Calendar sync program needed!

shatpank81

shatpank81

shatpank81

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Hi
I work for a company where they just had a 2012 standard server installed from an sbs 2003
So obviously we lost exchange functionality! (Unless they paid top dollar for it)
Anyway, they just needed imap mail because boss didnt want to upgrade to full exchange or even upgrade our versions of office/outlook from 2003 to something more up to date.
so i had a look around and found rackspace mail (£1.35 per user) which as been fine, but now the boss is losing is mind over calendar sync!!

He rightly said he used to be able to sit at home with the old exchange server and from his iphone go into calendars and say "i am off tomorrow" and we would all get that notification.
But with rackspace the calendar is only editable using their webmail, and only viewable in outlook and on phones and not editable!

So he as proper thrown is toys out of the pram, well now he wants me to find a way of syncing calendars in outlook and iphones etc but with the minimal of cost and effort!
He is happy with the cost of rackspace, but it took the best part of 2 days to export all mail from exchange and then import into the rackspace accounts so moving supplier is a no go!

I should have just moved us to google mail for business, but he moaned about the £33 per user a year or even microsoft exchange online but it was insistence of sticking with outlook 2003 that put me off exchange online

So is there a product anyone knows of that will enable outlook and mobile device sync?
 
I'd do the boss a proper risk assessment for sticking with Outlook 2003, which is no longer supported or updated. If he insists, make sure he signs it as it could be rather expensive and you don't want him to be able to blame you.

Assuming he sees sense, get exchange online.

Now... the Outlook 2003 mention makes me think the entire workplace may still be on Office 2003? Again risk assess it, make the case it could be rather expensive, and then decide £7.80 / user / month for Office 365 + Exchange is not actually expensive at all.
 
thanks all
yes we are a complete Office 2003 company.

well i have setup 365 for a charity i do work for (E1 no cost for the charity) and i liked it so i showed him that, but the cost was a huge no-go!
then Google was the next cheapest, i knew we didnt need google docs but was still good value at £33 a year.
that was dismissed with "surely there is something cheaper?"

i found rackspace and its ok for the money, i prefer using the webmail as are most of the staff, for our calendars and as a better feel than outlook 2003 does.

i will tell him he will have to either get used to the webmail or the purse strings have to be loosened.... a lot

he only upgraded the Server, because our software needed 64bit SQL and he had a little cry at that expense.
think i may have to get a tissue ready for him
 
Beware - I have a feeling that Outlook 2003 isn't supported with O365 for full Exchange. It will work with 2007 and above.
Click to expand...

Yeah it needs 2007 or later, I think there may be a fudge you can do but its not something I would look at. Perhaps they can work from OWA?

Did the IT company that did the migration not tell him he would loose functionality if he did not move to a new exchange box or exchange online?

Anyway, they just needed imap
Click to expand...
From what you are describing they needed more than imap.
 
Some companies which do hosted Exchange (eg Giacom aka MessageStream) offer a full Exchange mailbox for similar prices to MS. They have an option to pay an extra £1 to £2 per month for an Outlook license and you can then install 2007 (upwards).

OP - if everyone is stuck on Office 2003, are you all on XP as well?
 
the insistence to not move from office 2003 was the reason we didnt go with office 365/exchange online
when i say they needed imap, that was because at the time all i was tasked with was finding mail with 25gb mailboxes, to support shared calendaring and be compatible with office 2003... at a certain price point.
its just shared calendaring is through webmail only is the issue.

no we all have refurbished windows 7 PC's
 
This place reminds me of one of my first IT jobs. Lovely people but stingey as all hell. I've done my time doing zero-budget miracle projects. It's never cost effective and nobody ever says thank you - it's not worth the stress. It sounds like your manager is making a rod for their own back by trying to look like a hero all the time. Also it sounds like they are very stuck in their ways trying to run such antiquated versions of office in 2015. Users cannot be happy using that every day...

His requirements are unrealistic to the point that it sounds like he doesn't want to move to new software for his own benefit. "It works fine" = "It's what I'm used to, please don't make me learn anything new"
 
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