How many emails do you get a day? 10? 50? 200? These numbers are growing daily according to Fast Company Magazine, they estimate that “the average worker receives 200 a day.” If you are only using Microsoft Outlook this can mean that organization is difficult since Outlook treats all messages the same. This can cause problems because some emails, like notes from your boss are more important than newsletters or jokes of the day.

Luckily with the wealth of free knowledge and tools on the Internet, we have found a few tools to help organize email:

1) Zimbra Desktop (just released out of BETA and is Free) – Unlimited email storage is great but searching through thousands of emails is a hassle. The Conversation Views and Message Tags automatically highlight important emails in all your email accounts so you can find anything in a hurry. Advanced Search makes finding important pictures, documents or messages from people you care about a snap. Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop combines the best aspects of existing email clients (also known as POP or IMAP email clients) with modern web mail applications to make a totally new and improved experience. Nowhere else will you find an application with full email, contact, calendar, document management and offline access features for free!

2) ClearContext (Free for personal use, $90 per seat for project management) – offers the most immediate productivity gains. This is an Outlook add-on that understands who you’re replying to and how often and it automatically prioritizes the messages. It even color-codes the most pressing ones! and greys out mass emails. These are only a few small changes, but they make a big difference in prioritization and colors really brighten up your inbox!

3) ActiveWords ($30 per person annually) – This program helps you template our common email answers! This is an time-saver if you interact with customers and are commonly answering the same questions over and over.

There are of course other tools out there, but these are the tools that we are using here at MxToolBox. We are always looking for new and improved ways to organize email and increase efficiency!

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In a tight economy, IT administrators are reaching toward releasing their mail server and implementing a fully hosted or fully managed email service. Flexbox Managed Mail are the leaders in this industry. We are also here to provide 24/7 support that will help making this switch seamless for your company!

Any IT Manager/Consultant/Administrator that has ever considered moving from a self-managed server to a Managed Email Service knows that the migration process is enough to stop the idea dead in its tracks. Consider this—with traditional hosted email (i.e. Non-FlexBox hosted email), in order to simply test a hosted email solution in a day-to-day production environment, every single user must be moved off of the mail server and onto the Managed Platform, all at once. Just to test it! There goes the weekend. After migration, the help desk phone begins to ring, and ring, and ring. “How do I use this new system?” “Why didn’t all of my contacts move over?” The list goes on and on. Forget about having any fun for the next couple of weeks. Then, if the managed solution just doesn’t deliver, every user has to be moved back to the old system (another weekend), data from each system has to be reconciled (good luck) and all those folks in the Executive Suite are going to be asking for answers. Not fun.

FlexBox completely changes the rules of email migration. Because FlexBox technology allows a single address to exist in two places, IT Managers (you), can now have a user’s mailbox on your server and you can have that same user’s mailbox on a FlexBox Managed Mail server. You can have one user, some of your users or all of your users on both systems.

This means you can try Managed Email without migrating every user. FlexBox Managed Mail is the only Managed Email service that let’s administrators keep some users on their in-house server and put other users on a Managed Server. It is also the only Hosted Email solution with Self Paced Migration. No more 72 hour weekends. No more two week help desk flood. No more damaged reputation. Just the exact email system that you need.

Other MxToolBox Email Services

Junk Mail is a spam and virus filtering service for email servers. Junk Mail has inbound and outbound mail filtering with free spooling, it includes Lock Down and the ability to use our Protected Outbound Relay (Smarthost).

Emergency Mailis an always on, always up to date backup email box. The mailbox has a rolling 30-day email history and is always ready. There is zero switchover time, zero IT Intervention and zero switch back time. Emergency Mail is provisioned on a per user basis. This feature also includes spam and virus filtering, Lock Down and our Protect Outbound Relay (Smarthost).

Mobile device Synchronization and Email Archiving are also available.  All services are available immediately to organizations throughout North America. And, if you are an IT Consultant or Solutions Provider, we are happy to announce that we have a FlexBox Email Services Partner Program.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

The article What to Entrust to the Cloud by Businessweek has introduced some valid points about Cloud Computing. First, if you are unfamiliar with Cloud Computing, lets cover that very quickly! Cloud computing is called this because it refers to resources available on the Internet, in a type of allusive environment that is not tangible per say. Resources are provided as a service over the Internet (think Flickr, Facebook, Google Docs etc). Users do not necessarily have control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them, but are free to use them at any time.

The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent (ca. 2007–2009) technology trends that have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Cloud computing services usually provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers. (source: Wikipedia)

While all of this sounds great, shouldn’t we be concerned that there is so much information available out in the Cloud? Businessweek has said point blank that Cloud Computing is safe if you “exercise reasonable care”. Keep in mind that reasonable care means realizing who may have access to the information that you are putting out there. The second concern is that these resources are only available with a live Internet connection!

To most users the first concern is the greatest, once your information leaves your network safety, it can be accessible by anyone if not properly secured. Recently Google let users know that due to a security glitch a small portion of documents were available for a short period of time. What if that short period of time included your company’s private information? A great solution to all of this is to think before committing data out in the Cloud. If you are unsure if your financials or payroll information is private, just think about what could happen if someone was able to access it? These items are probably best kept on an encrypted hard drive that is backed up.

“Ultimately, putting your data in the cloud involves choosing convenience and productivity at the cost of some security risk. In the real world, convenience always wins, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What’s is important is that you understand the dangers.” (source Businessweek)

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

What is FlexBox?

FlexBox is an on-demand Email Services Platform built on patent-pending technology. FlexBox is the only Email Services Suite that runs in parallel with your existing email system

The individual FlexBox services are Junk Mail, Emergency Mail, Managed Mail, Managed Mail Pro, Email Archiving and Mobile Synchronization.

What Makes FlexBox Unique?

It runs in Parallel with your existing system. There are two substantial benefits to this:

1. Customize the service on a per user basis to meet you exact needs.
2. Migrate some or all of your users to a Hosted Email Solution at your own pace without unplugging your existing email server

Why should I choose FlexBox?

FlexBox gives you…flexibilty. FlexBox is built to the highest standards of quality and reliability. More importantly, you can customize the service to meet you exact needs.

How is FlexBox able to Synchronize with a MailBox on my existing server?

Through a Patent Pending Technology called Hosted Simultaneous Split, or HSS. HSS is the technical term, but we refer to it as “Drag and Drop Migration,” because that is what it enables.

Can I have different users on different FlexBox services at the same time?

Yes.

Do you have a trial?

Yes. There is always a risk-free 30 Day Trial period for new customers

How long does FlexBox take to setup?

FlexBox is setup very quickly. You can usually be up and running as soon as your MX Records are pointing to the FlexBox servers

Is there a Partner Program?

Yes. Learn more about our partner program for IT consultants and solutions providers.

Is FlexBox easy to manage?

It is Drag and Drop Easy

Is it easy to migrate to FlexBox?

Extremely. If you are migrating mailboxes to a Hosted Solution, there is no easier migration.

Don’t see you question here? Call 866-698-6652 to speak with a FlexBox specialist to begin your 30 Day Risk Free Trial.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

Last month I worked on my friend’s computer because they were having pop-ups, spam and all kinds of major problems. When we finally got to the bottom of what was causing the problem…it turned out that he had been confronted with a pop-up that looked very official, but had dire consequences when he clicked on it. The ad was so realistic that it had Windows icons, matching font and appeared to be completely official. Even worse the pop-up resemebled the Windows Security warnings that my friend was used to seeing, so  he thought the pop-up had to be from his computer!

This may sound fishy to you as a Technical person, but this happens to our parents, friends, brothers, co-workers almost every day! They see something out of the ordinary, but it is convincing enough that they click on it. These ads, pop-ups, spam or whatever you want to call them are just convincing enough that personal information is entered including credit card numbers, email addresses and home addresses. But lets be real here…most of these incidents are occurring at home right?

What about your business? Are you instructing your co-workers to deal with these problems? What about simple spam emails that your co-worker clicks on and then a Trojan or a Worm is present on your network? This will then cause your IP to be Blacklisted and this causes your company to lose money!

Make sure that your entire network and company is safe by using our Perimeter Defense Email system that will protect spam and viruses from ever reaching your network. Our Perimeter Defense is guaranteed to protect your network from being compromised by spammers, viruses, worms, spoofing, DHA and DoS attacks:

FlexBox Services

Junk Mail is a spam and virus filtering service for email servers. Junk Mail has inbound and outbound mail filtering with free spooling, it includes Lock Down and the ability to use our Protected Outbound Relay (Smarthost).

Emergency Mail is an always on, always up to date backup email box. The mailbox has a rolling 30-day email history and is always ready. There is zero switchover time, zero IT Intervention and zero switch back time. Emergency Mail is provisioned on a per user basis. This feature also includes spam and virus filtering, Lock Down and our Protect Outbound Relay (Smarthost)

Managed Mail is a fully hosted email service with high-end security and enterprise grade redundancy. Managed Mail is provisioned on a per user basis. This feature also includes spam and virus filtering and SMTP Outbound access.

Managed Mail Pro is a email and collaboration solution with shared synchronized contacts and calendars. Managed Mail Pro also offers shared wikis and many other web 2.0 productivity features. Managed Mail Pro is provisioned on a per user basis. This feature also includes spam and virus filtering and SMTP Outbound access.

Mobile device Synchronization and Email Archiving are also available.  All services are available immediately to organizations throughout North America. And, if you are an IT Consultant or Solutions Provider, we are happy to announce that we have a FlexBox Email Services Partner Program.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.