Supporting Windows 8 Mail in your organization

I've read carefully through all of the above. I'm not a sysadmin, so it's a bit tough for me to follow when you state things like "Exchange ActiveSync 14.0". I have not a clue what that means. What I do know is that both myself and our sysadmins have been working for about 4 hours now to get my new 64GB Surface to work with our mail exchange software.

1. We continually get a failure to sync error when connecting Windows 8 Mail. We cannot get past this point.

2. Our sysadmins are unwilling to allow me to import a certificate. They state that this is not required on Apple or Google devices, so why is Microsoft requiring this extra step?

3. As a third question, why am I being required to enter an outlook.com e-mail address when I am connecting to my e-mail address at my company? None of the sysadmins can figure out why this is required. Again, this does not occur on Apple or Google devices, so why on a Microsoft device?

All I want to do is get mail working on my tablet, but I'm starting to feel sick about even buying the surface at this point. Can you help?

Thank you in advance.