15.01.08

UK Online partners with Microsoft to bring "Business-Class" E-Mail to Small Businesses

UK Online offers Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2007 and web-hosting as part of its £25 per month Premier Broadband service.

Business broadband specialist, UK Online, has partnered with Microsoft to give small businesses email capabilities traditionally only available to larger companies, at a fraction of the cost. 

UK Online is one of the first business providers in the UK to offer Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2007 and the first to bundle it in with a broadband service.  In addition, customers will be able to build an instant online presence using UK Online’s new website builder developed with market leaders iomart, parent company of Easyspace.

With Microsoft Exchange 2007 in hosted mode, small businesses can access e-mail, calendar and contacts in real time from any device, anywhere and at any time with an Outlook-like interface on their web browser.  Stored remotely on secure servers, all data is always safely backed up.

UK Online will include both the new basic Microsoft Exchange 2007, as well as the website hosting package as part of its flagship professional quality, broadband service, Premier, at £24.99 inc VAT, per month. The new services will be available early March, and anyone interested in finding out more can pre-register now on the UK Online website http://www.ukonline.net/hostedexchange/register/.  The new packages as stand alone services will be available later in the year.

“Many small businesses use consumer grade POP3 email which limits how and when they can access their email. More importantly, they run the risk of losing all their emails & contacts if their PC or laptop hardware fails. Microsoft Hosted Exchange is the best business-strength e-mail there is,” explains Chris Stening, managing director at UK Online.  “In today’s business environment a business quality, easy to manage professional email service is key”.

“In offering Microsoft Exchange in hosted mode, UK Online is bringing the best in enterprise-class communications services within the reach of small businesses,” said Martin Walker, UK Hosting Lead, Microsoft Communications Sector. “We are delighted to partner with UK Online to provide the benefits of mobile working and the latest messaging services to their customers.”

UK Online’s new Site Builder means small businesses can quickly build, host and maintain a professional and fully hosted website quickly and easily from 1000 templates, without the need for costly and complex input from a design company.  Through its partnership with iomart, a leader in the hosting skills and services market, UK Online offers a fully secure and resilient web-hosting service with all websites backed up hourly across two remote locations.  From the basic 3-page hosted website and domain name registration, which is to be included in UK Online’s existing broadband Premier package, businesses can upgrade to eight hosted web pages, search engine business marketing and a wide choice of paid-for domain names.  Anyone interested in finding out more should go to http://www.ukonline.net/hostedexchange/register/.

Angus MacSween, CEO iomart said: “Today’s requirements for web hosting services are becoming increasingly complex with service uptime deemed a vital component, web sites and email services must be available 100% of the time. We recognise that business continuity coupled with the online customer experience are critical factors to success and we were confident that our proposed solution will deliver on both fronts.”

In addition to the new elements UK Online customers will continue to receive the service and security benefits already included as standard across all UK Online’s packages, including free UK based 24/7 technical support, SPAMfilter, high upload and download speeds and free McAfee Internet Security Suite for 12 months worth £49.99.

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