Business Mail Server: What You Really Need

If you’re new to this crazy ‘Internet’ thing, you may be using a free email address (like DOOR-TO-DOOR-HAM@YAHOO.COM) instead of a business mail server.

It’s worked pretty well for you so far, and you mostly just get junk-mail (and have a sneaking suspicion that it’s all from your provider…).

This generally looks sloppy to prospective customers, who are always looking for established and respectable businesses.

Believe it, your email address sends a message about your business. It’s important to have a professional-looking number, and to own your company’s name on the web.

Still, you’re going to have some questions with you’re buying a domain and email to go along with it.

Therefore, today we are covering all the things you really need when shopping for a business mail server.

What Features To Look For In A Business Mail Server

It’s not as easy as you might hope. The choice between Exchange as an email platform versus being hosted with Google Apps, for example.

Here’s a few things that any kind of business mail server should have.

Spam blocking: It’s terrifying how much spam you’d have in your inbox if there wasn’t strong email filtering behind the scenes. Those messages that do seem to slip through seem like a lot, until you start getting 600 or more.

Remote access: As a SMB owner, sometimes you need to know when something’s on fire and you’re the only one who can put it out.

You’ve got to have the option to receive email on your smartphone or other device and a business mail server allows this.

Contacts and Calendars: Rather than relying on a roto-file for your contacts, you’ve got them built into your phone, and now calendars as well.

Much like your mail though, you’re going to want both of these to sync back with your computer and possibly other devices. There’s nothing like missing an important appointment or a reminder to email critical documents.

Expansion: You’re successful. Here you are, making the leap from borrowed space to your very own system.

Consider how many people you’re going to be bringing on in the next couple of years, and the kind of support system you want in place to make managing them easier.

What features would you want to make your job of riding herd on them easier? Pick a business mail sever that will grow with your plans.

The Difference Between POP And Exchange

POP/IMAP are basic mail protocols. Hit button, receive your emails.

Exchange started as an email system, but has been expanded over time to include calendaring, task management, web-based access, and other business support features.

It’s all down to the features you want.

Just mail and nothing else: any old POP server should be just fine. More? Exchange.

In hopes of keeping this article short enough to read, I’m not going to explore Exchange features in depth, or explain the different kinds of POP and it’s differences from IMAP. This should serve as a rough guide to where you need to start looking for your email server.

Consider the value offered by hosted, managed solutions versus maintaining a server yourself. Some hosted solutions will require a yearly or monthly fee per account you create, others will host the server itself for a flat monthly fee regardless of the number of accounts.

Want to know more about a business mail server? … We’re awesome, call us.