SBS 2008 - Companyweb + Outlook Anywhere = Smooth

This is just too kewl:

Companyweb and Outlook Anywhere

Take a look at the content in the Outlook Reading Pane. The highlighted document in the list above it is actually in the Companyweb\Shared Documents folder back in the office.

The edit to the Word document was accomplished by opening it through Outlook 2007 that is connected back to SBS via Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTPS). We opened it in Offline Mode, and edited the file while in Offline Mode. Keep in mind that if there will be a need to edit files in Offline Mode, they should be checked out for the duration of those offline edits.

Now that we are diving into SBS 2008 installs on a larger scale, supporting SBS 2008, and along with the writing of the SBS 2008 Blueprint book, there has been a need to discover as many of the "hidden" features SBS 2008 has to offer. Given the vast number of features in the product, many can remain "hidden" for years! ;)

Outlook 2007 plus the SBS 2008 Companyweb Internal Web site certainly demonstrates a very powerful reason to upgrade. Things operate very smoothly between them.

Time savings can be another reason to consider an upgrade for a small company especially when the cost for support runs over one hundred dollars per hour. When Office 2007 is installed on a workstation in an SBS 2008 network and Outlook is fired up for the first time, it picks up the user's setup via the server.

Yes, okay, Outlook 2003 does that too. But, Outlook 2007 actually goes one step further and picks up the Outlook Anywhere settings (RPC/HTTPS) and puts them in place for us. There is at least a couple minutes of time saved, one possible post Office install step the tech can no longer forget, and thus a support call that has been avoided. It is one less step on that setup checklist.

Further Reading:

• SharePoint and Outlook – The Perfect Link

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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