Outlook file access, but it's more than just that

Factual Questions
1

The big shots where i work have finally agreed to upgrade from Schedule+ for Win95 to Outlook. The problem that we are having is that only 1 person can open the file at a time. In S+ they could all make changes and update the file across the network at any time regardless who was using it. What happens when person A is using the file (file that contains 1200 contacts, calendar, etc) and person B tries to go into Outlook an message pops up that says

So the question is how to allow this file to be simulateously accessed in Outlook the way that it was in Schedule+?
note: in this scenario the G:\ drive is mapped thru Novell and this particular department’s own drive.

2

No, unfortunately, only one person can have a .pst (Outlook data file) file open at a time. The solution is to implement a Microsoft Exchange server ($$$). There are probably other open source or cheaper solutions, but they do not run with Outlook.

3

Sorry, Slick, but MC$E is quite right. MS Outlook is really built to be used with MS Exchange.

4

Well, if you have 75 users or less - you could go the Small Business Server 2003 (from Microsoft) route. Includes Exchange 2003, Outlook 2003 for each user, Server 2003, and other utilities. All about $699 with 5 cals and about $79 for each additional client license.

If you want SQL and Frontpage with that, it’ll up the cost to $1499 for the server software and 5 cals, same price per Client access license.

Very popular package with small businesses, but there is an open source alternative that is being used - that is Open-Exchange - which you can find at http://mirror.open-xchange.org/ox/EN/community/

Oddly enough, it’s about the same price as SBS 2003 if you order it from one of the vendors - strange, but since you run Novell, you can purchase it from SUSE and probably run it on Novell. Good luck!

5

I don’t foresee Exchange being implemented here. GroupWise is prevalent. In case you are wondering why Outlook. . .

The CEO doesn’t want other people being able to see his schedule if someone tries to do a busy search. That is why he kept his contacts et al within Schedule+. And he wants his info from S+ to go to his Samsung i600 Smartphone but that only talks with Outlook thru ActiveSync. I didn’t want to spent time farting thru exporting and importing from S+ to Outlook to Phone with ActiveSync to IntelliSync to GW just to keep all the contacts and schedules up to date.

Anyway thanks for the info.