Mad Moe
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Registered: 14th Jun 01
Location: Northumberland
User status: Offline
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We have in our office a small server/share drive that we would that we all can gain access to via a network cable or Wifi and wondered what would be the best way for our secretary to be able to access our individual diaries to add appointments and have one address book that she could update and everyone could access. I know this is possible having had these facilities in larger organisations I have worked for however we a relatively small firm with a limited IT budget.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Daniel_Corsa
Premium Member
Registered: 21st Apr 04
Location: Wigton, Cumbria
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What you using to provide e-mail?! Guessing being a small business not running exchange.
SBS?
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VrsTurbo
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jun 10
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Ask Andrew.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Office 365 (ie: hosted Exchange) or SBS 2008/2011 (SBS 2012 doesn't exist and 2012 Essentials doesn't include Exchange) and run Exchange internally (personally wouldn't opt for this considering the cost of Office 365). Alternatively there's Google Apps/Business but integration is a little 'bodgy' and mailboxes from Office 365 are a quid cheaper.
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
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quote:
Originally posted by VrsTurbo
Ask Andrew.
I refuse to try and help anyone on this forum because there are too many cunts on here.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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O365 subscriptions seem like the way to go for you.
No internal infrastructure requirements (other than an internet connection) and you get fully hosted exchange functionality such as address book, calendar sharing and you can even pay for stuff like hosted sharepoint and instant messaging.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/small-business-home.aspx
It's a few quid per month, per user.
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JoshSRi
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Registered: 6th Jul 10
Location: York
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We use this at work: http://www.codetwo.com/public-folders/
Really easy to use, it does cost though.
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Mad Moe
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Registered: 14th Jun 01
Location: Northumberland
User status: Offline
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Cheers for the input lads, a friend of mine mentioned something about need SBS and Exchange however from the very brief look at Office 365 it seems ideal for what we're after
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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trying to tempt any small business who doesn't spend money on IT to spend money (let alone a monthly subscription to MS) isn't an easy task.
Office 365 is the way forward.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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It depends on what the business does. Lots of small businesses will also have some other old bit of software they use or they need file storage locally(and various other reasons), in which case SBS is still the best bet.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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A lot of pros and cons John.
We started with SBS, but if the office is really that small, it may be more cost effective to use hosted services.
No need to worry about cals, server backups, maintenance etc, and with office 365 the office software is also included.
Anymore than a handful of people and I'd be considering SBS
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
.... and with office 365 the office software is also included.
Not sure 'renting' Office is that cost effective considering retail/oem copies can be had at reasonable prices. Although the hosted mailboxes is about cheapest (at £2.60 per user p/m) i've seen in the UK.
[Edited on 25-02-2013 by Dom]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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There are pro's and cons for each of course, office 365 just isn't the amazing one size fits all solution it maybe should be.
The actual release of the 2013 version is a complete mess as well, especially for partners.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Google Apps and Sharepoint Essentials is what I'm using these days  All nice and freee
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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I think as an super user in Google Apps you can add appointments to others' calendars
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Google apps not free for new users now, although at the prices they charge it may as well be.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Oh shit it's not anymore is it, I must have caught the boat just before they started charing, I've got one company on a 50 user account for free and a small one on a 10 user account also for free
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by Bart
.... and with office 365 the office software is also included.
Not sure 'renting' Office is that cost effective considering retail/oem copies can be had at reasonable prices. Although the hosted mailboxes is about cheapest (at £2.60 per user p/m) i've seen in the UK.
[Edited on 25-02-2013 by Dom]
We're currently "renting" office using O365 E3 licenses for 1100 users and it's cheaper than the equivelant volume license was for Office.
The cloud based mailboxes we get are a bonus, and currently in use for about 30 users - everyone else being on Exchange.
Sharepoint is slowly starting to take off too, which we get included with the E3 license model.
I think it's safe to say volume licensing will soon be a thing of the past for client based software, and everything will be subscription based.
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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Office 365 is the answer. No need to spend money on new server hardware, maintenance, upgrades etc. you just pay a fixed price per mailbox. I think the E3 plan comes with Office as well, however bear in mind the Office they include is for Windows only.
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Mad Moe
Member
Registered: 14th Jun 01
Location: Northumberland
User status: Offline
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Just to give you guys a little bit more infromation currently there is myself and a fellow Director, two Contracts Managers and an Estimator/Surveyor who's contacts and diaries would like to be able to view/sync and all machines are currently running Office Professional 2010
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Kyle T
quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by Bart
.... and with office 365 the office software is also included.
Not sure 'renting' Office is that cost effective considering retail/oem copies can be had at reasonable prices. Although the hosted mailboxes is about cheapest (at £2.60 per user p/m) i've seen in the UK.
[Edited on 25-02-2013 by Dom]
We're currently "renting" office using O365 E3 licenses for 1100 users and it's cheaper than the equivalent volume license was for Office.
Was talking from a Soho/small business point of view where it's many years between Office upgrades therefore making subscribing not very cost-effective. As you say though, against volume licensing i can see there being fairly big savings.
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