Our company (probably around 700ish total people counting the parent company and all the sibling companies) uses M.S. Outlook (Exchange Server). My prior employer (county government - around 1000 users at the time - many on remote connections) used the same thing. Both are heavily MS based so its an easy fit. I dont administrate the email systems but at the county I was somewhat involved until we developed distinction between programmers and net weenies (and their related duties).
Disadvantages and advantages Im aware of:
Disadvantages:
- cost - anything MS has licensing and such
- some people dislike MS stuff for whatever reasons
- best to have a dedictated server (or multiples if its a large and/or spread out connectivity-wise organization)
- you might consider it a drawback that outlook offers a great deal more than just email - if all you really want is a simple email system (mentioned as an advantage too)
Advantages:
- integrates nicely into windows environments, networks, user profiles, etc.
- pretty much everyone on a windows network is going to have outlook or outlook express installed so they already have a fully compatible mail client
- simple to maintain for the most part (unless youre doing really complex stuff - my present company has a dedicated email admin but I think he mostly screws off and messes with network stuff he shouldnt be messing with)
- pretty stable - rarely see it have problems - but of course - if anything does get seriously screwed up it can be a big hassle to fix (as in - if youre not outlook certified you might be hiring a consultant)
- offers web-based access (Ive set it up before and thought it was easy) (and I know you mentioned web-based access in another thread)
- works with SMTP/POP. ie, easily used for internal only or internal/internet emailing
- you can do a LOT more with outlook than just email - it offers nice scheduling/calendaring stuff, nice contact management/address book features, shared document/folders, and more. Im not familiar with it all but we coordinate meetings via outlook a lot - and our main secretary can easily juggle/manage meetings for our management folks.
- even for email you have a lot of nice options - different formats (plain text, html), robust rule creation/management (insta delete spam like company newsletters you never read *grin*)
- Im not sure of all the complexities but theres apparently decent server-level virus containment and attachment enforcement
Paul
