activities, we are constantly bombarded with tasks, messages, meetings and requests. We need more than a simple email management tool; we need to manage everything about our business quickly and conveniently.
Hosted Exchange synchronises your email, calendars, contacts, tasks and documents across every device at all times. Data is automatically backed up to the server so if you ever buy a new computer or phone, you only need to set up your account again and every email is downloaded again automatically. In addition, you get a wide range of features such as in-built spam filtering; the ability to recall sent messages; having disclaimers automatically added to all outgoing emails; and more.
This results in quick, easy and more affordable management of your business electronic communication (emails, calendars, schedules, files, etc).
If you’re serious about a high-quality, affordable and powerful suite of business management tools, Hosted Exchange is for you. To find out more, give us a call on (07) 3333 2932 or contact us online for a free quote.
