The following instructions are offered for SME businesses wishing to control junk email. Larger enterprises will likely have a mail server and IT support arrangement which would supercede any of the options below.
One of the best programs for controlling spam is, suprisingly, free ! Outclass/PopFile works on Outlook 2000 or later. It requires your IT contact to install it (should take 30 minutes maximum). You may like to try installing it yourself (it isn't difficult and there are instructions to follow). .
The free program can be downloaded here :
http://www.vargonsoft.com/Outclass/
Installation instructions : http://www.vargonsoft.com/Outclass/#installation
After trialling the software you will probably, like us, be amazed the application is offered free of charge.
A paid program (at time of writing this, $37 USD per PC), which is a little easier to install than above. It acts as a filter between your incoming mail and Outlook, rather than integrating into the Outlook application, so you install it just like any standalone program on your PC.
Antivirus and firewall programs often come bundled with email filtering software, and it might be possible to set your inbuilt software to filter the incoming emails based on their characteristics, and allocate likely Spam to a Junk Folder. The methods of achieving this vary greatly, and should be discussed with the supplier/installer of your AntiVirus solution.
Most good ISPs offer an automatic spam filtering service. In fact, this is our highly recommended preferred option, if you use one of the more competent ISPs in the marketplace (Westnet, Internode and TPG all have good reputations - see www.whirlpool.net.au for independent reviews).
The advantage of this supplier-provided option is its instant availability bundled with your ISP email.
Note, to use this option, you need to have all your email delivered to your ISP account. This can be achieved while still using your own business email address by having the web host forward email addressed to you@yourcompany.com to your local ISP email such as joe.bloggs@westnet.com.au
If all the above looks difficult, there are online services which pre-filter all incoming mail for viruses and spam. One that comes highly recommended is http://www.postini.com/ - which was purchased by Google. Google generally only buys companies who are very good at what they do !