Outlook Synchronization with Google

[awreneau]

Have a client who has 5 machines, 2 of which are Mac Book the other 3 are XP.

They want to streamline their calendars by getting everything running int Outlook rather than having to go to the web to post appointments.

Anybody use Google Calendar Sync? It supposed to work like this, never used it before.

What about the MAC, suggestions?
One user has Entourage the other Office for MAC.

[Flyingbull]

Originally Posted by awreneau

Have a client who has 5 machines, 2 of which are Mac Book the other 3 are XP.

They want to streamline their calendars by getting everything running int Outlook rather than having to go to the web to post appointments.

Anybody use Google Calendar Sync? It supposed to work like this, never used it before.

What about the MAC, suggestions?
One user has Entourage the other Office for MAC.

I looked up Google synch, it tells you in there that it only works with iCal and Mozilla Sunbird for Macs.
You need to get them consistent on their systems. If it was me, I would probably wouldn't use GoogleSynch, I would use a hosted solution like here:
http://www.rackspace.com/solutions/e...e/features.php
Gives them 5 (2 gigs each) mail boxes, hooked up calendars all that for about 70 bucks a month. That isn't that too bad, 10 gigs, plus the calendar that can setup meetings, synchronized contacts, all that. Probably cheaper deals out there.
While isn't a big deal about the OS's, you should have a standard interface, so that users can collaborate and talk to each other in a similar way. Having it where one person uses one program to hold information versus another, always causes problems.

That is my thoughts

[awreneau]

Good point w/ the hosted solution and I agree w/ the idea of standardization. However this is a local church and funds are limited and a good portion of the office work is done by volunteer work so machines may move in and out of the network on a random basis. The only constant are the desktops, two of those.

I pitched the idea of web colaboration but they didnt bite, the contanct is the office mgr and she wants 'simplicity'. Not easily gained in this scenario.

[Flyingbull]

Originally Posted by awreneau

Good point w/ the hosted solution and I agree w/ the idea of standardization. However this is a local church and funds are limited and a good portion of the office work is done by volunteer work so machines may move in and out of the network on a random basis. The only constant are the desktops, two of those.

I pitched the idea of web colaboration but they didnt bite, the contanct is the office mgr and she wants 'simplicity'. Not easily gained in this scenario.

Ask bull dog (company or nick<g> not sure which at the top of my head), one of the other guys here in the forums if he would be willing to cut you a deal on "simple" he does a hosted exchange server. Simple is relative to what the needs are – if they need the ability to exchange information, to coordinate via e-mail and calendars, then they need to have a place that is a repository of that information, they either 1 need to decide that using only those two computers is enough, and setup an open source CMS/Calendaring service on one of the computers, or 2 they need to use a system flexible enough for them to change e-mails, setup accounts and will work with most computers systems.

[purple_minion]

Going through my bookmarks I found these

http://www.scalix.com/community/comm...tion/index.php
http://www.openchange.org/index.php?...d=15&Itemid=49
http://www.zimbra.com/demos/zimbra_tour/

And perhaps even
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:About
http://www.airset.com/AirSet.jsp#app.Home

Also googling "outlook collaboration mac" Zimbra comes up a few times in the first page of hits.

I've never done anything like this, but it sounds like it is relavent. Interested to know if you try any of these and how they work.

EDIT: http://www.opengroupware.org/en/index.html

[tartis]

If they don't want to spend any money, they may want to look at the offerings at www.zoho.com. I do like what hosted Exchange ha to offer. It is an easy setup if your domain is hosted at the same place as your Exchange service. If not, you just need to create two sub domains and have your host make two CNAME changes. You also get Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Entourage (Mac) for free for the computers, Outlook Web Access, and Mobile sync. 5 users is $59 per month, and they get Sharepoint services.

[purple_minion]

http://www.open-xchange.com/

I think they want you to pay, but if it works for you.