Zarafa: The Premier Open Source Email & Collaboration Software

zarafa the premier open source email amp collaboration software 2

Email and collaboration are cornerstones of today’s business. Zarafa gives you the most reliable email and collaboration software on the market with more speed and greater stability than that of big name software!
Zarafa has some pivotal advantages that make it the superior choice over its competitors:

No learning curve

With a similar appearance and feel to Outlook, switching over to Zarafa could not be any simpler! With familiar features and layout, your work flow will pick up right where it left off!

Full device support

Convenience is one of the primary functions of Zarafa. Users can maintain that Web 2.0 Outlook “Look & Feel” via web access on any mobile device from any location.

Cost effective

Zarafa provides you all the same benefits of Microsoft Exchange and more bang for your buck!

Features of Zarafa:

Zarafa has simple email sharing features allowing you to drag and drop files making them into attachments. There are also public folders, enabling you to collaboratively share files instantly!

Another key component is zarafa’s user-friendliness. Zarafa supports various web browsers so you are able to use the web browser of your choice. A prominent feature is the multi-user weekly calendar which allows you to add multiple users to a single calendar, thus giving you everyone’s times in which they are available.

Zarafa also supports:

  • Active Directory / LDAP Integration
  • Advanced database storage
  • Brick-level backup
  • Single sign-on
  • Multi-server setups and high availability
  • Multi-tenancy

For more information contact AE Technology Group, a trusted technology partner that provides service with Zarafa, a leading open source email and collaboration solution.

What are the financial benefits of a Hosted Email solution?

what are the financial benefits of a hosted email solution
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The average employee of a modern company sends and receives email with little thought to as how much overhead is required to maintain the system. However, those that manage the IT budget do, and over time the paradigm of on-premise, company hosted and managed email servers has started to show inefficiency. Thankfully, there are many options currently available for hosted email solutions. Some recent findings are not just validating the intuitive notion that hosted solutions shave off IT costs in noticeable amounts, they also carry added organizational benefits beyond just the explicit TCO.

It has been shown that certain organizations can stand to save over $62,160 (£40,000 ) by switching to a hosted email solution, particularly SMBs with approximately 70 users. This factors in the following considerations:

  •  Individual mailboxes incur storage costs.
  • On-premise email searches are not always optimal.
  • The typical three-year cycle of replacing hardware is expensive.
  • On-premise email ultimately means costly long-term licenses.

However, some have also noted that a hosted solution can bring with it less-obvious productivity and integration gains. For instance:

  • Hosted solutions are invariably more scalable.
  • Hosted solutions are often readily bundled or integrated with additional collaborative tools that can add further dimensions to workplace communication.
  • Hosted solutions bolster the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiative – they are inherently platform-independent and mobile devices are geared towards browser access.

Hosted email solutions are a major shift in an organization’s communication strategy, despite the fact that they still provide one of the most familiar forms of digital business interaction. It takes a trusted partner to help a business make the shift to hosted email. For more information contact AE Technology Group, a trusted technology partner that provides service with Zarafa, a leading open source email and collaboration solution.

Moving Your Business to the Cloud

moving your business to the cloud

Making the switch to cloud computing is both a painless and effective move that is crucial to your businesses productivity and efficiency. You will see vast improvements in your day to day operations when you utilize our cloud computing solutions and here is why.

Collaboration

Through cloud computing employees can share and edit projects simultaneously with real-time collaboration. Our cloud-based customer relationship software lets you collect and manage client information and generate new leads without the headache of having to install software and make constant upgrades on all your workstations.

Increased Security and Availability

Your data is only as safe as your infrastructure. Encrypted cloud storage protects your sensitive business data and documents from virtual attacks and allows you to access them from virtually anywhere!

Savings

Cloud computing will save your business money in different ways. Did you know that a cloud network can reduce your energy use by up to 87%?

We can offer your business a cloud-based service that will improve your work flow. Some of solutions include:

iceCRM – A cloud based customer relationship management. This service is accessible 24/7 from any device in any location! This service is customized and tailored specifically for your business, enabling you to manage your daily business needs!

Zarafa – Our collaborative cloud based email groupware. Zarafa has all the benefits of big name email services such as Microsoft Outlook, but is only half the price!

ASK4Cloud – One of the most secure and reliably cloud drives available to small and medium size businesses. You are enabled to sync files, backup multiple folders and have unlimited access anywhere, even on your mobile device! Your cloud is located on a private cloud server and can be re-branded to your company name. Your name, your data, safe and secured.

ASK4Backup – We provide our clients complete cloud based data recovery and business continuity programs. All of your sensitive and crucial business documents and data can be stored and backed up through cloud computing and you’ll never have to worry about losing a document again!

10 Reasons to Go Paperless

10 reasons to go paperless

Managing a business looks much different now than it did a decade ago. As the world becomes increasingly more digital every day, businesses must adapt in order to stay relevant to its employees and customers.

One way to leverage the potential of technology is to migrate your business to a cloud network. This is a dramatic shift away from how business used to be done, but its benefits are many.

Speed

When documents are centralized in a cloud environment, information can be transferred and shared instantly. Interoffice mail envelopes are dependent on the pickup schedule; this system is antiquated and can be easily replaced with a paperless system.

Cost Savings

The Return on Investment (ROI) is significant when you take into consideration the cost of implementing a cloud-based system over annual expenses for paper and printer supplies.

Eliminates Redundancy

We all know what happens where someone prints a memo or other document and finds an error or a necessary amendment – that paper is thrown in the trash and an updated replacement is printed. This creates excessive printing and can cause confusion when employees are receiving multiple versions of the same document. Since cloud documents are retrieved from a central location, they can be updated instantly without creating redundant copies.

Collaboration

Cloud documents can be easily shared and, depending on the system, can even be updated synchronously by multiple employees. Real-time collaboration can take place even when the project spans multiple offices.

Environmentally Friendly

Every company wants to be environmentally friendly but it can result in considerable financial strain. Purchasing products made from recycled materials tend to be more costly and may be of a lower quality. Also, arranging pickup of recyclable waste from your office may also incur additional fees. A paperless environment eliminates these costs, allowing your company to reinvest in ways that will truly improve performance and customer satisfaction.

Accessibility

Data stored in the cloud is accessible at anytime from anywhere. This is ideal for employees who travel or for those who need to access information from a mobile device. This also makes employees more accountable since work can be easily monitored.

Easy to Audit

No one likes an unexpected visit from the IRS, but a searchable cloud system makes it easy to retrieve invoices, receipts, and reports. This same feature can be used for internal audits.

Security

Once a document is printed, it is only as secure as the file cabinet where it is stored. Cloud storage can be encrypted to protect from virtual attacks while still allowing easy and safe access for those who need it.

Centralized Resources

Organizational management is easy with cloud systems since all templates and related materials can be stored in a centralized location.

Disaster Recovery

If you have ever had the misfortune of dealing with a fire, flood, or other natural disaster, you know how chaotic it is to recover important documents and records. With disaster recovery, since cloud data is stored remotely, this is no longer a concern.

Let AE Technology Group assist you with your business’s cloud migration. We provide online common data solutions and business applications that are accessible from a web browser. We can customize a solution that fits your needs. Contact us to learn about the benefits of cloud network migration.

3 Considerations to Make Before a Cloud Network Migration

3 considerations to make before a cloud network migration
cloud-computing

Cloud network migration for most organizations is part of the future IT roadmap.

Though cloud migrations sometimes remain stalled due to concerns over security as well as maintaining total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI), the next few years will see an inordinate growth in the amount of data center traffic coming exclusively from cloud services. When cloud network migrations are part of a company’s march into the future, there are some key considerations to make.

Providers Are Not All Are the Same

The number of cloud service providers has grown rapidly, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Rackspace being just a few of the organizations that offer enterprise cloud services. They also all happen to have existing track records of delivering such services, giving a discerning organization plenty of history and information with which to judge the best partner to meet its network needs. Pricing is typically one the main points of consideration when choosing a vendor.

Though most cost models are usage-based, rates, policies, service tiers, and SLAs vary greatly among providers. Cost, however, should not be totally overshadow less tangible factors such as how well a cloud provider’s technological direction aligns with strategic vision.

Transitioning Systems in a Simple, Slow, Staged Approach

An organization will often have to start somewhere when moving systems to the cloud. This approach should be phased – cloud migrations that fail tend to do so due to the lack of planning. The guideline for beginning such a migration is to select a system component that has low complexity, lax security requirements, and limited risk of failure to the organization.

Straight Replication of the Existing Infrastructure Never Works

It behooves an organization to not plan on a one-to-one mapping of existing resources into the cloud. Doing so would mitigate the advantages in terms of scalability and better resource allocation that justify the move to the cloud in the first place.

Cloud solutions offer many ways to improve tech mainstays such as application servers, DMZs, and database service. Such improvements should be an essential part of any cloud migration plan rather than an afterthought.