One of the benefits of moving to Hosted Exchange 2013 is the new Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2013. As well as providing a refined, responsive interface, faster searching, and access to the full range of Exchange functions (email, contacts, calendars and tasks) the latest OWA also gives users the power to install special apps which extend the webmail services functions in new ways.

Certain apps are automatically included with OWA 2013 from Simply Mail Solutions, including:

Bing Maps – Find map addresses in emails.
Suggested Meetings – Automatically find meeting suggestions in emails, and add them to your calendar.
Unsubscribe – Easily unsubscribe from marketing emails and block senders.
Action Items – Show action suggestions from email content.

Exchange 2013 users are free to download and install apps (subject to their own company’s IT policies) to enhance their webmail experience. Some of the most popular ones available are:

LinkedIn for Outlook – See LinkedIn profiles for people you receive emails from.
DocuSign Ink – Sign and return documents without printing or scanning.
Sage One – Pull accounts details from Sage One online into OWA 2013.
Package Tracker – Track FedEx packages from the tracking number in an email.

There are plenty of other apps to add extra OWA features. The easiest way of adding them is to log in to the OWA 2013 portal, click on the gears icon in the top right (next to the ‘?’ icon), and select ‘Manage apps’ from the drop-down menu.