Topflight Grain Cooperative

Implemented by

MCS Office Technologies
 
   



 

 

 
Topflight Grain Cooperative, Inc
Challenge
Topflight Grain Cooperative was losing confidence in their proprietary email system. It had no junk mail filters, no “Sent Items” folder, a clunky, Windows 3.1-style interface, and no support from the developers. MCS approached Topflight about replacing this system with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 combined with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.

 
Solution
Windows Server 2003
Exchange Server 2003 SP2 with Outlook Web Access
Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
GFI FAXmaker 12 for Exchange
Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Exchange
 
Benefits
Sent Items in Outlook allow end users to easily reference old email
Built-in Intelligent Message Filter in Exchange 2003 SP2 efficiently blocks most junk mail
Branch office employees now send and receive faxes within Outlook
Outlook Web Access empowers remote and out-of-office staff to access their email
Secure and improved anti-virus scanning with Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Exchange
Public calendars and shared contacts keeps information centralized and cohesive
 
Project Details

Each of Topflight's ten locations were already connected via VPNs, and MCS was familiar enough with their environment to accurately gauge what solutions would work. MCS began researching this project right away. Topflight’s current closed email system did not have an export feature, so Doug Kinzinger, the MCS Network Engineer assigned to the migration knew he’d have his work cut out for him.

“The developers of Topflight’s proprietary email system offered no support at first, suggesting a fee of $800 eventually to migrate the data.  I said ‘no thanks’ to this and found my own way to transfer their messages.”, Doug stated

Doug found a disabled feature in their system and was able to enable IMAP support.  With this, he was able to export each user's email data.

“IMAP support is pretty common, but their software had it disabled, almost as if they implemented it but never finished developing the feature. I was able to turn it on and pull their emails into Exchange.”

Additionally, MCS deployed GFI’s FAXmaker software for consolidated, Exchange-based faxing.  Easily receiving over a hundred faxes a day with all of their locations, Topflight has improved efficiency and reduced paper usage.  Also, Topflight has eliminated the need and additional expense for dedicated fax lines at each facility.  This allows them to save hundreds of dollars a year on extra, unecessary phone bills.

Topflight also wanted shared calendaring and contacts. MCS created public folders within Exchange to allow better collaboration and scheduling.

 

   







 

 
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