Is Your Business Still Running Exchange Server 2003?

Did you know that the latest version of Microsoft’s Outlook application, 2013, is not officially supported by Microsoft if you use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003?

This is not any fault of Exchange 2003. With Microsoft Outlook 2013, Microsoft has done away with some features found in previous versions of Outlook. Many legacy public folder functions such as free/busy service and direct booking of calendar resources are no longer supported.

Power Users of Microsoft Outlook and organizations holding onto Exchange 2003 servers may find this disappointing but it really didn’t come as a surprise to industry professionals.

Do you realize that Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is over 10 years old? The precedent has been set for many years, Outlook 2010 did not work with Exchange Server 2000 and Outlook 2007 did not function properly with Exchange Server 5.5. Future versions of Outlook will continue this trend.

Microsoft’s Outlook 2013 supports Exchange ActiveSync and while you can use EAS with your Hotmail or outlook.com account, it will not work with Exchange 2003 or GMAIL’s implementation of Exchange ActiveSync. You will be limited to POP3 or IMAP with Exchange Server 2003.

Interested in trying out Microsoft Outlook 2013? You can use it with a Hotmail or outlook.com account, Microsoft Office365 or an IMAP account if you don’t have access to a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, 2010 or 2013.

Consider testing out Microsoft Office 365. The Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 trial includes a Microsoft Exchange Server account and Office365 supports “connected accounts.” If your business has Microsoft Exchange 2003, you can connect to this server using POP3 or IMAP and pull your email into your Office 365 account.

What about your mobile phone? Android, iPhones and other leading smartphones use Exchange Active Sync to gain access to your Exchange mailbox. EAS gives you the basic features of email, calendaring and contacts.

Read more about what features are available in Microsoft Outlook 2013.

Do you need a trusted team of Microsoft Exchange experts? Contact us immediately and take us up on our offer to sit down with you to discuss how your business can benefit from the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office 2013 and Outlook 2013.