5 Things You Should Know About Outlook Web App 2010
Maybe you've heard the buzz out there that Microsoft released Exchange 2010. Maybe you had no idea and maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about period. This week's newsletter has five key features that we think will benefit you whether you've already upgraded or are considering upgrading and we will specifically focus on the new Outlook Web Access portal or as we call it OWA.
1. More Mobile Phone Integration
Microsoft has had the ability to wipe a mobile phone from OWA since 2007, but in 2010 they have added the ability to log all interaction between Microsoft Exchange and the mobile phone. This can be extremely useful in trying to figure out why your phone's battery has been dying so quickly since you set up your email on it or why your phone isn't downloading email at all.
Another new mobile feature in OWA 2010 is the ability to set up text messaging for new emails and calendar events. OWA allows for rules to be created so that only important email's get text notifications or just emails from Aunt Sue in Alabama are left in your inbox without notifications. Calendaring can be setup so that all meeting reminders and updates are texted or a daily agenda is texted.
2. Group Email Conversations
A feature that was built-in to Outlook 2007, and expanded to the web in 2010 is conversation grouping in the inbox. People familiar with Gmail will recognize the conversations right away as OWA goes through the inbox and sent items and groups emails by subject. This way when John from ABC, Inc. accepts your offer, you can easily find out what the actual offer was that you made without have to search through your sent items folder.
3. Better Mac Integration
For a long time Mac users have been very limited in some things on OWA. No matter what browser they were using, Mac users had to use the light version of OWA. In 2010 Microsoft has expanded browser support to Firefox on Mac and Windows and Safari on Mac. One of my favorite features that now works on all supported browsers is the ability to use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor to edit emails, calendar descriptions, and signatures. This means that editing those items is very similar to the way you would edit them in the Outlook desktop application.
4. Better Look and Feel
Microsoft Exchange is a corporate email solution and they seemed to always make sure people knew it was a corporate thing with a rather uninteresting design. With more email solutions arising for business like Google Apps that both work well and look great, Microsoft must have taken the hint. OWA 2010 looks outstanding in my opinion. The contrast's and colors used throughout the application match up and really draw your eyes to what you need to see. Microsoft also matched the design with Outlook 2010 and Live.com's email website to make users of both more comfortable using OWA. We see Outlook's classic yellow in a nice feather gradient across the top of the header and Microsoft's classic blue color throughout the application in highlighted emails and folders.
5. Categorization Support
In working with Cage I have discovered that I have a terrible habit of not deleting old emails. Without being able to categorize emails in Outlook, I would never be able to find anything. Microsoft, in trying to make OWA a great cloud application, added support for categorization in 2010. This means that from the OWA interface you can categorize emails, calendar entries and contacts. You can even manage all of your categories in OWA and have them synced to Outlook.
So there you have it... These are just a small piece of upgrades that Microsoft made to their Exchange Software. If you would like to discuss these features as well as what else is included in Exchange 2010 and how it relates to your business, give us a call and we'll be glad to discuss it further with you.
