Viewpoint MX - Microsoft Outlook® Integration

Viewpoint MX includes a fully featured Outlook integration component for mail, calendar, contacts, and collaboration. This MAPI solution provides complete integration between the Viewpoint MX 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. Read on for more information about the various features you will enjoy when you install the Viewpoint MX MAPI Outlook integration module, beyond the core messaging features already available through IMAP, POP and other services.

Calendar, Contacts and Tasks

Users of Outlook will likely be familiar with the features for personal calendar, contact management, and task tracking, and the Viewpoint MX WebMail interface offers the same features. 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 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. 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.

Appointment Scheduling and Invitations

As mentioned above, calendar 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 and 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 Viewpoint MX mail server will 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.

Sharing and Collaboration

If you are familiar with the collaboration features already available in the WebMail client, you'll be pleased to know these also sync with Outlook, making it easy to connect to a shared resource such as another user's calendar or entire mailbox. 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 overlayed, with different coloring 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.

Out of Office Reply

Previously only available for Microsoft Exchange® customers, 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.

Public Folders

Public folders can be connected to as a separate special resource, making it easy to share documents and files publically for all company members to access. A useful place for storing corporate newsletters, policy documents, letterheads, and other such material.

My Files

The My Files feature is server hosted file storage for each email account. Accessible through both WebMail and the MAPI connector, 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.

Directory Access

With the Viewpoint MX 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.

Summary

Communication is the key to the success of any team, and the Viewpoint MX MAPI connector integrates with Microsoft's proven Outlook office productivity tool to give you an advantage in one of the most critical aspects of conducting successful business. There is no excuse for miscommunication.