Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Can Exchange and Outlook play in the cheap email game?
February 25, 2008

In a comment to my last post, Jim G brought up a great point about security & support. If these are two things you need, you'd better think twice about Google Apps. Not to say there's no security, but when your personal security is breached, where will you turn - Google is pretty self service - making this an even bigger issue. There is also the issue of backups, which is especially important for compliance (SOX or other).

It kinda hurts to say but Exchange and SharePoint aren't so bad.

Ok, and this was on my mind even before Jim's comment and was given a lift by a pal. Ted pointed out that there are some nifty hosted MS Exchange / SharePoint solutions that can handle the job of email, document store and collaboration. One of the few that seems to do a pretty good job is Intermedia.net.

Why Exchange Hosting?

The folks at Intermedia not only host exchange/sharepoint pretty inexpensively - $12 a month per user, they throw in a copy of Outlook for free. This makes is a nice buy for the small shops out there.

Some other features they have are:

• A "compliance package" for those of you in need
• Blackberry Support (a must)
• ActiveSync Support (handy for the rest of us)
• With 10+ users SharePoint is tossed in for free with Exchange hosting

I know for some of you Exchange is a an ugly word - but really - how ugly can it be if you're paying someone else to manage and support it and you can point Outlook right at it? True, you still have to deal with the users, but despite all of my attempts in the past they never went away anyhow. With this solution you can have Outlook, shared calendars, assign tasks, etc and managing the hardward is someone else's pleasure.

As much as I like wiki's, gmail and backpack, Intermedia just might have something with the way they've bundled the suite together. Wiki's can get knocked for not being secure. Backpack doesn't do a great job of calendaring. Google on the other hand does a really nice job at email and calendaring, but it doesn't do tasks (which is just plain annoying) and docs is an invitation based security model while SharePoint is assigned security.

The knock on Exchange and SharePoint are that they lack the Web 2.0 pizazz.  Big Deal! To me, as long as you don't try to do to much with a hosted instance of SharePoint, you can probably get a lot of bang for your buck.

What does SharePoint do for me?

SharePoint may be very familiar to some of you, only a word to most of you and completely unfamiliar to the rest of you. In a nutshell, SharePoint is a collaboration tool. Via a browser it allows you to share files and contact lists, plus  store documents online. It does some other tricks like run blogs and wikis too, but we won't dive into that in this article.

Looking at this from an expense point of view, deploying SharePoint in-house is expensive and time consuming. Who wants to buy the hardware and software required to make that happen? Then once you have the hardware and software consider how long it will take your already beleaguered IT team to complete the install and configuration?

Does this count as an ROI model?

The basic math on using a hosted Exchange provider is nearly as compelling as moving to gmail. While hosted exchange is not fee, there are packages that start at around $12 per user and come with fabulous customer service. Ted dropped this "I figure I am saving at least $1000 a month by using these guys."

I'll be happy to do a detailed ROI model, but you are going to have to comment and ask for it. This is a give and get relationship.

Final remarks

I know this sounds like a bandwagon for Intermedia, but no I am not a paid spokesperson. It's pretty simple, when something works it's worth talking about. I am sure there are others who do it as well or better than these guys, but I have not found them. I looked at several others and ABetterOutlook.com was the only other site I found that bundles. So, if you can't use Google Apps for security reasons or other limitations, check out Hosted Exchange providers and give IT a break. Can I get a show of hands as to how many IT departments will feel threatened by the outsourcing of email? Give me enough feedback and I'll post some notes on how to manage their anxiety.

Nice chatting with all of you and thanks for the note Jim. If anyone wants to get in touch directly or has thoughts for future posts please drop me a note to Steve at TheKrullGroup.com (ps, we write it like that so the spammers don't pick it up)

- Steve

Steve Krull founded The Krull Group in 2006 after several years managing Web sites and Search Marketing as part of both ConsumerGuide.com and HowStuffWorks.com. Today, Steve and his team manage Search Marketing programs for a variety of business to business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) clients.

Posted by Steve Krull on February 25, 2008 | Comments (0)