Exchange 2003 hosting or Microsoft Office Outlook Live?

[reception]

Hi all,

I'm starting on new business with a colleague. We will both have laptops and
are likely to be in and out of the office and may need to work during the
evening at home sometimes.

We are both from a larger company with Office Exchange servers and are used
to sharing calendars and contacts etc and accessing and using our office
mail from home.

Given that we are starting up we do not want to spend much of money on IT so
we were looking at going for one of the online exchange hosting services
such as Datagate's (in the UK). The other option is Microsoft Office Outlook
Live.

The business will be structural engineering so we will be preparing
calculations and AutoCAD drawings and emailing them and receiving them. We
will also need to worry about storing our project data (on the laptops..!)
for the first year.

After a year we will hopefully consider a better IT set-up. Is a server
really the way to go if there are only two of us.

I would welcome any advice (helping hands steering me in a better
direction).

Regards

Brian.
UK

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

You might want to look at the Small Business Server from Microsoft - it
includes Exchange and 5 CALs. It can be had for less than $700 or even less
depending on your supplier. Plus, starting out with SBS allows for scaling
later when you are more established and are adding employees.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, reception asked:

| Hi all,
|
| I'm starting on new business with a colleague. We will both have
| laptops and are likely to be in and out of the office and may need to
| work during the evening at home sometimes.
|
| We are both from a larger company with Office Exchange servers and
| are used to sharing calendars and contacts etc and accessing and
| using our office mail from home.
|
| Given that we are starting up we do not want to spend much of money
| on IT so we were looking at going for one of the online exchange
| hosting services such as Datagate's (in the UK). The other option is
| Microsoft Office Outlook Live.
|
| The business will be structural engineering so we will be preparing
| calculations and AutoCAD drawings and emailing them and receiving
| them. We will also need to worry about storing our project data (on
| the laptops..!) for the first year.
|
| After a year we will hopefully consider a better IT set-up. Is a
| server really the way to go if there are only two of us.
|
| I would welcome any advice (helping hands steering me in a better
| direction).
|
| Regards
|
| Brian.
| UK

 

[reception]

Hi Milly,

Thanks for your time in replying. I appreciate your good advice.

Over the first 6 months our cash flow is going to restrict our IT spend. A
SBS £350, server £300, backup drive and software £300....say £1000 ($1900)
is likely to initially be out of our reach.

What we really need is some sort of web server solution for the first year
which we ditch when we make some money...........if there is such a
thing......!


Regards

Brian.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

MOOL can be as low as $60 per year per user - if you have more than 2 users
and don't need outlook, you can get MSN premium and use the outlook
connector.

Hosted exchange is generally $10 per user per month. But... it gives you
better sharing capabilities and usually comes with at least some public
folder capability. The big advantage here is that you can use your own
domain and can often also host a web site to promote your business for a few
bucks a month more.

Your own SBS server could be as cheap as one SBS server license and 5 CALs,
if you own suitable hardware. You can make do with less expensive backup
solutions... but it'll probably be higher than even the hosted account. The
only advantage is you have total control over the server and accounts -
which may not be an advantage if you aren't into IT admin type stuff and
place a high value on your time doing your paying work.



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



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