Office 365, personal domain, free vs office 365 mailboxes.

[Jurasik]

Hi.

We have just received the `upgrade your business email' from BT. Upon Logging in & going to to upgrade page I see two options:

1. Manage your mailboxes on a personal domain, with the following text underneath: "If you've got a personal domain, you can't have a combination of free mailboxes and Office 365 mailboxes on that one domain. Make sure they're all the same type by upgrading or regrading your licences."

2. Password Security & "We take your security seriously. So we need you to update these passwords so
they're in line with our password policy."

With respect to point 1: We have our own domain name & a mix of Pop3 & organise & share accounts/licences. The text appears to state that this is now no longer possible & we have to have all our accounts either pop or full office 365.

This is not acceptable, as 3 of the licences (the organise & share ones) are so the users can access the emails on their mobile devices without getting into a mess with emails. We don't need the functionality of O&S on any of the other licences. If we have to upgrade all of our other licences to full 365, this could cost us another £1000 per year!

We do not wish to be forced into paying an additional amount for what is effectively the same service.

With respect to point 2: Can somebody point me in the direction of BT's password policy? I really don't relish having to go through all our licences to change every single password.

The email stated that our upgrade is due on 29/10/12. I take it that this is a deadline that we must upgrade by?

Can somebody from BT business email support please answer asap? I need to be recommending & implementing a course of action to our management before the deadline.

[Rank_Outsider]

Thanks for your suggestion Jurasik, but for our company of only three people I don't know if a mail server is the best option at this time.  I have no experience with those myself and woundn't know where to start!  It's hard enough dealing with computer & printer problems as it is without adding another piece of hardware - although I am 'the IT guy' by default, it just stops me from doing my 'proper' job.  I think I'd prefer to 'outsource' the email system for the time being (and perhaps go for a web-based system that allows off-line access).

Cheers for your input though, always worthwhile considering alll the options - it might help someone else in a similar situation.

[Jurasik]

In that case, I'd suggest the Gmail route for you as well. Fairly simple to set up & you can have IMAP as opposed to POP, which almost replicates exchange for no cost. (no IMAP on BT Office 365 lite - big omission in my opinion) They will even provide a business solution for not much money per month, which allows the native use of your domain name.

Hope this helps.