Another feature of the CorporateTime Outlook Connector is that it
connects Outlook to IMAP4 servers -- a feature Microsoft left out of
Outlook's Corporate/Workgroup mode. CS&T requires both an IMAP4
server and an LDAP server for use with CorporateTime Server, but you
can pick any server -- you're not limited to one vendor. This makes
it possible -- for the first time, to my knowledge -- to pick mail,
address and calendar servers from different vendors and have them
all work with Outlook. I have not seen how the pricing compares to
Exchange Server, though. CorporateTime runs on several different
server operating systems and offers a wide variety of clients -- the
Outlook MAPI provider is just the newest -- so it may be a very
appealing option in an organization with many different client
platforms or a desire to have a choice of server operating systems.
There are some significant limitations in this first release, so
you'll want to be sure to read the product brochure at
http://www.steltor.com/pdfs/steltor_outlookconnector.pdf.
Automatic one-way sync
The second intriguing product is Outlook Synchronizer 2000 (http://www.completesoftware.dk/Synchronizer2000/Synchronizer.htm).
I think the "synchronizer" part of the name is a trifle
misleading, because this product does not offer bi-directional
synchronization between two different data sources. It does,
however, fill a gap that's been missing in our Outlook toolkit -- an
easy way to publish data in one direction from one folder to
another, copying only changed items. It works both on demand and
automatically at scheduled intervals. You can set it to work with a
single user's folders or, in an Exchange Server environment with
appropriate permissions, with the folders from several users'
mailboxes.
One application would be to publish data from several users'
Calendar folders into a group calendar folder in Public Folders.
Yes, you'll want to establish some consistent guidelines to tell the
different users' appointments apart, but this tool could make that
group calendar an easy chore.
Another use might be to make a quick backup of your Contacts data
in a folder in a separate PST file. Since this tool copies only
changed items, the backup would take just seconds.
Outlook Synchronizer 2000 does not do bi-directional
field-by-field synchronization, but it's worth looking into if you
need to collate Outlook data from several folders on a regular basis
or you want to try a different method of backing up particular
folders.
Unix client for Exchange Server
And number three on our list? Yes, there is a Unix client for
Exchange Server, and its name is not Outlook Web Access. It's NEXOR
Despatch (http://www.nexor.com/).
NEXOR has had a military-grade client out for some time now, but
this new one is a Unix client for general use, with the "look
and feel" of Outlook.
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