(ISF) Re: Microsoft Outlook Calendars...

-----original message-----
>>;I operate a small non-profit with three employees. Each employee's personal computer operates with XP and MS Outlook. I would like to enable the feature of the MS Outlook calendar that allows each employee to see what appointments have been made for the other. What software do we need to purchase in order to enable that feature of the MS Outlook calendar.>>

There are several options for the kind of functionality you seem to be looking for. Rest assured, you're not alone as a small business or nonprofit looking for shared calendaring.

The first question is whether or not you want to move to MS Exchange. I'm not generally a proponent of Exchange, but it is powerful groupware, and if you're already running Outlook, it's the right question to ask.

Exchange itself isn't necessarily expensive for nonprofits, but it requires somewhat hefty hardware to run well and reliably. If you already have a central Windows-based fileserver, you may be part way there. In fact, Windows Small Business Server comes bundled with a version of Exchange for free. You could also explore a hosted Exchange environment. A rudimentary Google search turned up hosting as low as $10/month per user. However, the $360 you'd spend in the first year alone may be better spent in other ways.

Slipstick lists a number of options here:

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm

4Team, (http://www.4team.biz/) is one of the leaders in third-party options for shared calendaring that integrates with Outlook. Presumably their sales division could help you figure out the right product for your situation. I suspect their ShareO product, or possibly just their ShareCalendar product, would meet your needs. The extra $10 for ShareO would probably be worth it also gain the ability to share contact folders--assuming you don't already have a CRM solution in place.

It's very, very good that you're looking into this early. The implementation strategies and costs can seem a little unwieldy as your organization grows.

cheers,

--joshua.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
Joshua Nichols jnichols%40unboundtechnology.com">jnicholsunboundtechnology.com
President http://www.unboundtechnology.com
Unbound Technology, LLC 4721 31st Street South, Arlington, VA 22206

Messages in this topic (2) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.

-----original message-----
>>I operate a small non-profit with three employees. Each employee's personal computer operates with XP and MS Outlook. I would like to enable the feature of the MS Outlook calendar that allows each employee to see what appointments have been made for the other. What software do we need to purchase in order to enable that feature of the MS Outlook calendar.>>

My question is why use Outlook at all. I spent years hitting my head against this wall, trying to find the right third party plug in to allow for this functionality in outlook. I switch our staff of 6 over to Google Calendar this past summer (and staff continue to use Outlook for email) and we've had incredible buy in. In fact many of the staff are using Google Cal with other organizations they volunteer at.

2cents
~Sonny

--
Sonny Cloward
Email/Gtalk: sonny.cloward%40gmail.com">sonny.clowardgmail.com
Y!/AIM/Skype: sonnycloward
Cell: 802-371-9558

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Messages in this topic (3) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.