We offer a variety of different email services to our customers, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages; what is right for one customer may not be right for another whilst some customers may employ more than one system depending upon their needs.
Generally speaking businesses with complex needs such as shared mailboxes, mail delegation and shared calendaring will choose Hosted Exchange, Hosted Zimbra or Microsoft 365 but customers with simple needs and a tight budget can benefit from traditional IMAP mailboxes. Some customers will also select an email host based upon other factors such as whether a given email provider is considered an ethical one. Most customers will need a simple SMTP service too.
Hosted Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes
We’ve been offering Hosted Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes since early 2008. These mailboxes are relatively cheap, easy to deploy, and whilst they are managed with Microsoft software they are not hosted with Microsoft themselves. As a result, customers that have these mailboxes are supporting UK businesses to a reasonable degree and can avoid costly licencing for the software components of Microsoft 365. This platform is ideal for customers that are prepared to pay for the full and seamless “Microsoft Exchange” experience but do not wish to host email directly with Microsoft and want to avoid monthly office licencing costs.
Hosted Zimbra Email & Collaboration Platform
The Zimbra mailboxes we offer can be used to host mailboxes in a way that is similar (but not quite the same) as Microsoft Exchange. This is a managed service that offers users a range of features including mailbox hosting, webmail, video conferencing, file sharing and real-time document collaboration as an optional extra. This platform is best for customers who want to choose a quality and feature rich, UK hosted email platform that does not lock them in to a Microsoft platform.
Microsoft 365 Mailboxes and Software Rental
These mailboxes are hosted by Microsoft but all setup, management and support is provided by or through IT\norwich. The customer pays IT\norwich a flat fee per mailbox per calendar month. A subscription to Microsoft Office 365 allows us to offer you optional services such as automatic email signatures, email archiving and so on. Customers on the platform can optionally licence their Microsoft applications on subscription rather than outright purchase. *** We also support provisioning of FREE mailboxes to qualifying non-profits – SEE HERE ***
Simple IMAP Mailboxes
These mailboxes are hosted on a third party, UK hosted mail server which is sourced and managed by IT\norwich. All setup, management and support is provided by or through IT\norwich. The customer pays IT\norwich a flat fee per mail server per calendar month. This is the cheapest solution but will not be right for customers that want to easily sync and share contacts, calendars and mailboxes.
Simple SMTP Service
Some devices and software need to be configured with an SMTP account in order to send email to the outside world. While it’s possible to use the SMTP features of existing mailboxes, this is not always ideal in terms of security so for this and other reasons we will from time to time provision a dedicated SMTP account. [Learn More]