E-Mail on the Move
Hi. This is Craig Sharp, and you're listening to another short podcast from Abussi, with more news and topical information about IT.
This month, we're looking at email on the move - a topic that I'm passionate about, and one that lots of the businesses we talk to are starting to get seriously interested in.
What happens if you're away from the office, and a customer emails you asking for an urgent response? Or if there's a serious problem that needs sorting out? We live in a world of instant response. So being out of touch with your email, and unable to reply straightaway, doesn't feel comfortable any more. And it's not great having to lug a laptop around the whole time.
Now at this point, many people assume that to get email on the move, you need a Blackberry. But that's only because they were first in the market - so the name has become a bit of a generic. And some businesses we know who have bought Blackberries have found that they're not always the right answer. This is partly to do with high relative cost, and the additional software and hardware you need. It's also because of the translation process between Blackberry and email server, which we've found to cause problems.
So what's the alternative? Well, you can now buy a Windows smart phone from any high street mobile provider for around £80. They're designed to interface easily with any other Microsoft product, such as your email server, or with hosted email.
They're easy to configure and install, and they include pocket versions of Word, Excel, pdf and PowerPoint, so you can even download attachments. And you can now get tariffs that mean you can send emails from your phone, entirely free.
Ideal for a business with around ten to fifteen users, they allow you to take full advantage of email on the move - and at a cost that's a lot less than you might have expected.
I want to stress that we at Abussi have no vested interest in any of this. We don't sell mobile devices. All we care about is helping our clients to get the right tools for the job - and make the most of their investment. And once you've trusted us with the responsibility of looking after your system, you can concentrate on what you do best - and leave the IT to us.
I hope you've found this podcast interesting and useful. You can find out more at our website - abussi.co.uk.
Meanwhile, enjoy your IT - and I look forward to talking to you again next month. Thanks for listening.
