Why? Well consider these snapshot benefits;

	Single point administration through Active Directory
	Platform for collaboration with Office 2003 and Sharepoint
	Richer client mix with Outlook 2003
	Cached Mode for wide area network access and offline usage
	Outlook Web Access and the combination of Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) and Exchange ActiveSync
	RPC over HTTP. Whilst the name is not very classy, the technology most certainly is for mobile workers who need secure and fast access to email back in the office through wired and wireless networks.
New Service Pack Features
	A new protocol called Sender ID e-mail authentication protocol which helps prevent unwanted mailbox phishing and spoofing schemes by verifying the IP address of the e-mail sender against the purported owner of the sending domain. The sender must have registered a list of the valid IP addresses in DNS for accuracy.
	Who has exceeded their 16 GB Mailbox storage limit?!! Especially in 5.5 environments! Well with SP 2 there is an increase in mailbox storage size limits to 75 gigabyte (GB) for Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition. Evidence that Microsoft do listen to their customers!!

But perhaps one of the most compelling reasons is the new Mobile 5.0 platform.
If your organisation hasn't yet succumbed to the general trend towards a more flexible workforce, then read on, and take comfort in the fact that Windows Mobile 5 is here with features of the familiar Windows operating system, plus a comprehensive messaging and security pack – a necessary part of today's world.

Microsoft has recently released the latest version of their software for mobile devices. Like its predecessors, Windows Mobile 5 extends the successful Windows operating system to a range of handheld computers and the next generation of smartphones allowing mobile workers access to critical information whilst away from the office in a friendly familiar and easy to use environment.

Windows Mobile 5 has been two years in the making and has been developed based on feedback provided by end-users; it builds on the number 1 mobile operating system and provides a raft of useful improvements that will increase efficiency and make the mobile experience a richer one .

Microsoft Office Mobile gets a facelift too, and in addition to the mobile versions of Word, Excel, Outlook we now gain PowerPoint so you can rehearse your presentation in the back seat of the taxi taking you to your meeting. Mobile Word now supports tables and embedded images and Mobile Office enables you to access, edit, save and email word and excel documents from the palm of your hand without messy conversion.

Support for the very latest wireless technologies is included, and expect to see a range of new 3G enabled devices in the next few months the first of which the HTC Universal can be seen here so we should soon be enjoying broadband speeds wherever and whenever we need it. Battery life and data retention are improved with persistent storage, ensuring that a flat battery no longer means a tedious reinstallation.

Entertainment on the move!
Windows Mobile 5 also has the latest Windows media player built-in and supports larger hard drives and USB 2.0 to allow access to your full media library whilst on the move; and what was once your office tool will rapidly become your entertainment centre when away from home.

Whilst the improvements to the underlying platform provide tangible benefits to the end user when combined with the latest service pack for Exchange 2003 the benefits of Windows Mobile can be felt by the whole organisation. For several years we have been able to deliver scheduled synchronization with an exchange server on mobile devices however the most common question asked by senior management is when can we expect push email ?. The snappily entitled Messaging & Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for Windows Mobile 5.0 answers this question and provides a lot more to boot.

The feature pack uses Microsoft mobile direct push technology to deliver email, calendar, contacts and tasks to a remotely connected device when you add global address look up you have a fully featured mobile messaging and calendaring system straight from Exchange 2003 and Small Business Server 2003 without any need for costly additional servers or licences .

The interaction is managed end to end and outlook mobile compression reduces the amount of data transferred during synchronisation which speeds the process up and reduces the cost of GPRS traffic by 35 – 50%.

With MSFP Mobile devices become a natural extension of your windows infrastructure enabling network administrators to impose corporate security standards such as encryption and PIN protection and remotely wipe lost or stolen devices from the comfort of their desk.

All in all the combination of Windows Mobile 5 and the Messaging & Security Feature Pack allows the Windows environment to be extended to mobile devices to provide a familiar, manageable and above all secure mobile computing system.

What should I do?
Definitely visit the Microsoft Exchange 2003 http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windowsserversystem/exchange/
default.mspx and Service Pack 2 sites and familiarise yourself with the features and benefits.

Contact your Account Manager who can arrange for one of our consultants to talk you through Exchange 2003 and SP2 in more detail and discuss how it could benefit your messaging environment .

The clock's ticking for Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2003 is getting hot with Windows Mobile 5.0
The bad news: If you're still on Exchange 5.5, by Christmas, this product won't be supported and you'll be running your corporate messaging on a completely unsupported platform. A risk? Yes! Have you mitigated the risk? The good news: Exchange 2003 is here, stable and widely used by all sizes of organisation
Even better news: Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 is coming soon.

XP on the desktop – easy to deploy or not?
An essential read for any organisation that is apprehensive about migrating to XP and Office 2003, this article gives you advice on managing the desktop with relative ease.

.PST nightmares – how to avoid them
If you're fed-up with managing unsecure .PST files, or concerned with getting the most out of your storage, then this article will provide you with an affordable solution to reduce your storage costs, and enhance the performance of your Exchange servers, whilst keeping
the legal and compliance officers
at bay.

Infiltration of the iPod – a must see movie or something more than an average day in the office?
Imagine a well informed user waltzing onto your network listening to their favourite tracks (legally downloaded the night before and not from your network of course!!) on their iPod and then going home at night with the contents of their network drive snugly copied and stolen from your network…? Too much to handle then you should consider the SecureWave Sanctuary Control product to protect you from this situation.