New Features Abound in Exchange 2013

IT students at CED SolutionsCED Solutions provides training and certification for nearly 100 different programs including MCSE: Exchange 2013.

Exchange 2013 provides the following rich features that can help your end users easily collaborate in email:

Site mailboxes, Public folders, Shared mailboxes, Distribution groups

Each of these features has a different user experience and feature set and should be used based on what the user needs to accomplish and what your organization can provide. For example, site mailboxes provide great documentation collaboration features. However site mailboxes rely on SharePoint Server 2013, so if you aren’t planning on deploying SharePoint, you should use public folders to share documents.

This topic compares these collaboration features to help you decide which features to offer your users.

 

A site mailboxe is functionally comprised of a SharePoint 2013 site membership (owners and members), shared storage through an Exchange 2013 mailbox for email messages, and a SharePoint 2013 site to store and share. Essentially, site mailboxes bring Exchange email and SharePoint documents together. For users, a site mailbox serves as a central filing cabinet for the project, providing a place to file project email and documents that can be accessed and edited only by site members. In addition, site mailboxes have a specified lifecycle and are optimized to be used for projects that have set start and end dates. To fully implement site mailboxes, end users must use Outlook 2013.

To learn more, see Site Mailboxes.

Public folders are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization.

Public folders organize content in a deep hierarchy that’s easy to browse. Users discover interesting and relevant content by browsing through branches of the hierarchy that are relevant to them. Users always see the full hierarchy in their Outlook folder view. Public folders are a great technology for distribution group archiving. A public folder can be mail-enabled and added as a member of the distribution group. Email sent to the distribution group is automatically added to the public folder for later reference. Public folders also provide simple document sharing and don’t require SharePoint Server 2013 to be installed in your organization. Finally, end users can use public folders with the following supported Outlook clients: Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, and Outlook 2013.

To learn more, see Public Folders.

A shared mailbox is a mailbox that multiple designated users can access to read and send email messages and to share a common calendar. Shared mailboxes can provide a generic email address (such as info@contoso.com or sales@contoso.com) that customers can use to inquire about your company. If the shared mailbox has the Send As permission assigned when a delegated user responds to the email message, it can appear as though the mailbox (for example, sales@contoso.com) is responding, not the actual user.

To learn more, see Shared Mailboxes.

Groups (also called distribution groups) are a collection of two or more recipients that appears in the shared address book. When an email message is sent to a group, it’s received by all members of the group. Distribution groups can be organized by a particular discussion subject (such as “Dog Lovers”) or by users who share a common work structure that requires them to communicate frequently.

CED Solutions is Headquartered in Atlanta, GA and The Institute for Professional Learning is Headquartered in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

CED Solutions is a Cisco Learning Partner, Microsoft Gold Learning Partner and the #1 location for Microsoft Certifications in North America.  CED Solutions is a Platinum CompTIA Partner and is one of the largest providers of training in North America.  The Atlanta facility provides IT training for up to 490 students per day, with three buildings dedicated to training. CED Solutions provides training for up to 10,000 students per year and students take up to 800 certification exams every two weeks.

CED Solutions provides training and certification for Microsoft MCSA: Windows 2012 Server; MCSA: Windows 2008 Server; MCSA: SQL 2012 Server; MCSE: Business Intelligence SQL 2012 Server; MCSE: Data Platform SQL 2012 Server; MCSE: Desktop Infrastructure Windows 2012 Server; MCSE: Server Infrastructure Windows 2012 Server; MCPD: 6 Cert Visual Studio Developer; MCSD: Windows Store Apps C#; MCSD: Windows Store Apps HTML5; IT Healthcare Technician and many more.

www.cedsolutions.com, info@cedsolutions.com, (800) 611-1840


The following table gives you a quick glance at each of the collaboration features to help you decide which one to use.

Site mailboxes Public folders Shared mailboxes Groups
Type of group Users who work together as a team on a specific project with definitive start and end dates. With the proper permissions, everyone in your organization can access and search public folders. Public folders are ideal for maintaining history or distribution group conversations. Delegates working on behalf of a virtual identity, and they can respond to email as that shared mailbox identity. Example: support@tailspintoys.com Users who need to send email to a group of recipients with a common interest or characteristic.
Ideal group size Small Large Small Large
Access Site mailbox owners and members. Accessible by anyone in your organization. Users can be granted Full Access and/or Send As permissions. If granted Full Access permissions, users must also add the shared mailbox to their Outlook profile to access the shared mailbox. For distribution groups, members, must be manually added. For dynamic distribution groups, members are added based on filtering criteria.
Shared calendar? No Yes Yes No
Email arrives in user’s personal Inbox? No. Email arrives in the site mailbox. No. Email arrives in the public folder. No. Email arrives in the Inbox of the shared mailbox. Yes. Email arrives in the Inbox of a distribution group member.
Supported clients
  • Outlook 2013
  • SharePoint 2013
  • Outlook 2013
  • Outlook 2010
  • Outlook 2007
  • Outlook 2013
  • Outlook Web App
  • Outlook 2010
  • Outlook 2007
  • Outlook 2013
  • Outlook Web App
  • Outlook 2010
  • Outlook 2007

Share this post