SMS Continues to Gain Credibility with the Internet Industry

Internet Facilitators Limited (IFL) one of the top UK companies offering secure hosting for Internet Service Providers and Telecoms companies has contracted with Simply Mail Solutions for the hosting of Microsoft Exchange mailboxes.

IFL was set up in 1997 and they provide carrier neutral data centre space to internet service providers, web hosting companies and other IT service businesses. Part of the service provided is 24 / 7 support for which they use on call engineers. Ensuring that those engineers have access to email whilst they are out of the office was critical.

Having identified a requirement to improve mobile access to email they looked at the alternatives of hosted solutions compared to in house. The decision to use a hosted solution was based on a combination of cost and simplicity. For a small team cost of the hosted solution was much lower since any hardware or expensive software licenses were not needed. Also as a small team they could just hand over the responsibility for setting up and managing the service to a third party.

Marcus Hopwood, Services Director for IFL commented: “We selected Microsoft Exchange in order to maintain the familiar MS Outlook mail client. The Outlook Mobile Access solution meant that we could also get that same interface from any where in the world that we had access to a web browser. Finally by using Windows Mobile 5 handsets we were able take advantage of push email technology giving us access to email when out of the office.”

Marcus Hopwood further commented: “Having decided to use a hosted mail service we looked a number of different providers. SMS were very responsive to our needs, provided expert advice in helping us select the right service and the cost compared favourably with other providers. Being based in the UK gave us the confidence that the service would perform well with no lengthy transit delays.”

IFL have a number of accounts, and whilst the original requirement was based on a need to provide remote email access to support engineers they have found the business benefits to be huge. They can now respond to sales enquiries faster and keep in touch with every day email wherever they are. As more and more corporate communications move on to email the ability to access that email wherever people are is critical.

Simply Mail Solutions is a dedicated email hosting company based in Warrington, Cheshire. It offers a range of email hosting options from POP3 mailboxes to enhanced email solutions such as MS Exchange and Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

Regarding the service provided by SMS Marcus commented: “The support we have received from SMS has been superb. They provided expert advice when we were selecting a provider and they got us up and running with the service on the same day we placed our order. Teething problems were ironed out promptly and without any fuss. Since then the service has been 100% reliable.”

Commented Colin Smith Managing Director of SMS: “A lot of SME’s are starting to realise that with the new enhanced email packages such as MS Exchange and Zimbra there is a whole lot more they can do to enhance productivity than just get emails to their desk. Mobile access to email is becoming very important now that devices using Microsoft Mobile 5 are coming onto the market and with Zimbra (and MSE) there are very nice tools for collaboration such as shared calendars, contacts and notes”


Source: Simply Mail Solutions