MapiLab has a nice and affordable add-on for Exchange Server 2000 or 2003 systems. Their Exchange Rules product lets admins setup rules on the mail server without messing around with scripts.
It’s great to be able to create rules in Outlook to control your email. Move certain messages to folders, forward others, delete messages and other regular functions.
It would be even better if Exchange Server users could have those things done on the server as soon as the message arrives instead of waiting for Outlook to connect. This is especially important for roaming users who currently have to resort to leaving the computer running in the office so that rules will be processed while they are on the road. If you don’t then when you login to your mail account via the web or WAP the Inbox will be cluttered with stuff that you don’t want there.
MapiLab has a nice and affordable add-on for Exchange Server 2000 or 2003 systems. Their Exchange Rules product lets admins setup rules on the mail server without messing around with scripts. Instead there’s a rules wizard similar to the one in Outlook itself. All the configuration is done from the Exchange System Manager under the Tools node.
There’s options to set rules for all mailboxes or only some users. There’s the usual conditions that can be set for messages according to sender, recipient or words used. When you setup a search string look at the Options button to find some more powerful choices to search for the presence or absence of words plus to match all or any of the specified strings.
All that should cover most situations but I can’t help feeling that if it included an option to insert a regular expression then power users would have a lot more control over search parameters. This is a constant omission of companies who, rightly, go to great lengths to make things easy but ignore a powerful option for the savvy.
Actions that interested us included, messages can be copied or moved to a public folder, another mailbox or a sub-folder in another mailbox. A message can be saved to a specified file automatically – very interesting for power users. Outlook 2003 has more action options but some of the extra ones in the MapiLab product could be useful.
I’ve setup my Small Business Server (SBS) machine so it now automatically moves discussion group messages and some other mundane message to special folders immediately.
What caught our eye was the specific mention of SBS compatibility – an important point often overlooked by both Microsoft and other vendors. These companies should not take it for granted that buyers know that SBS includes Exchange Server mail; it’s better to explicitly state SBS compatibility.
Mapilab has a special low price for SBS users of just $249, a smart move in our opinion and one that other Exchange Server partners would benefit from copying. There is also a downloadable 21 day trial version.
If you needed any proof of the global economy, Mapilab is based in Kaliningrad – a small part of Russia squeezed between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.
