Office setup question for network and email solution

[Peerie]

Hi Guys

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

I was hoping to get some direction/solutions on two problems that we are having in my office.

We are planning on re-doing our emails in order to get our company name as part of the email address. Also, we want to have the ability to access our emails and work files remotely.

PROBLEM 1: OFFICE NETWORK

Brief Background

We are a small office that has about 6 people in it.

Our current system of operation is that we have a central desktop that acts as our server. We all access the “server” via the network to access the files that are needed.

Problem to be solved

When we are out of the office we would like to access our server to do work while we are on the road.
Further to that, any solution needs to be such that when we are in the office we do not access the internet in order to access the server files, if that is possible.


PROBLEM 2: EMAIL SOLUTION

Brief Background

Our current email setup is such: Big Boss and Small Boss have their own personal work email. The rest of the office uses a single email address to send and receive work stuff. Someone sorts out the emails and saves them for the relevant person in an offline folder on the server.

Doing it this way means that if there is any query regarding any job, it is easier for someone in the office to follow up, if the relevant person is away from the office.

Problem to be solved

When we are out of the office, we can’t access emails sent to the central email address.

We are looking for an email solution that allows us to access the central email address remotely, whilst also preserving the email machine as the main email go to in case anything is needed.

A similar example of what we are looking for is that of Gmail. You can have one email address opened on many devices, and what you do on one device reflects on all the other devices, in terms of mail being sent or received.

I hope I’ve been clear enough, if not, just ask me to explain again.

Cheers

 

[grim]

Go Office 365

You get unlimited file storage that is synced between devices, you can work offline on the files as well.

You can have centralized mailboxes accessible from anywhere and you can give everyone their own mailbox if they want to and they will still be able to access the centralized mailbox

 

[envo]

Mimecast also jumps to mind. Your local server "syncs" with Mimecast, so you have access to the mails from outside the office, while your office setup doesn't change.

 

[grim]

Mimecast also jumps to mind. Your local server "syncs" with Mimecast, so you have access to the mails from outside the office, while your office setup doesn't change.

They aren't particularly fond of IMAP/POP3 clients, they prefer that clients have an Exchange server or Office 365 already in place

 

[Peerie]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Will have a look at Office 365.

In terms of getting our server accessible when we aren't in the office, would Office 365 be the way to go?

What are other small companies using to achieve this style of setup?

 

[grim]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Will have a look at Office 365.

In terms of getting our server accessible when we aren't in the office, would Office 365 be the way to go?

What are other small companies using to achieve this style of setup?

You'll probably be able to get rid of your "server" in the office as everything will be synced from the cloud to the user's devices, no need to have a server in the office. It keeps a local copy on each user's device that has chosen to sync that folder/files and updates it as changes are made

 

[Peerie]

You'll probably be able to get rid of your "server" in the office as everything will be synced from the cloud to the user's devices, no need to have a server in the office. It keeps a local copy on each user's device that has chosen to sync that folder/files and updates it as changes are made

Thanks.

My only concern about going the Office 365 route would be the waiting period from when we want to access a file from the cloud, to when it downloads to a users laptop. What is the protocol to avoid this?

 

[grim]

Thanks.

My only concern about going the Office 365 route would be the waiting period from when we want to access a file from the cloud, to when it downloads to a users laptop. What is the protocol to avoid this?

You simply install the OneDrive for Business Client on each machine and add the folders you want to sync from the cloud to the user's machine.

After the initial sync, which can take some time depending on how much data is in the folder, it will sync in the background when the machine is connected to the internet