Outlook/Exchange Versus Basic Email

To help you understand the productivity-boosting options that Exchange offers, here is a comparison of Outlook/Exchange versus basic email options.

Feature or Function Exchange Server 2007 Pop3 / IMAP4
Group scheduling Yes No
Send out meeting requests, then track and update them Yes No
Shared calendars and side-by-side calendar views Yes No
Access to personal and shared address books from remote locations Yes No
Outlook single sign-on for email and network access Yes No
Outlook connections over the Internet are secure Yes Some Solutions
Server-side SPAM filtering Yes Some Solutions
Put multi-colored flags next to emails as a reminder to follow up Yes Partial
Ability to add voting buttons to messages Yes No
Automatic out-of-office reply Yes No
Ability to recall sent messages Yes No
Support for multiple computer access Yes Partial
Access to email via Web browsers and mobile browsers, Outlook Mobile in Windows Mobile based Pocket PC's, Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphones Yes Non-Microsoft products are typically required
Outlook Cached Exchange Mode for working with intermittent Web Connection (e.g. dial-up) Yes Some solutions offer caching
Offline email, calendar, contacts, and public folder support Yes Partial
Access to public folders for sharing documents and information Yes Individual email folder access in IMAP
Basic email support for SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4 Yes Yes
Easy management of Outlook and Exchange Server profiles across multiple machines to lower support costs Yes No