No news?

Bump!

We're seeing most business customers who are committed to Outlook switching to O365 because the software is bundled together. Microsoft is making it a simple financial decision -- get the Office/O365 bundle for a monthly fee.

 

So, maybe SM should focus on making the webmail client more powerful so that it has the look and feel of Outlook, so people can ditch the email client. This seems like a better direction. MAPI would have been great 10 years ago, but now it's not needed because anyone upgrading their Office suite is going to bundle O365.

 

Just stating the trend in the marketplace. I'm sure others will have different opinions.

 

Now if MAPI could be used by smartphones instead of licensing ActiveSync per user, it might be a whole different story and we would be all in.

in my humble opinion it does not look good for MAPI... :-(
SmarterMail v17.x is coming September - but still no beta available including MAPI :-(

Customers are waiting for MAPI... almost around March/April 2018 at beta-start... then they were disappointed because the v17-beta started in "phases"... and MAPI is scheduled for the last phase - which until today not even being started yet :-(

In my eyes any newly added protocol-support/implementation will need at least four weeks in beta-testing (better eight  weeks!). So if MAPI will not be available on Friday this week I do not know if it would be a wise decision to switch to the new protocol for production usage right at official release of v17 (three weeks for beta-test is not much testing-time at all!)

I suppose SmarterTools is kind for "forced" to release SmarterMail v17 at the end of September,
so probably MAPI-support will be included in v17, but perhaps kind of v17.1 oder v17.5
or they will state that MAPI is included in release-version but until further notice this protocol is still as "in beta state".

But due to some issues occured during last weeks with released builds (v16 / not stated as beta-builds!) it does not really make much difference if we are running a release version/build- it does not really differ from beta builds/versions.

I really hope that SmarterTools will make it better now... (they always promise... next version we will make it even better!). I was always "pro SmarterTools" and their products/solutions... but during the last 12-18 month I do not know how long I can still stick to SmarterTools,

and to be honest: in my opinion v16 was and is never really out of beta state! just have a quick look at the hundreds of entries/changes stated in the release notes for v16.... it shows they are working/fixing on it - but hundreds of issues needed to be fixed.... I do not believe that many people are interested in switching over to SmarterMail/SmarterTools-products.

SmarterTools must find their way back to their customers.... and I really, really hope they will find their way back to the right path!

Re: Office 365

 

It seems that many businesses are heading for Office 365.

 

If you have Exchange Server, you can do a hybrid configuration between Exchange and Office 365 on the same email domain.

 

If you have a 3rd party email server that supports it, you can do something similar with that server and Office 365. The name "hybrid," in Microsoft terms, is reserved for Exchange + Office 365, so this would be probably be known commonly a "split domain" configuration. Smartermail (I think since later versions of v12 and onward) supports this, and I'm testing it now with success on SM v15 and a temporary domain.

 

Probably putting the live configuration online this weekend. I understand that others are using this scheme successfully.

 

 

 

If there is no MAPI in SM 17, we are going to have to call it a day. We've suffered through 16 and all its never-ending issues with hopes that SM 17 will bring better integration with Outlook that our customers have been asking. As well as a hopeful replacement for EAS on Outlook, since that integration is absolute garbage.

It would be great if ST could chime in and better monitor their own community (look at last week's failure). Would be great if there could be an open discussion about what is going on with the future of the product, is MAPI dead for the initial release of 17, is it coming in 17.1, 17.5, 18.2, 19.7... MAPI was really going to be the saving grace for a lot of our big clients that have stuck around simply for this. We keep saying better Outlook integration is coming, just hold on, they keep waiting and nothing is coming out about it. We cant even say we are beta testing it internally to calm their nerves.

 

You'd think in a week, we could at least (for the money we are all paying) a "We are working on it!" or a "Sorry guys, wont make it until 17.1", any sort of response is better than nothing. I get the devs are busy fixing SM 16 and preparing 17, but one of the sales people, Derek or Tim could pop in and drop a response outlining the current state of the beta.

Guys, this post is for asking SmarterTools a real timeline, any other question I would ask you to write it in other posts!

 

By the way...

 

No news on MAPI support?????

I do not have a good feeling at all concerning MAPI. :-(

SmarterTools asked for beta-testing - but currently they stay very, very silent. It would be fair to give us a quick status-update concerning release-timeline, especially the long awaited/requested MAPI-support - will it be included in the 'September v17' release?

The 'actual issue' that beta-testers at community are asking again and again and again is just because SmarterTools posted a Blog entry with 'SmarterMail 17 coming in September' - and almost at the end of July announcing kind of two big beta-steps/phases to go - und then in September release... thats was almost impossible already at announcement/posting.

Please be so "Smart"(erTools) enough to give us an update concerning MAPI-support and release timeline of SmarterMail v17. Just no words at all by ST is not the best solution at all - sorry.... you could be losing customers that currently stick to your company and products - you are making customers more and more 'angry' right now.

I agree with Thomas... We need to have answers, even if they are "sorry, v17 and MAPI will be delayed to 2019..."

A no fluff response….

As most of you already know through the community and blog posts, the entire backend has entirely changed.  The conversion process was incredibly difficult and we have been testing with customers privately and others who have tested in the community.  Thankfully, we have moved past this phase!

Thank you Tim! Appreciate the honesty and transparency! This is what we assumed ST was doing, but just wanted the confirmation.

Oh, finally an honest answer!

So what can I expect right now (if I understand correctly):

1 - an initial release 17.0 in September (maybe October? ...)

2 - a consolidation release 17.1 in October (perhaps November? ...)

3 - a 17.2 release with support for MAPI in November (maybe in December as a Christmas present? ...)

thanks Tim for the updates!!!

Gabriele,

All our answers have been honest as of the time they have been written.  There is no value in anything but being honest. My post yesterday was a no frills where we are at.  I replied similarly when we discovered issues with the database backends.

After we got back from Microsoft and we started incorporating some of the new data elements we realized they could apply to all protocols and that if we re-wrote all protocols to use all similar data elements and synchronization ID's and methods we could have a single code base and drastically reduce the risks of bugs in any one protocol.

We will be releasing the next BETA on September 20th.  This will have most of the protocol changes we have made which we have been putting through EXTREME testing!

I now expect our Final Release of 17.x to be mid October with many minor releases of .1 so that we are being responsive to customers and starting .2 release in December which will include MAPI.

Tim

I think that this sounds like a valid approach. I'd rather see two stable releases than one buggy release. Keep the developers focused on perfecting the initial migration, because system stability is of paramount concern. Then they can focus on supporting an entirely new MAPI feature.

Tim, you stated "STARTING" .2 release in December with MAPI, does this mean you guys are just starting work on MAPI or are we looking at December as the time for a MAPI release?

MAPI was nearly completed prior to our team going to Redmond.  But, Microsoft  made us aware of many more data elements that Exchange had and how sync keys and methods could be shared across all the protocols.

This was awesome timing and very exciting because we were just finishing the data backend and could incorporate all this new data without impacting customers in a future release and we we could drastically reduce disk I/o and memory via shared tracking information for all protocols instead of individually.

We really have spared no expense on 16.x and 17.x and have had a hard time balancing everything we want to do and getting the product to our customers in a reasonable timeframe.

I will go into more detail in the near future about all the technical things we have done as well to prepare us for us for SmarterMail 18.x, .NET Standard, and being cross platform.

Just wondering, is Outlook 2013+ for Windows the only thing that can use MAPI?

Unfortunately, we're seeing many Outlook customers move to O365 because Microsoft is bundling O365 with the Office suite.

With all the protocol changes in v17, maybe EAS could be enhanced to be more affordable and easy to use? We see more opportunity with EAS as it can be used on all mobile devices which is a much bigger market than Outlook for Windows.

Here's an old article that discusses an increase in mobile, decrease in Outlook, and a bunch of other stuff. There may be some more recent info somewhere.

Kevin

Yeah, Outlook 2013 and higher. We have 10s of thousands of customers on Outlook and more coming. We just need a reliable protocol to support with. IMAP is not tthe answer, EWS isnt supported with Outlook on Windows, EAS does not handle large mailboxes well and Microsoft says no with Outlook. We need a solution to this and MAPI is it.

I assume they are not doing older than 2013 since older Outlook installations are RPC-based. Exchange/Outlook 2013+ are MAPI over HTTP(S). While I believe there is a hotfix for it, why bother.

Tim - Yep! That is why we have had 2 major companies move to us in the past year and more companies coming to us from O365, it is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Though, the reliability issues we've had with SM 16 has hurt a little, but getting better. MAPI will be our savior once it is available.

Also agree with you that Mobile is taking over Desktop in all cases.  Browsing, Email, Facebook :).  We have been monitoring these trends for a long time via SmarterStats and SmarterMail utilization and reporting as well as Google Analytics across a variety of properties.

We use this data to  prioritize devices for QC internally etc.  We give more time and priority to browsers, devices, and platforms based on usage.  

With the recent iPhone announcements I think phone manufacturers are understanding their importance and feel as they can increase prices at a rapid rate.  The highest end iPhone XS Max with Apple Care exceeds $1,700!  Its insane.

On the flip side I love what Samsung is doing with S9 / Note 9 and Dex.  Where you can plug your phone in via HDMI and a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse and nearly have a functional workstation.  Its almost at a point where I might give my kids only a Note 9, monitor, keyboard and they could do everything they need!

kevind

First, I do not agree with your conclusion.
I do not think any serious company should have anything in the cloud,
unless the cloud is on their own infrastructure.
Any company or a larger user who cares about his data should not have used the cloud outside his own infrastructure.
The moment when Office will be only in the cloud, of course I will replace immediately, even if it is worse.
I honestly have nothing so secret but the thought of giving the information voluntarily I do not think so.

Thanks Tim, we are looking forward to december to be able to use MAPI!

We ar every excited for the new v17 and are waiting for it.

I created a reply about split domains, but replaced it with this. I'm instead creating a new thread.

Because "Delete Reply" doesn't work? Just tried it for this reply and it doesn't do anything. Maybe a bug in SmarterTrack 15 beta...

So to keep this thread on topic, are there any MAPI clients for smartphones?

None that I am aware of. Outlook on Windows is the only client that is MAPI. Though, most mobile email clients support EAS, so no need really. EAS is a mobile designed protocol, so it fits the mobile bill.

Kevin and Paul, 

The Delete Reply button will be fixed on our next update of SmarterTrack 15.0, which is currently in Alpha testing on our portal. We're sorry about the inconvenience. 

Andrea, sounds good!

Christopher, thanks for reply. Yes, EAS works well on mobile devices. Unfortunately, it's:

Since use of Outlook for Windows is decreasing while mobile device use is increasing, it would be nice to see more effort put into EAS. Unless, of course, there was a MAPI client for mobile (hence the question).

Difficulty is eh, we have fully automated systems, where the user purchases x licenses and they are automatically assigned to their hosting account, then the user can enable / disable EAS on whatever accounts he/she desires.

Setup on the device is easy, 99% of the time, it just works, they supply their email address / password and walla it goes. We've had almost no issues out if EAS as far as account setup goes.

As for licensing, this is not up to SmarterTools. Microsoft handles how the protocol is licensed, which is per account. Honestly, I dont want to pay to have our entire server and ever single user licensed under it. We have many many 10s of thousands of users, paying for that would cost us massive $$$$.

Outlook may be decreasing on your end, but for us, desktop clients are growing and growing quickly. Mostly Outlook, but we see a growing number of Apple Mail and TBird clients.

Chris,

Your results (ease of use, implementations and client utilizations) are spot on based on all our statistical data from tens of thousands of installations and customer feedback.

A clarification I would provide to one of my previous replies... Desktop really isn't decreasing in utilization ... its  Mobile increasing at a significant rate and creates the perception that Desktop is decreasing...  but in reality Desktop is staying about the same and slightly ticking higher in utilization and we are seeing a slight shift in Desktop utilization as MacOS increases marketshare resulting in Mac Mail becoming more common and the updates to Thunderbird has sparked interest from many users.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Really looking forward to the (now urgently) needed SM 17.2 with MAPI functionality.

Will MAPI be included in the cost of an Enterprise subscription?  If not, if a subscription already has a number of EAS seats, will that include MAPI in that?  Or is MAPI going to be an extra add-on like with EAS and EWS etc?

Thanks.

Bert, I believe they already stated it would be an addon like EWS. EAS is different only because Microsoft has some skin in that game.

I'd apprecaite it if ST would publish the point form feature set that will be released and available in the first production release in one concise sheet possibly including colums indicating new or new and improved since v15 and v16 if that's useful in presenting the value proposition.

Very much looking forward to MAPI later this month.

Yeah, it would be great if we could get a estimation of MAPI support, we've been begging for it, it is now coming soon, now we are all begging for an ETA lol.