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Kuriel – A New iPhone Email App For Microsoft Exchange Designed For Business Professionals

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Kuriel is an iOS email app for Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, designed for business professionals who get a way over one hundred emails per day. Kuriel helps you process email faster, focus and stay organized. Below is our interview with Mike Petsalis, CEO of Vircom (company behind Kuriel):

Mike PetsalisQ: What is Kuriel?

A: Kuriel is a new mobile email client. It works on iOS and Outlook/Exchange, for now of course. It is for busy professionals who get way over 100 emails per day and who want to get through the important ones faster, so they can get back to real work or back to having more fun.

It is currently in private beta by invitation-only and will be in the App Store in February 2015.

Some of Kuriel's features

Kuriel app preview

Related: Startup Quickly – Supercharging Your Email

Q: What is your differentiator/advantage?

A: Kuriel is a great email client on its own even without its special features. Still, we really wanted Kuriel to be different, and better, in 3 main areas: organizing your email (grouping, searching, prioritizing, etc.), managing your tasks from email and, integrating well with Outlook/Exchange (the #1 mail server and client for business users). So, we focused our key features along these areas.

Related: Iterable – The Next Generation Email Optimization Platform

Q: Could you tell us more about Kuriel’s key features?

A: Here are some of the highlights:

  • Set your Favorites (People, Companies, etc.)

    We all have Favorites, for example, emails from certain people, or companies, or emails about certain topics, or emails in certain folders, or emails in specific Outlook categories. Kuriel allows you to create these Favorites and filter the emails that belong to them. You can then easily access them, either from your Favorites screen, or directly from your various filters (People, Companies, Categories, etc.).

    So, if you’re wondering ‘What’s important?’, it is your Favorites that answer that question.

  • Unread Favorites

    This takes Favorites a step further. While you may want to see all the emails from an important person, when you’re in a rush (let’s face it, that’s often), you may only want to see emails from Favorites that you have not yet seen or read yet.

    If you’re ever wondering ‘What’s important right now?’, it is your Unread Favorites. This is your go-to screen between meetings, on a short elevator ride, or when you’re sneaking a peek at your iPhone during a meeting when you know you shouldn’t be.

  • Selective Notifications

    Most of us have sore hips from the incessant buzzing and vibrating from our smartphones in our pockets. If you dare to set it to notify you on emails, then you’re doomed. Selective Notifications in Kuriel only notify you about emails that are important, that is, ones that would be in your Unread Favorites. Most people would favorite their boss or their spouse and can be selectively responsive 24/7.

    So, with Kuriel, if you’re going to allow your smartphone to shock you into submission, it will at least only do so for messages that really matter to you.

  • Tasks, Follow-ups, Categories, all integrated with Exchange and Outlook.

    Outlook/Exchange users find it very frustrating when they take an action on their smartphone and then the action is not reflected on their Outlook when they are back at their desk. Kuriel makes sure that tasks and follow-ups you create on emails will be exactly such when you go back to Outlook. The same goes for Categories as well. And this is where our technology choice will really pay off for users. Anything Outlook supports, Kuriel can support, unlike 99% of email clients out there, mobile or not.

  • Kuriel Filters

    While Kuriel allows you to create your own filters based on people, companies, saved searches and more, it also includes a set of built-in filters that make it easier to access important emails quickly. These filters are constantly evolving and include: Flagged as Important (in Outlook), To me only, with attachments, attachments, meeting requests, Today, Needs Response, Awaiting Response, Unread Only, etc.

Inbox and Companies preview

Inbox and Companies preview

Related: Startup Inbox – Revolutionary Email Platform

Q: What was technically the most challenging part of developing it?

A: Where to begin… When you dare to try to change users’ embedded habits with email, you are taking on a very large task. First off, the email client has to be a great email client on its own, fast, responsive, with useful finger swipes, secure, etc. Then once you have that, you add the extra elements that will make it that much more special. However, the most technically challenging part was also something we consider a core differentiator. Kuriel uses the EWS API (Exchange Web Services). While technically challenging, this choice opens the door to rich Outlook features that Exchange ActiveSync, Pop or Imap based clients cannot offer. This choice was a little more obvious when you consider our background in email security and exchange server technologies.

kuriel-feature1

Q: How would you convince the reader to start using it?

A: First, I would talk about our team. The team that has built Kuriel has been working with email for years. It is a team of seasoned software developers and application designers that have built award-winning email security tools that have served thousands of customers and millions of users. Processing and filtering email is in our DNA, to say nothing of the fact that we are all email overload sufferers and are willing to do anything to fix this problem.

Second, I would remind them about the tight integration with the most ubiquitous email client/server combination on the desktop (Outlook/Exchange). Everything you do on Kuriel will be reflected in your Outlook, including tasks, follow-ups and categories. If you use Outlook on your desktop and receive over 100 emails per day, then Kuriel is the mobile email client for you.

Third, I would say that Kuriel has been designed from the bottom up to get you OFF the application as fast as possible. Yes, that’s right. We want you to zip through your most important emails in a flash, so that you can get back to really important stuff, whatever that happens to be for you. We’re pretty sure it’s not email!

Thank you very much for taking the time to learn more about Kuriel!

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