IT Support for IFAs
Email Support for financial advisers
Please note we are currently looking into outsourcing some IT Support and will be updating this page shortly
We presently don't offer specialist email solutions to financial advisers, but we will advise and assist you as much as we can and have sourced some preferred IT support companies who are happy to work with us.
Pop3 or Microsoft 365 / Google Apps?
It simply depends on your needs. Pop3 can often be enough if you're a really small company who doesn't want or need to integrate with other users. You won't get access to documents, email, calendars and contacts etc.. on different devices like you can with Microsoft 365 and Google Apps. The most common mail software can be set up on your computer to work with your new mailbox, like Outlook.
POP3 creates local copies of emails and deletes the originals from the server, the emails are tied to that specific machine, and cannot be accessed via any webmail or any separate client on other computers. At least, not without doing a lot of email forwarding or porting around mailbox files.
Option 1: Mailboxes provided by your domain host
We can set you up a mailbox or number of mailboxes with your domain, depending of who you're hosted with. But we won't be able to support those mailboxes, you would have to go to the your domain provider for that.
We've looked at a reputable domain provider Fasthosts and their email support, to give you an idea of what's on offer.
See these instructions from Fasthosts (domain provider) about their email setup guide:
Fasthosts charge £1.39 per month for a standard mailbox or £4.99 for Exchange 2013 mailboxes.
Fasthosts Hosted Email is fully supported 24/7. There is no additional charge for support. Their experts are on hand to help with all your enquiries, whether that's help setting up a mailbox or migrating your email to Fasthosts, they stipulate that they offer their support.
Option 2: Source a dedicated email provider:
You can source a dedicated email provider. We have researched the best and can recommended the following:
“If you need to be able to work across devices, from anywhere, and have a consistent, clean, and fast experience doing it. Enter Office 365. Whatever device you're working on, Office 365 gives you access to everything you need - your documents, email, calendars, contacts, and team sites all come with you.”
“Google Apps users enjoy the same experience across different devices, operating systems and browsers, and many employees already use Google products at home. Offline support. Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs let users view, edit and create content when they're not on the Internet, syncing automatically when they reconnect.”
These solutions will offer financial advisers a reliable and secure email solution. They also offer the benefits of effective spam filtering and larger mailboxes, together with opportunities for shared/collaborative working with email, calendars and contacts.
Costs are dependent on your specific needs. Both Office365 and GoogleApps for Business start from £3.20 per user pm.
Option 3: A managed email solution by an IT support company:
Using the help of a supplier that manages the set up and ongoing support of your email system. We've found a few email / IT providers that are happy to assist (and work with IFA Web Pro, so you don't need to do anything) no matter how small your company is. A few will assist remotely and so don't need to be in your area.
These will either set up Google Apps or Microsoft 365 for you or a number of Pop3 mailboxes. We've been told by a number of IT support companies that setting up Microsoft 365 (for a few users) will take 3-4 hours so will incure a charge for setting up.
This is what IT support companies typically say:
“Have you ever thought of hosting your email, calendar and contacts in the cloud but don't quite know what's involved or how to do it? This can be achieved by using Google Apps (“for Work”, which was known as “for Business”) or Microsoft 365. We can advise you on the best solution, and set up your business on either of these popular platforms. If required, we can also transfer your existing emails etc. onto the new platform. Please just give us a call, or alternatively contact us through our website, to find out how we can help.”
See chart below for an idea of costs. If you decide to use Google Apps or Microsoft 365, then once set up you need only pay an IT support company for adhoc support if unrelated to email support if and when needed.