Can you imagine managing a business without email? Neither can we. As a primary means of business communication, email, especially hosted email, is extremely important to any organization.

There are abundant resources for free email accounts on the web, but as we warn our business clients, there are also inherent risks and potentially severe costs that can come with those services.

Risks include:

1. SPAM central:

It’s not known if the free email services are selling your information or if spammers have a way to get your email, but the one certain thing is you will definitely start receiving an exuberant amount of spam ads.

2. Archiving ability:

Free email accounts through Hotmail, MSN, and Gmail do not offer the easily searchable, and accessible options of archiving older emails. It’s important for many businesses and a requirement for some to be able to retrieve old correspondence.

3. Little if any customer support:

Support is available for free email accounts typically through email only, and through the telephone with a paid account. If an urgent crisis occurs, good luck getting to speak to a human quickly.

4. No delivery guarantee:

Spam filters are prone to blocking messages from a known source of spam, and although you may not be a covert spammer, you cannot account for the rest of the people that use the Gmail or Hotmail domain. Since the majority of spam messages come from those domains, it is much more likely that your emails might be getting blocked before they even reach the sender.
Whether it is of importance to you or not, the domain that your email address uses can be subject to prejudice in today’s branded world. A secure hosted email exchange, such as a hosted Microsoft Exchange Server which we use for our BIS Secure Email, has a tremendous amount of benefits for businesses.

Hosted email benefits include:

1. Professionalism:

The credibility that comes from an email address that someone uses from and AOL.com address is vastly different that the professionalism that is conveyed from a business email address, i.e. you@yourdomain.com.

2. Branding Opportunities:

Every time you send an email from a hosted account, you are putting your domain and your brand in front of your customers, prospects, and vendors. This also helps in brand recall. When a customer or prospect wants to find your business online after you have corresponded with them through email, they’re more likely to remember your website URL because it is in your email address.

3. Long-lasting:

Certain internet providers offer free email accounts such as you@att.net and you@comcast.net, but when you change providers, these typically go away as well.

4. Department segmentation:

Even if you are not a big company, having the compartmentalized email addresses to segment billing, shipping, and customer support, will not only make you look professional, but assist in organizing your incoming emails.

While the options for email hosting are infinite, there is one which rises above the rest in terms of security, features, functionality and availability. A Microsoft Exchange Server is much more than a simple mail server. In addition to its reliability and safety rankings, it offers many advantages over simpler hosting options.

Specific advantages to the BIS Secure Hosted Exchange Email using the Microsoft Exchange Server include:

1. Fully managed with Advanced Threat Protection (ATP):

Up to 80% of security threats to your network are arriving via Email.

To combat that, we offer ATP Secure Email. Advanced Threat Protection means that you have the most secure email available. In today’s environment of Ransomware and other email based threats you need to protect not only your communication but also your data. Our ATP not only provides SPAM protection but also actually clicks the links in the Email in a sandboxed environment to be sure they are legit. The extra features and muscle a BIS Secure Hosted Exchange Email could provide your business doesn’t mean additional work for you. We provide 24×7 monitoring and support to ensure that you’re always connected with your important data.

2. More Than Just Email:

Hosting your email with BIS Secure Email offers you much more than email. It comes with completely managed calendaring, contacts, and task organization all in one easy to access place. These features enable you to share and sync all your communications in one place. Combined with Exchange’s Web Mail Interface, which allows you to access your email from any web browser, you can power through your workday feeling more organized and productive.

3. Scalability:

BIS’ Secure Exchange product integrates hardware load balancing with redundancy. This means our product makes sure you always have enough space for your data through all the stages of your business’ growth. In addition, you can rest assured you’re able to access your emails when needed through our routine backups and proactive redundancy.

4. Mobile device synchronization:

Our Hosted Exchange Server allows you to synchronize your data with major mobile phones. Access your connections, calendars, and email folders with your tablet or smart phone to never ever miss an important message or meeting while on the go. As a side note: While it is becoming more the norm than the exception to work from anywhere and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work, it is vitally important to keep staff trained about security awareness and device encryption.

5. Message Database and Data Loss Prevention:

A staggering 59% of employees steal company data before quitting or getting fired.

As compliance and data protection is becoming more and more important, archiving emails in our searchable database keeps you informed of what employees are sending and receiving. Our Exchange environments also offer proactive rules-based tools that can send alerts to designated personnel if someone is sending sensitive data.

For more information, and to schedule a free consultation with our IT specialists regarding the benefits and pricing of our Hosted Email service, you may contact our office here.

Business Information Solutions, Inc. provides Network Consulting and Proactive IT Support for businesses in Gulfport and Biloxi, MS, Mobile, AL, Daphne, AL, Spanish Fort, AL, Fairhope, AL, Foley, AL and Pensacola, FL.

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