NTX, a Global Micro reseller partner, actively sells Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2010 to its growing customer base. The reasons for this, says Alberto Berrino, owner of NTX, are simple and numerous.

The Municipal Councillors Pension Fund (MCPF) did not have proper infrastructure or an efficient messaging solution. Without a proper server environment, the Fund was experiencing mail issues, device connectivity issues and a lack of reliable backups. Communication between the Fund and its trustees was non-existent and a new messaging management solution was most sought after.

When it realised it was fast outgrowing its old Linux-based, local server, Palogix, a rental provider of returnable transit packaging, realised it was time to consider a better option to manage its email, backup and server requirements while keeping disparate staff and devices and licensing in mind going forward.

When Dorothy Cadle, Software Consultant at Boldshore joined the company it was running its IT landscape through Mweb, a home-grown solution that offered little functionality, customisability and scalability. "We needed a more flexible solution that enabled us in better managing our email, calendaring and document sharing and we needed it fast," she says. "Furthermore, as a small SAP consultancy firm that needed effective collaboration and messaging solutions, we also didn’t have the time, expertise or budget to manage those services ourselves."

Nox IT, a Global Micro reseller partner, was faced with the challenge of migrating one of its sister companies to a hosted environment - and they had to do it quickly. With remote staff situated across the country and staff that travelled throughout South Africa on a day to day basis, calendaring, access to shared information and email was impossible on the previous system. Meetings could not be scheduled as staffers did not have access to shared calendars and access to email was dependent on having a reliable line to the office server.

Ad Outpost, an independent outdoor media specialist, was a growing company. Also growing was the load on their locally hosted exchange server, which was putting pressure on business resources and was becoming very unmanageable. Add to this the fact that employees were frequently disconnected as happens in environments where exchange servers are overloaded, and you were left with a company that needed change – and fast.