[olug] Groupware suggestions - Long

[VincentR]

Can't Outlook share calanders and address books independantly, without a server?
I believe it has that functionality, although limited, built into it.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Penne" <epenne at yahoo.com>
To: <olug at olug.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 5:44 PM
Subject: [olug] Groupware suggestions - Long


> I'm completely fed up with my companies setup of the computers and
> their functionality.  My boss wants a sharable address book by
> everybody in the company (currently 4 people).  In this address book he
> wants to be able to add notes to the contacts and have it instantly (or
> relatively quickly) seen be everybody after he saves the note.  He also
> wants it to interact nicely with his email client (MS Outlook 2000).
> He would like to be able to share calendars and see what is on
> everybodies calendar and vice versa.
>
> I've looked into LDAP and using rolodap but he wasn't very keen on the
> idea of having to go to the web interface to add a user instead of just
> adding the person from Outlook.
>
> So far I've found the options of using MS Exchange Server (~1300 bucks)
> or going with something like Bynari's Insight server and the Outlook
> plugin that they sell to get a hacked together groupware function.
> Either way it is going to cost a lot of money.  I'm afraid of the setup
> and maintenance of Exchange and I don't have any idea about Bynari.  I
> don't have a lot of time/knowledge/balls to devote to these projects.
> My boss would love to have somebody affordable come out and do
> everything and then when it breaks down or anything be able to call
> this affordable person up and have them come fix it.
>
> Our server currently is running Win2k Server with Active Directory.  It
> is misconfigured and login takes forever and none of the permissions
> stuff works correctly.  It only is used for file sharing, dhcp server,
> and logining in the win2k machines on the network.  It really needs to
> be taken down and redone from the ground up.
>
> The specs are:
> IBM Netfinity 5100
> Dual P3 733?
> 256MB Ram
> 4 hard drives in some sort of raid array?
> TApe backup
>
> Then I got to thinking about groupware and running all email, contact,
> and calendaring and everything all the throught the web browser and
> haveing everything stored on the server.  That would get rid of part of
> our MS outlook problem.  I'm willing to look at running a groupware
> package from win2k server or putting linux on the server and running it
> from that.  I'm also looking for simple configuration so that my boss
> could hire a local student from the college that wants to earn some
> extra money to install and maintain the system.  I'm willing to look at
> commercial software and/or free software with paid tech support.
>
> Right now I just don't know where to begin.  It seems like a project
> that I could take on then get busy doing other things and never finish,
> except in this case I don't have the option not to finish.  I'm really
> sheepish about taking on a project this large without some kind of
> support.  I would like to present all the options to my boss but that
> would be a waste of time because he would rather see an all in one
> solution with a plan of attack on how to do it and how much it costs.
> Getting him involved with choosing the system turns into a giant circle
> jerk.  Right now he just doesn't understand why we can't do all this
> stuff with outlook.  I try explaining that outlook has limited
> functionality unless you purchase exchange but he just doens't
> understnad.  We spent about an hour today having the same discussion we
> had 2 months ago and about 3 months before that about why we can't do
> this with outlook.
>
> So my final question is (drum roll please):
>
> What have members of OLUG used for groupware suites, how easy were they
> to setup and maintain, and how functional were they (ie user interface
> and suitable features)?
>
> Thanks
> Eric Penne
>
>
>
>
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