How to switch comapny email system to MS Exchange server?

[Dick Jagger]

I am interested in getting my office to run Outlook Web Access. I just recently joined this new small firm and they have no IT department; currently they outsource to a guy who comes on site once every two weeks or so.

They have Outlook 2007 installed, and I dont know much else about it other than the fact that when we have to access our email remotely, we need to go to a web hosting site that connects to our mail server via POP or something; i.e., when I view new mail from the internet, it doesn't synchronize or otherwise appear in my inbox when I'm back in the office, which is extremely frustrating.

I am sure that management has no idea what MS Exchange or OWA is. I would like to suggest to them that they need to purchase this and give them some guidance but I don't know much about it. In my old office, it just worked fine.

Is there anyone here that can provide some tips on what they need to do to upgrade their current system to be more practical / functional?
Thanks...

 

[pparks1]

Is there anyone here that can provide some tips on what they need to do to upgrade their current system to be more practical / functional?
Thanks...

Well, first and foremost.....cost would have to be discussed. It's quite possible that they didn't go the Exchange route the first time due to cost.

 

[Dick Jagger]

Well, perhaps, but I think that they would be willing to pay for the improvement. The problem is that they are completely unaware of a better system. I need to advise them how to improve it and how much it would cost. I looked at this: Exchange Server 2007 Pricing which looks like about $4k for up to 50 users. We have 60 employees at the moment, but I don't think cost is a problem for them.

But, I don't know how are we currently accessing Outlook in the office over the LAN if there isn't a mail server in place. Is an exchange server required to allow access over the web? How about implementation if they do buy it; i.e., converting everything from the current system to the proposed?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[pparks1]

The exchange server software you linked to is $699 for the Exchange license for standard edition...which is all you would need. It's then $67 per CAL for all user....so about $4,000 in user licenses. Then, you would just need a suitable server machine running Windows Server 2008 and the licenses for that and you would have an exchange server running the mailbox role. Depending upon your setup, you might need to also license an Exchange edge transport server...(that's what accepts incoming mail from the internet)....plus since you want to run OWA...you might want to license another Exchange server running the Client Access Server role.

It's also quite possible that if you have your email hosted, they could take care of all of this for you...without you guys licensing it all. They just charge you X amount of dollars per month per person or address. This may or may not work depending upon where your active directory system is located and what type of connectivity it might have to the hosting environment.

On top of this stuff..you would have to install some type of antivirus and antimalware on the exchange servers...as well as getting a suitable backup solution and such in place to provide mailbox and information store backups.

As far as transitioning mail over....it all depends upon what you are coming from. Sounds to me like you are pulling the mail down via POP3 into Outlook...so chances are all of your email is local already. So, if you setup Exchange, you could just create mailboxes for your users and they could drag their existing email into their new mailbox.