Microsoft, as part of its mission to improve business productivity, has been providing business communication products for more than 15 years. From Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 with Exchange Client to Exchange Server 2010 with the Microsoft Outlook 2010 messaging and collaboration client, Microsoft has proven its commitment to enterprise-level communication tools. This white paper covesr 10 areas where Microsoft Exchange Online continues to provide a superior business communications experience.
New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC CataList - Tech Forum 2024
White Paper: Ten Ways Microsoft Exchange Online is Better for Business Communication than Google Apps
1. Ten Ways That Microsoft Exchange Works Better ®
with Microsoft Outlook than Google Gmail Does ®
Microsoft has been providing online services to people and organizations for more than 15 years. Microsoft
employs tens of thousands of people and vast sources of information to support its online customers. Cloud
computing is so central to Microsoft’s plans for cost-effective computing that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
recently said, “About 75 percent of our folks are doing entirely cloud-based or entirely cloud-inspired [work]. A
year from now that will be 90 percent….For the cloud, we’re all in.”
Organizations of all sizes have long used Microsoft Outlook running on Microsoft Exchange Server to provide
®
users with powerful yet intuitive messaging capabilities. Now, with Office 365, you can put part or all of your
communications infrastructure online. This productivity solution provides enterprise-level messaging tools
together with enterprise-level communications tools, and it interoperates with most of the devices that you
already use, including PCs, Macs, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, and iPhones, as well as all major Web
browsers.
Google claims that Gmail, its online messaging service, is an ideal alternative to Microsoft Outlook with Microsoft
Exchange. While you can use a Google add-on, Google Apps Sync for Outlook, to run Microsoft Outlook as a
front-end to Gmail, there are significant differences between using Outlook with Gmail with and Outlook with
Exchange. Here are ten areas where these two combinations differ:
Outlook Web App provides the same rich features as Outlook
Familiar user experience. Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Web App, and Outlook Office Mobile all share a consistent
user interface to give users the same experience across different devices and locations. Users are often already
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 1
2. familiar with tools and options from past experience with similar Microsoft products, so they can get started with a
new version right away, rather than facing a potential loss of productivity.
Exchange Online provides hosted unified messaging and voice mail services.
Rich set of features. Microsoft Outlook- and Exchange-related products and services offer a wide range of
functionality, from unified communications to document collaboration, e-mail, voice mail, Internet-based voice
calls, contact data, presence and scheduling, organizational structure information, video, audio and Web
conferencing, meeting facilitation and document storage, document sharing, workflow, task lists with reminders,
flags and categories, calendaring, and more. Google does not offer some of these services and features directly,
instead recommending third-party solutions for core services and features such as Web conferencing and single
sign-on service.
Full offline experience. With Outlook and Exchange, users can access important personal and organizational
information even when they’re not connected to the Internet. Gmail uses Google Apps Sync for Outlook to store
information on the client side. But Google Apps Sync for Outlook does not support Outlook productivity features
and tools such as Categories, Tasks, Notes, Journal Entries, rules, signatures, delivery receipts, importance levels,
follow-up flags and reminders, meeting invitation attachments and rich content such as images, links, and bold
text, out-of-office responses, recalling sent messages, recovering deleted items, personal distribution lists, and
more.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 2
3. Digital Rights Management rules in Outlook
Powerful security and compliance tools. Microsoft security features such as Digital Rights Management,
encryption, digital signatures and policy-based e-mail management provide increased protection against data loss
and theft. With both Microsoft Exchange Server and Exchange Online, you can address concerns about data
privacy and security. With Gmail, you must deploy both Gmail and a separate Google application, Postini, to
archive and retain email messages. Yet communication between Gmail and Postini is limited; for example, the two
maintain separate directories.
IM and presence integration with Lync Online and Lync Server 2010
Connected applications. Besides working flawlessly with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft
Exchange is designed to work flawlessly with other Microsoft products such as Microsoft SharePoint® and Lync™
Server. These Microsoft products enable powerful collaboration and communications capabilities such as online
presence, collaborative document markups in real time, document check-out and versioning, Web conferencing
with conference recording, and communication with line-of-business applications such as SAP.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 3
4. Global Address List
Finding user information. The Global Address List feature, available with Exchange and Active Directory, displays
details about people within an organization or across organizational boundaries, as set by IT policies. Google Apps
Sync for Outlook can only partly duplicate this valuable resource—data such as additional phone numbers,
company name, organizational hierarchy, employee titles, department names, and more are not available to Gmail
users. In addition, Gmail does not support group addresses and out-of-domain contacts.
Resources for learning and support. Microsoft has connected a vast network of internal and external learning
and support resources that provide access to subject matter experts, an extensive partner ecosystem, collaborative
online forums, continually tested and updated product documentation and knowledge base articles, and
thousands of training sessions, seminars, and user groups.
A small sample of the learning resources available for Microsoft Exchange and Outlook
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 4
5. World-class customer service
World-class customer service. Microsoft has a long-established customer-service organization that provides
clear, understandable Service Level Agreements, and Microsoft has developed a comprehensive, highly structured
method for resolving complex service issues with customers.
Industry-leading research investments. Microsoft has dedicated billions of dollars to researching and
developing online services and co-creating new ways of working and communicating, and Microsoft continually
refines its products through feedback from a variety of sources.
The Exchange Control Panel provides powerful Web-based management capabilities
Easy administration and deployment. Using Gmail can involve a significant amount of IT administration time.
Besides deploying Google Apps Sync for Outlook, administrators often have to use manual processes and create
and use custom scripts on individual machines to meet user needs. Most IT administrators are already proficient
with typical Microsoft product commands and processes, and they can configure and manage Microsoft Outlook
with Exchange centrally rather than through manual processes on individual machines.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 5