Three Microsoft collaboration tools all Exchange admins should know

Editor's note

Tools for collaboration have gotten a lot of attention from enterprises. With forays into corporate social media, anything that can increase worker productivity and ease communication will pique interest. Microsoft took notice of collaboration and released its own tools -- SharePoint, Office 365 and Lync -- that include features and capabilities to improve common but critical work processes.

The release of SharePoint 2013 included upgrades for collaboration tools. Site mailboxes can be used to facilitate collaboration between SharePoint and Exchange 2013, and E-discovery was revamped to include mining for data in Exchange as well as in Lync.

As the online, hosted version of Office software, Office 365 combines SharePoint, Exchange and Lync to create a Microsoft collaboration tool that's reliable and flexible. This combination gives many organizations a solid fiscal argument for making the move to Office 365.

Lync is another Microsoft collaboration tool that's caught enterprise attention. This platform for unified communications delivers the infrastructure that can integrate business channels and can also work with Exchange, Office 365 and Outlook Web App. Some have argued that it's missing important features enterprises depend on, but the tool looks to have a promising future.

This guide contains a collection of information to give Exchange admins a complete look at SharePoint, Office 365 and Lync. Find expert tips about the best ways to use Microsoft's three collaboration tools in your enterprise.