Microsoft Outlook-Exchange is the best corporate email software, but it is expensive to buy and run. Global Micro's 'Hosted Exchange' gives you all its benefits - without the high cost.

Costs of Hosted Exchange

Cost is the major reason why hosted Exchange is rapidly growing in popularity. Upfront costs are several thousand dollars for even the most basic setup, putting in-house Exchange beyond the reach of smaller businesses. On-going costs for in-house Exchange are also high. Either companies need to hire IT staff or pay consultants to fix each problem, adding thousands more Rands in annual costs.

Reliability of Hosted Exchange

Having email and collaboration that always works is now essential to doing business - and downtime is unacceptable. In-house Exchange servers - usually in a basement or closet not designed for sensitive IT equipment - cannot match the reliability of hosted Outlook/Exchange. Hosted Outlook/Exchange companies like Global Micro manage servers in large purpose-built datacentres with backup power, air conditioning and Internet connections. Below are the main threats to your email system:

Features of Hosted Exchange

Hosted Exchange is great because you can expand it with add-on features. However, this is difficult in practice with an in-house system, as each feature needs to be installed from scratch. With hosted Exchange, all features are already installed and ready to 'turn on' if you wish to use them. Below are features you may wish to add:

Wireless Email

Get your email and data on devices like a BlackBerry or Treo Purchase separate (expensive) servers and software licenses, install them manually Add instantly through online control panel

Archiving

Create a backup of your emails for compliance or security purposes either a time-intensive in-house effort or another external service to manage Add instantly

Extra Disk Space

Expand storage with your business Purchase and install additional disk drives Add instantly

Advanced Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus

Sophisticated blocking of spam to keeps employees productive. Additional costs for software and maintenance Add instantly. Reduce the risk of damage to your files and IT infrastructure Additional costs for software and maintenance Included as standard