MailEnable Outlook Collaboration
MailEnable
Enterprise Premium features fully integrated Outlook components for mail, calendaring, contacts,
and collaboration. The new MAPI solution provides complete integration between the MailEnable server and Microsoft's Outlook email and office
productivity client.
Supporting all the rich features offered in Outlook, including appointment scheduling, free and busy status, Public Folders, and access to
shared account resources, this offers businesses all the power they need for efficient coordination and communication.
Learn more about MailEnable Enterprise Premium
MAPI Connector for Microsoft Outlook
Users of Outlook will likely be familiar with the features for personal calendaring, contact management, and task tracking, and MailEnable
Webmail users will also be aware of these same features supported through the webmail client. Now with the MAPI connector, these two
features are connected, bringing your server hosted calendar to your Outlook client on your desktop computer, along with your contact
and task lists.
Changes made in both Outlook and the webmail client are communicated in real-time, so you can always be sure you have the most up-to-date
data at your fingertips. You can schedule an appointment using Outlook when you are at work, add a "To-do" item to your task list, and
update the mobile phone number of a contact. Then when you are away
Video: MAPI Connector - Contacts & Appointments
from your desk, you can still get access to your information from the webmail client, with all the latest updates made at your work desk.
And, of course, likewise in reverse - if you get a phone call while you are away from your office, and you need to reschedule that
appointment, you can use webmail to make the change, and when you get back to your desk, it will be updated, and you won't miss anything.
View MAPI connector demo video
MailEnable Webmail - Appointment Scheduling
Appointment Scheduling & Invitations
As mentioned above, calendaring integration is one important advantage of a MAPI solution. To extend on that for the corporate
scenario, Outlook supports meeting invitations. You can schedule a meeting with others in the office, and they will receive an
invitation in their inbox. They then have the option to deny your invitation, suggest another time that suits them better, or accept,
in which case the appointment is immediately added in to their calendar.
From your meeting invitation in your calendar, you can track the responses of the participants you sent invitations to. See how many
people you are expecting, and whether a critical person is unable to attend so you can reschedule if necessary.
Free & Busy Status
When you are scheduling a meeting with a group of people, it can be difficult to find a time that works for everyone, but the MAPI solution
makes it as easy as possible. The MailEnable server can communicate with Outlook to present to you a view of the free and busy
status of all the attendees, so you can find a time slot where everyone is free, without having to go through the tedious, frustrating
and lengthy process of sending out the invitations, waiting for the responses, suggesting alternative times, and rescheduling repeatedly.
MailEnable Webmail - Free & Busy Status
Outlook Synchronization - Shared Calendar
Sharing & Collaboration
If you are familiar with the collaboration features already available in MailEnable through the webmail client, you would expect that to be
supported in the new MAPI connector as well. You would not be disappointed. It is easy to connect to a shared resource, such as another user's
calendar or entire mailbox to which they have granted you access. You can also set the sharing permissions for your own mailbox resources from
within Outlook.
This is particularly useful for viewing another person's shared calendar. Outlook supports different ways of viewing multiple calendars
simultaneously, including viewing them side by side, or overlaid, with different colouring to identify the different calendars.
If you grant full write access to your mailbox for another person, such as a secretary or personal assistant, that person can act on your
behalf to do such things as create new appointments in your calendar, and update the details of your contacts.
My Files
My Files is a server hosted file storage feature available from
MailEnable Professional Edition and
Enterprise Edition. The MAPI connector integrates with this feature, providing access through Outlook to
your My Files storage on the server. Your files will be listed in Outlook, with easy preview capability of most file types, including images,
video, audio and office documents.
Perhaps the best thing about this feature is the ease of uploading files from your desktop computer to the mail server, via Outlook. You can
simply drag and drop a file from your computer disk onto the My Files store in Outlook to send it to your mail account.
If you have just imported a set of photos from your digital camera onto your computer, you can select them all, and with one drag of the
mouse, host them all on your My Files area. And of course, when you connect to your account in Webmail, all your newly uploaded files will
appear there.
Video: MAPI Connector - My Files
MailEnable Webmail - Public Folders
Directory Access
With the MailEnable MAPI connector, the postoffice directory is made immediately available through Outlook's address book. This gives
every user access to the company contact list, including the ability to be prompted by Outlook when filling out half of a recipient's
name while composing a new message.
Out of Office
The connector also adds a new menu to the Outlook application with a few options, one of which allows you to easily change your out-of-office
status and message. When you are away on holiday or business, anyone who emails you will receive the message you configure as an
automatic response, so they will know when to expect a reply.