@Tim_G It is a bad decision.

I am working up the nerves to call an IT planning meeting. I have an Agenda worked up;

• IT productivity goals for 2017
• Security and Usage policies to update Employee Handbook
• Review short term and long term IT budgets (Ha)
• Review communications compliance for all messaging and communication channels (Double Ha)
• Actual writing an Information Access Policy (Maybe this will be me triple HA)

I have a thought, and it could be way off base. Perhaps the owners believe by having the email server here that we have better control over roaming access to our data. There is a better word for this and it escapes me right now. Its driving me nuts. It's akin to Digital Rights Management.

I have also decided that instead of discussing Office 365 I am going to refer to it as a Hybrid Deployment and then use the term compliance a lot.

Just so I am up to speed. Curtis and AngelDeath are the same person, right?

@JaredBusch Is BundyIT your business? Following through to profiles here.

@coliver Gotcha. Given what I have read of @scottalanmiller it would be well worth it to have that support behind it.

I can not divine the machinations of our leadership. Only that they have worked together themselves for about 50 years and on hearing of the past transgression immediately wanted to the wrong righted.

Any attempt to validate the cloud is now tainted by that potentially validating arguments they likely had with the previous employee.

My wife really put it in perspective for me. Ha

@scottalanmiller I guess I can imagine the last IT guy was so wrapped up on this he paid for Office 365 himself and moved them to the cloud while lying to them about it. So yeah, at the end of the day its a job.

@Minion-Queen sure thing. I am not sure I would ever sell these guys on this but it definitely is interesting pricing. Was thinking more about limits on minutes etc. Seems like a good approach because the Vonage Business and Ring Central's of the world our out of their minds.

@Tim_G lol. This become such a persistent thought that I brought it up with my wife. The reply was something like "You need to do whatever they say and keep them happy, are you crazy?"

Then I told her I would actually get a lot of overtime out of it and she was "OMG Why is this even bothering you".

@scottalanmiller said in Moving from Exchange Online Plan 1 to In House Exchange 2016:

@magroover said in Moving from Exchange Online Plan 1 to In House Exchange 2016:

@scottalanmiller when you say ITSP I am thinking Hosted PBX?

IT Service Provider.

But totally by coincidence and unlike normal ITSPs, both Bundy and NTG both happen to do Hosted PBX services. You'll notice the Hosted PBX banner ads that come up from time to time.

NTG Hosted PBX

What are the limits on users/call volumes with your $250/plan?

@scottalanmiller They are in Split (pronounced Spleet). Beautiful place right on the bay/inlet. The started an org called Centro Retro in Santander, Spain in the nineties and it eventually carried them to Split. Their daughter is married to a guy from Romania.

@scottalanmiller and yeah I am not sure the pricing model makes sense. Or perhaps they are so focused on getting a customer where it does make sense that its a better business in the end? But getting customers would be extremely difficult.

@scottalanmiller when you say ITSP I am thinking Hosted PBX?

@wirestyle22 interesting. I had followed the profiles here but assumed it was more consulting work. And is @scottalanmiller really in Romania? I have family in Croatia.

@wirestyle22 said in Moving from Exchange Online Plan 1 to In House Exchange 2016:

@magroover said in Moving from Exchange Online Plan 1 to In House Exchange 2016:

I have had 2 MSP's call me since I started. I have actually been looking into whether I should try to venture out on my own.

The problem right now is that I see know value in them, but maybe the target is a company that is bigger with no IT staff?

Or the staff they have is for basic issues and you require server support, voip etc. Honestly I'd jump at the opportunity to have NTG or @JaredBusch backing me up. It's a win-win situation where they profit, you gain a ton of knowledge and the company supported is supported very well.

Is that what they do, work for an MSP?

In the channels I have been watching it seems like they go for $100 to $150/user per month plus more per server. I guess this company could save money by replacing my here but then they can't walk in my office and "fling poo". Ha!

It seems like it would take a very long time to find customers. They also talk about cold calling as a primary sales tool.

I have had 2 MSP's call me since I started. I have actually been looking into whether I should try to venture out on my own.

The problem right now is that I see know value in them, but maybe the target is a company that is bigger with no IT staff?

They must do something with O365, maybe resell it. I thought they used to do more than email security.

O365 is quickly becoming a serious product from what I see on the backend. I haven't actually used it in a couple years but it's come a long way.

@scottalanmiller not so much that they didnt mention it as they acted like they never heard of it to the point of inferring I was making it up.

Has the service gone down hill or just the sales staff? And again, its not so much a reflection on the staff as it is a reflection on marketing and management. You would think automated trials and sign-up would be right on their website.

Unless they aren't competitive on features or pricing.

The great irony of deploying this legacy-style solution is watching how poorly AppRiver handles sales. The poor sales guy is following some sales process of trying to get me on the phone. I just want pricing and information. They are forcing him to do the job of a website. So I assume immediately the pricing is going to be a little out of touch.

But you can't blame them. If you are deploying Premise-Based exchange you are probably out of touch yourself. I am sure my request for 27 seats wasn't very exciting either so at least he is being a good sport.

He insisted a couple times Microsoft didn't have a solution comparable to AppRiver. I sent him links and screen shots after part of his reply contained "if the Microsoft service even exists". So apparently they do no market research to keep their sales staff informed. If there is a single competitor you would think they should be aware of its Microsoft, right?