Recently, many of you may have received an email from Applied Systems, notifying users about their decision to retire their Hosted Exchange and Insuremail services by the end of December 2023. This development could have significant implications for agencies relying on these services. In this video and blog post, we’ll explore how Applied Systems’ Hosted Exchange retirement might affect your agency and what strategic measures you can take to ensure a seamless transition to a new service.
A bit of history
Several years ago, Applied began hosting email for agencies using a product called Microsoft Exchange. Exchange is a fantastic product, and back in the days of servers, this is exactly what we deployed in agencies. But as the years went on, Exchange was increasingly designed for large organizations. It required larger servers and more server roles. It required special skills to manage, and it was difficult to keep secure. This meant more expense. Meanwhile, cloud alternatives were getting better and more cost effective all the time.
These days, there are far better options out there for agencies and Applied is recognizing that. This will allow Applied Systems to reallocate time and effort into products like Epic, where their core expertise really shines. Check out this recent update from Applied Systems to learn more.
So what does this mean for your agency?
Receiving the letter doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re using the service. So the first step is determining if this applies to you. Your IT folks should easily be able to determine this. They’ll want to check inbound email, your copiers and scanners, and Epic DMS.
If you ARE using Applied’s email services, you’ll need to have all of your data off of those services before the end of December 2023. That’s not much time, so you need to start making a plan now to transition to another solution. For this, I recommend Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 has become the industry standard for email, but the 365 ecosystem is much larger than that. You can use Microsoft 365 to replace servers, deliver cybersecurity, implement cloud desktops, and meet compliance requirements.
KiteTech is here to help
If you are currently using Applied’s email services, and need help migrating to Microsoft 365, we can help. I would encourage you to reach out to Kite Technology sooner than later, so we can begin helping you plan for the change.
If you’re already using Microsoft 365, and you’re curious about how you can make it more effective and secure, we can help with that, as well. We have made Microsoft 365 a part of everything we do, and we would love to help you make Microsoft 365 part of everything you do. Contact us today, to learn to learn more about our Managed IT Services and Microsoft 365 Consulting.
Jason Gobbel
Chief Solutions Officer
Kite Technology Group
By default, Outlook has several Categories already created, named for the colors associated with them. If these work for you, then great! But Outlook allows you to go deeper and customize the Categories. To do so, click on the “All Categories…” menu option.
On the screen that follows, you can click any Category you want, rename it, assign it a different color, and even assign a Shortcut Key, which allows you to quickly set a message to that Category by using the keyboard shortcut you choose from the list. You’ll also notice that you can create brand new categories from this same screen.
When you set a Category on an email, you’ll notice it appears at the top of the email directly under the Subject line.
There are additional options you can access if you choose a Custom flag. As you see here, you can choose a Start date, Due date, and even set a Reminder at a certain date and time. These are all intended to help you keep a timeline and not miss any obligations.
Again, you’ll notice options here for the first two topics discussed in this article: Categorized and Flagged. You can use this to quickly find messages with a particular Category or Flag applied, and you can also combine these criteria together for a more specific search. Maybe you want to find messages with a specific Category that you have Flagged for follow-up, like this message. 
When you run searches, your criteria are saved and able to be recalled later, so you can click the “Recent Searches” button and choose a set of criteria you’ve used recently. This can be useful if need to do the same searches frequently. 
I use Quick Steps to quickly move emails to certain folders in my mailbox, so the only ones that appear for me in this screenshot are basic Move actions. To add a new Quick Step, you can click the New button, where you’ll see a list of preset options to get you started, or you can choose Custom to start from scratch.
To enable rule lines, go to the View tab on the Ribbon, and click Rule Lines. If you click the dropdown arrow, you will see other options, like wide-spaced and grid lines.
On your computer, you’re going to right click the Windows Start Button and select Task Manager.
Once you’ve gone through your list and cleaned that up, all you need to do to make those changes take effect is reboot your computer. Just go back down to the Start Button, select the Power Button and Restart. That’s it!
icon in the 
in the top-right and click on Collections. You can also choose to right-click on the Collections option and choose “Show in toolbar” to keep it visible in your Edge window at all times (see screenshot to the right).
