Norton approves Exchange Outlook licensing to fix council email issues

The Norton Board of Control on Jan. 6 approved payment to implement Exchange Outlook licensing for the city’s cloud email, a change council members said should prevent bounced messages and ease communication between residents and city staff.

Council members and staff said the city has experienced issues forwarding large photo attachments from residents, causing messages to bounce or be lost. Ms. Keener told the board the upgrade should improve communications: "Pictures are worth a 1,000 words; we'll be able to send pictures legitimately now," she said.

Staff described the implementation cost as largely tied to 50 block hours to perform the upgrade; meeting remarks referenced a one-time implementation cost and an ongoing subscription component, but an annual total was not definitively stated in the transcript. The board approved the payment in an amount not to exceed $13,328 for Exchange Outlook licensing and related implementation work.

A motion to award the payment was made and seconded; the roll call recorded affirmative votes by Mr. Herbert, Mr. DeHart, Mayor Zita, Mr. Lowery, Mr. O'Loughrey and Ms. Keener.

Staff said the upgrade will be implemented before the board’s next meeting and that the city expects improved handling of larger files sent to the administration.