Most companies now use Microsoft Outlook and the well-known Calendar feature to send, store, schedule, and keep track of everyday business. To make these activities intelligent and clear, Microsoft Exchange provides useful features.
The Microsoft Exchange Server is the linchpin for Microsoft Outlook and the calendar function.
Exchange can be hosted in the Microsoft Office 365 cloud package or sold separately as Exchange Server 2016 for the corporate servers as a local e-mail service.
What is Microsoft Exchange?
The Microsoft Exchange Server provides sophisticated e-mail and calendaring features for businesses.
It serves as a central filing and administration office for e-mails, address books (contacts) and much more. for all employees of a company. With its functionality, Microsoft Exchange enables perfect collaboration within individual departments or teams and across the enterprise.
You can use the so-called Exchange Administration Center (EAC) to manage the Exchange Server yourself or to hire an expert. To access the Exchange Management Console, you need administration rights. In the Exchange Administration Center, you can then set up e-mail accounts, delete e-mail accounts, or even restore new employees.
If the server is to be operated in its own network, this requires the directory service Active Directory from Microsoft. All employee data, such as names or assignments such as departments (workgroups), printers or file accesses are stored, managed and monitored there. Any access restrictions are also provided herein.
All this data is needed by the Microsoft Exchange Server to create specific mappings for Outlook. You can think of Outlook as the front-end for Exchange, which means Microsoft Exchange works in the background while working directly with Microsoft Outlook.
What features does Microsoft Exchange offer?
Microsoft Exchange complements the functionality of Outlook with many features. Often these features are taken for granted, but they would not be possible without the precautions on the Exchange server.
One of these key features is the Intelligent Inbox, which places urgent emails in a separate, higher-relevance mailbox. E-mails sent by colleagues or customers, for example, end up in the “Relevance” folder, while newsletters or update messages from the intranet end up in the “Other” folder.
Older emails can be found faster with the optimized search. In addition, emails are displayed here, which are in direct context to the search query and facilitate the search even more, if information about the sender or the exact topic has been omitted.
In general, all rules for e-mails are stored on the Microsoft Exchange Server. This also applies to the settings for Out of Office emails, if you travel on vacation. These rules also apply if you have not opened Microsoft Outlook.
An anti-spam filter can be used to exclude individual users and domains. This leads to less e-mail effort and they only receive relevant e-mails that can be processed faster. In addition, the security risk decreases because e-mails containing viruses can thus be intercepted and removed beforehand.
To facilitate team collaboration, shared mailboxes can be created that are accessible only to team members. In this way, team members can also access all e-mail resources in the event of staff or illness-related staff outages. Emails that have been processed can be highlighted in green and displayed to all members. Cumbersome work steps are therefore a thing of the past.
Not only a common PO box, but also the release of a calendar promotes qualitative cooperation. Meetings can be planned better and there are no deadline violations. The so-called scheduling assistant in Microsoft Outlook also helps you with planning. Another helpful feature of Microsoft Exchange is the transfer of email information into deadlines. For example, if you are on a business trip, your calendar will find the necessary travel dates (train or hotel) in the emails.
What are the advantages of using Microsoft Exchange for employees and companies?
- Microsoft Exchange is the central administration office for emails, contact data, files and much more.
- Intuitive Administration Center simplifies the management of e-mail accounts
- Exchange extends the possibilities with Outlook and makes it intelligent
- The optimized search displays search results faster and in context
- Workflows in the team can be optimized and accelerated
- Group folders make working in the team easier – completion/markups are displayed for all group members
- Cooperation and quality is improved
- Relevant emails are not absorbed as fast by displaying in the folder “Relevant”
- Anti-spam filter streamlines the inbox and makes it safer
What are you waiting for? Give us a call today, and let’s discuss how Microsoft products can grow your business!
