Getting ready for 'New Outlook' - part 3
Technology has changed significantly in recent years as has customer expectations and needs.
In this series of articles we look at how ‘New Outlook’ impacts businesses and how to prepare for the change.
From desktop Outlook to web based ‘New Outlook’
Outlook is changing and for good reason, it has become a complex beast with separate teams in Microsoft developing versions for: Outlook.com which was the old Hotmail, Windows PCs, Macs, browsers, Android and iOS devices.
‘New Outlook’ which is based on Outlook Web Access (OWA) is a Progressive Web App, so it’s a web application which can do things that regular web applications can’t do and which allow it to behave much like a desktop application, for example it can run when disconnected from the internet and can access your clipboard.
Web applications are great for customers because they are more reliable and less effort to manage. A key advantage for the vendor is that the same block of Outlook code can run on all devices.
This is extremely attractive to Microsoft because it removes masses of complexity. It’s great for you too, as your staff get the same consistent experience on all devices and your IT department has fewer issues with incompatibilities, versioning, deployment, etc.
Microsoft are keen to move customers to this new world, and have started to release features for ‘New Outlook’ which won’t be made available on the old platforms (See the table at the bottom of this page)
Embracing ‘New Outlook’
This single version of Outlook across all devices will be a positive step forward, but to get the most from it, make sure that your email management software fully supports this new environment by enabling you to not just file emails, but more importantly search from all devices; most systems can’t provide this.
You may not be ready to switch to ‘New Outlook’ yet, but CloudFiler works equally well with both old and new Outlook enabling you to switch when it suits your business.
