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Exchange Messaging Outlook Volume6, Number 23

Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 6, No. 23, 13 Mar 2002, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook.

Today's highlights:
  • Microsoft plans CRM application
  • Net Folders for Outlook 2002
  • More sharing tools
  • How to get Outlook 2002 for Exchange 2000 (UPDATE)
  • Exchange documentation: Good or bad?
  • Microsoft Office Solutions Conference

Microsoft plans CRM application

A new application, Microsoft Customer Relationship Management, is due for release in late 2002 with two modules -- sales and customer services for managing interactions with customers. It will support both web and Outlook interfaces and integrate with Microsoft Great Plains back office data. This will no doubt tighten the market even more for the three dozen existing CRM applications with Outlook hooks; Purple Solutions has already thrown in the towel.

For more information on Microsoft's plans, see http://www.greatplains.com/news/document.asp?Link=newsitems/mscrm.htm

Net Folders for Outlook 2002

Many users who upgrade from Outlook 98 or 2000 to Outlook 2002 are surprised to find that Microsoft removed the Net Folders feature from the latest version. Net Folders was notoriously unreliable, but provided a built-in way for users to share Outlook data automatically through special mail messages.

A new product, 4Team for MS Outlook (http://www.outlook4team.com/), adds Net Folders-like capabilities to Outlook 2002, plus an interface reminiscent of Team Folders or SharePoint Team Services. Like Net Folders, 4Team uses mail messages for data exchange, but with at least a couple of key differences: Updates are sent immediately, rather than on a schedule, and the update messages use a simpler format than Net Folders. One annoyance that we found in our brief testing is that 4Team triggers the address book access security prompt. This was surprising, considering that the program uses the Redemption library (http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/) to avoid a security prompt when it sends messages. Perhaps they can take care of that in a future revision.

Note that 4Team is for Outlook 2002 only. It's a full replacement for Net Folders, not a way to integrate Outlook 2002 into an existing Outlook 98/2000 Net Folders sharing scheme.

More sharing tools

Sharing Outlook data without Exchange Server continues to be a very hot topic. For calendars, the next version of Meetingmaker, version 7.1, will include synchronization with Outlook, Pocket PC, and BlackBerry devices using the Intellisync engine from Pumatech. See http://www.meetingmaker.com/news/pumatech.cfm for the announcement.

In response to our Outlook Sharing via IMAP article in the last EMO (http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2002/up020213.htm), we heard from FastMail (http://www.fastmail.fm) about their free and low-cost IMAP accounts. Because FastMail relies on the Cyrus IMAP server, it supports InsightConnector (http://www.bynari.net) for sharing all kinds of Outlook data via IMAP. Bynari is also now providing a free Linux IMAP server as part of their effort to get people to try InsightConnector; the download is at http://www.bynari.net/downloads.html.

How to get Outlook 2002 for Exchange 2000 (UPDATE)

Microsoft has confirmed that the CD set for Exchange 2000 SP2 (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2000/sp2/default.asp) includes Outlook 2002. That gives you another option for getting Outlook to install for use with your Exchange 2000 CALs. You'll apparently still need to call for a volume license key for Outlook 2002; for details, see http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2002/howtoorder.htm.

Exchange documentation: Good or bad?

Microsoft has opened a new feedback channel for Exchange documentation. You can send your comments by clicking on this address: mailto:exchdocs@microsoft.com. They're interested in everything from inaccuracies in existing docs to your favorite sources of Exchange information -- whether you get assistance via Help, from books, from white papers, via TechNet, etc.

The feedback address was publicized yesterday during a TechNet chat on Exchange documentation, in which the Microsoft participants revealed that more white papers and other technical resources are in the works. In a planned reorganization, they'll try to ensure a cleaner separation between marketing and technical resources. We put in our two cents' worth on our pet peeves -- content that moves without redirects (Microsoft said they'll try harder this time.) and long URLs that get broken when you try to send them in text messages to colleagues.

Microsoft doesn't always publicize these TechNet Chats very well, but they are great opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback, sometimes at the highest levels. For example, the next chat will take place tomorrow, March 14, at 4:30 Eastern time (21:30 GMT) with Brian Valentine, senior vice president of the Windows division at Microsoft. To participate or to check the rest of the chat schedule, browse the listings at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itcommunity/chats/default.asp

Microsoft Office Solutions Conference

The Microsoft Office Solutions Conference May 14-18 in Palm Springs, CA, is a great opportunity this year to get practical information on a broad range of programming and other issues related to Outlook, Exchange, SharePoint Portal Server, and the full range of Office applications. Sessions that I and other developers will be giving include:

Sue Mosher (Turtleflock, LLC/Slipstick Systems)
Deploying Microsoft Outlook 2002
Top Issues for Outlook Forms Developers
XML in Action: Customizing Outlook 2002 Views

Randy Byrne (Micro Eye)
A Developer's Guide to the Outlook E-mail Security Update
Extending Outlook with COM Add-ins
Integrating Outlook with SharePoint Portal Server

Tom Rizzo (Microsoft)
Building Exchange Solutions Using .NET
Advanced Topics for Exchange and SPS

John Durant (Architects IT)
Customizing Portal Interaction with PKMCDO
Developing Digital Dashboards for SharePoint Portal Server and Office XP

Alex Reich (loudENERGY)
Email & Fax with Mail Merging Using Word VBA

John Wallace (Plural)
Finding Information in SharePoint Using Office XP Smart Tags
Building an Employee Directory for Your SharePoint Portal

The Office conference runs concurrently with the Asp.net and XML Web Services Solutions Conference at the same location; one registration gets you into both conferences. If you register by March 21, you can save $200. For more information, see http://www.msofficemag.net/Events/MOSC2002/.

More Information

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Updated Jun 15 2011

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