Cloud Email for Small Business?

[RegMolehusband]

For years I've used Outlook on my PC which works fine but issues arise when its file size gets too big and I need to access email when on holiday.

So before departing on holiday last month I ported everything over to Outlook.com including my business emails as POP3 accounts. This worked great.

Subsequently I discover that Outlook.com only checks these POP3 email accounts every 30 minutes - which for business and most other purposes is rubbish.

Does anybody have good experience of other online email services that have good functionality and that can be configured to check POP3 upon request or more regularly?

Cheers

"Reg"

[elster]

Can you not just set the email address as an IMAP account. That way you can access from anywhere as the copy is left on the server.

[RegMolehusband]

I've no idea! I'd have to research what IMAP is and the implications if any on the mail server. I was given POP3 details by the website designing company.

Anyway, having Googled a bit it sounds like Outlook also checks IMAP accounts every 30 minutes.

Edited by RegMolehusband on Friday 5th September 08:06

[NorthDave]

We use GMail with a custom domain name and it works perfectly - a mixture of laptops, android phones, iphones and tablets all access multiple accounts without problem.

Not sure if it is still free but it just works.

[Ynox]

I'd probably move to a Gmail solution - £3.30/user/month which is pretty reasonable really. http://www.google.co.uk/intx/en_uk/enterprise/apps...

Using a business product will also give you support and a better service level agreement, something which I'd argue is of importance for a small business.

'Standard' Gmail can be configured to pull from a POP3 mailbox (I've got a personal domain with this setup - but 30 minutes or so is acceptable for personal mail for me), but this is still done on a batch basis (so every 30 minutes or so) if I remember right.

[surveyor]

Google Apps or Outlook365 and use web interface.

Google have a Outlook connector if you must stick with it.

[Altrezia]

We've used Google apps for years - it's fab. Probably had 30 minutes downtime in 5 years?

[E902717]

Another google apps business user here. Its brilliant.

[bga]

Another happy user of google apps here. We've been using them since early 2007 and the service basically looks after itself. We've got 100+ users on it now and I spend all of a few hours a year doing admin on it.

[jammy_basturd]

Ynox said:

I'd probably move to a Gmail solution - £3.30/user/month which is pretty reasonable really. http://www.google.co.uk/intx/en_uk/enterprise/apps...

Using a business product will also give you support and a better service level agreement, something which I'd argue is of importance for a small business.

'Standard' Gmail can be configured to pull from a POP3 mailbox (I've got a personal domain with this setup - but 30 minutes or so is acceptable for personal mail for me), but this is still done on a batch basis (so every 30 minutes or so) if I remember right.

I use GMail, the free verions. There is a refresh button that will force GMail to check each email account. Other than that I think the default check is 30 minutes. I know all businesses are different, but is it really that important for messages to come through more frequently than that?

Never had a problem with downtime, as Altrezia says, maybe 30 minutes in 5 years.

[MrSparks]

I use Google Apps For Business for both my businesses and the email is great. Only £3.30 per user per month.

I am however moving the larger business over to Office 365 as we need the Office software and seems stupid not to use 365.

[dtmpower]

RegMolehusband said:

Subsequently I discover that Outlook.com only checks these POP3 email accounts every 30 minutes - which for business and most other purposes is rubbish.

Could you forward the mail rather than ask Outlook.com to download it from the 3rd party pop3 account ?

All of my domains use wildcard forwarding to my main gmail account. If spam starts than I remove the wildcard entry and just use specific forwarding from addresses.

Edited by dtmpower on Friday 5th September 16:43

[Stevanos]

I add another vote for Google Apps

[askew]

As others have suggested, Office365 is pretty good if you want to stick with Microsoft. I believe they offer Exchange-only subs from a couple of quid/user/month, while for ~£7 you get access to the Office apps online/Sharepoint/OneDrive.

[chippy348]

I have also been looking at an alternative to MS Outlook.

With Google Apps For Business, can you have say more than 1 Email open at a time Ie you are preparing a quote and need a Email from you supplier open along with the Email you are working on ?

[jammy_basturd]

Yes, you can either pop out reply so that the new message window appears on top of the rest of the mail app, or you can compose the email in a new window/tab.

[mattdaniels]

Take a look at Office365

[RegMolehusband]

I think as many suggest, I will take a look at Office 365. To me Google has become a muddle, this is integrated with that and my personal stuff seems to have become mixed up with my business stuff.

However I do need to make sure that Outlook in Office 365 will poll POP3 email servers on request or at regular intervals. Hopefully this 30 minutes delay in Outlook.com is a marketing tactic to make business users switch to Office 365.

[Bikerjon]

You need to move away from POP3 accounts. For a business account that's manageable from multiple devices you want either IMAP, Exchange or Google Apps. Which one you go for depends on your other technology/computers/devices. If you prefer Microsoft products then Office365 will start to make more sense.

[b0rk]

office 365 plan E1 sounds perfect for you £2.5 p/m here