When do I work & email?

I've installed Xobni now and already I've found it really useful for showing linked conversations and it's a good replacement for the Outlook To-Do bar.

The ranking and time of day graph looks good, but I'm not sure it's really that useful yet - I suppose it does show me when interactions occur with my contacts and when's a good time of day for them -

clearly this person works best in the evening and late evening! (you know who you are!)

So, when do I use Outlook most? Xobni Analytics can show you this, and much more besides;

Drowning in Email? Get Email Happiness...

Apparently, Microsoft are looking to spend a cool few $$ on a start-up called Xobni. This is a neat plug-in for Outlook that replaces the To-Do bar to totally improve the user experience and change the way you use Outlook. http://www.xobni.com/ is worth a look, check the video out too.

There’s some analysis of your mailbox which creates a new contact profiles from the content of emails only, and then creates relationships between your contacts. The searching is improved also. I like the email analytics which shows the volume of email and time of day profile of messages to/from a contact profile. I know a few people who’d hit this off the scale ;-)

Exchange 2007 Server roles - a summary

Here's a simple summary of Exchange 2007 server roles, taken from http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/09/12/428880.aspx

- Mailbox (MB): responsible for hosting mailbox and public folder data.

- Client Access (CA): provides mailbox server protocol access (but not MAPI). Similar to Exchange 2003 FrontEnd server, it enables user to use OWA, POP3/IMAP4 and mobile device (ActiveSync) to access their mailbox.

- Hub Transport (HT): handles mail routing to the next hop: another Hub Transport server, Edge server or mailbox server. Unlike Exchange 2003 Bridgehead that needs Exchange admin defined routing groups, Exchange 2007 Hub Transport role uses AD site info to determine the mail flow.

- Edge Transport (ET): The last hop of outgoing mail and first hop of incoming mail, acting as a "smart host" and usually deployed in a perimeter network (DMZ), Edge Transport provides mail quarantine and SMTP service to enhance security. One advantage of this role is that is does not require Active Directory access, so it can function with limited access to the corporate network for increased security.

- Unified Message (UM): enables end users to access their mailbox, address book, and calendar using telephone and voice. IP-PBX or VoIP gateway needs to be installed and configured to facilitate much of the functionality of this server role.

New whitepaper for SP1 and HMC4.0

If you're a Hosting provider and/or running HMC, there's a new white paper for Exchange 2007 SP1 and how SP1 features relate to HMC4.0
In particular, it addresses key features in anywhere access (inc. OWA and ActiveSync), built-in protection (in.c SCR) , and improvements to performance and scalability.

You can download the whitepaper here

Microsoft Exchange 2007

For most businesses today, e-mail is the mission-critical communications tool that allows their people to produce the best results. This greater reliance on e-mail has increased the number of messages sent and received, the variety of work getting done, and even the speed of business itself. Amid this change, employee expectations have also evolved. Today, employees look for rich, efficient access—to e-mail, calendars, attachments, contacts, and more—no matter where they are or what type of device they are using.
For IT professionals, delivering a messaging system that addresses these needs must be balanced against other requirements such as security and cost. Enterprise security requirements have become more complex as the demand and use for e-mail has increased. Today, IT departments must contend with e-mail security threats that are wide ranging: continually evolving spam and viruses, noncompliance risks, the vulnerability of e-mail to interception and tampering, in addition to the potential harmful effects of natural and man-made disasters.
While security is clearly a priority, IT is ever cognizant of the need to manage cost. Time, money, and resource constraints are a fact of life as IT is made accountable to do more with less. As a result, IT professionals look for a messaging system that addresses both enterprise and employee needs while also being cost-effective to deploy and manage.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has been designed specifically to meet these challenges and address the needs of the different groups who have a stake in the messaging system. The new capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 deliver the advanced protection your company demands, the anywhere access your people want, and the operational efficiency you, in IT, need.

Who are we and why are we creating this site?

Hello and welcome to our Exchange 2007 site. We're a team of Exchange experts with knowledge to share, problems to fix and we're gaining Exchange experiences everyday. Between us, we run platforms for ~40,000 Exchange 2003/2007 mailboxes, we've experience with Exchange that spans many years, goes back to v4.0 and includes JDP/TAP involvement in several major version releases.

We'll include relevant and interesting news & posts from some of our favorite Exchange sites such as the Exchange Team blog (microsoft) and msexchange.org.

Please give us your feedback!!! We're interested in hearing from you whoever you are - sysAdmin or Exchange Admin, end user or power user, Windows-Mobile user or BlackBerry addict , MD, CTO or Operations Manager, customers of Hosted Exchange services and even ....Microsoft!
One of our team is a UK-based Exchange MVP - Talk to us and we'll promise to tell you all we know.

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