Exchange Calendar *without* Outlook

[Shelflife]

This may seem like a *very* strange request, but I'm curious if anyone has
every heard of a desktop client which will allow someone to access their
Exchange Calendar.

We're currently planning to migrate our campus to an Exchange setting.
Because of the nature of the community, this will be a lengthy transition.
The primary stakeholders in this endeavor have expressed that asking people
to run multiple calendar applications during the transition period is
unacceptable.

So we're investigating the idea of migrating the calendar first. This
would require us to have a fully functional tool which would access the
Exchange Calendar as an interim solution between the date we do a calendar
cut-over and the date we get to any given customer's Outlook application to
update their profile and migrate their PST data.

Requirements:
* Must be a desktop app, web clients were deemed not appropriate
* Can't be a reader, users must be able to create and edit meetings.

Any ideas or leads would be appreciated.

Best,
Adam

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Did a Google search or http://www.slipstick.com turn up anything?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Shelflife asked:

| This may seem like a *very* strange request, but I'm curious if
| anyone has every heard of a desktop client which will allow someone
| to access their Exchange Calendar.
|
| We're currently planning to migrate our campus to an Exchange setting.
| Because of the nature of the community, this will be a lengthy
| transition. The primary stakeholders in this endeavor have expressed
| that asking people to run multiple calendar applications during the
| transition period is unacceptable.
|
| So we're investigating the idea of migrating the calendar first.
| This would require us to have a fully functional tool which would
| access the Exchange Calendar as an interim solution between the date
| we do a calendar cut-over and the date we get to any given customer's
| Outlook application to update their profile and migrate their PST
| data.
|
| Requirements:
| * Must be a desktop app, web clients were deemed not appropriate
| * Can't be a reader, users must be able to create and edit meetings.
|
| Any ideas or leads would be appreciated.
|
| Best,
| Adam

 

[Shelflife]

Google was my first stop. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good search
string to find anything useful.

I took a brief look through slipstick, but didn't see anything useful there
either. It was mostly about DST and MS tools (and since MS wants you to use
Outlook for Exchange, I don't think I'm going to find anything there.)

 

[Brian Tillman]

This may seem like a *very* strange request, but I'm curious if
anyone has every heard of a desktop client which will allow someone
to access their Exchange Calendar.

Outlook Web Access would work. All you'd need is a web browser.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Outlook Web Access would work. All you'd need is a web browser.

From the original post:
Requirements:
* Must be a desktop app, web clients were deemed not appropriate

I thought OWA too, until I got to that point.

I've been wracking my brains trying to find one but I haven't yet. What
mail client/server is being used now?

 

[Brian Tillman]

From the original post:
Requirements:
* Must be a desktop app, web clients were deemed not appropriate

I thought OWA too, until I got to that point.

I've been wracking my brains trying to find one but I haven't yet. What
mail client/server is being used now?

I missed the original post. There's no client of which I'm aware, short of
Outlook, that will allow one to access a calendar on Exchange.

 

[Shelflife]

I missed the original post. There's no client of which I'm aware, short of

Outlook, that will allow one to access a calendar on Exchange.

Ouch.

Thanks, folks. This is definitely going to be painful then.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Ouch.

Thanks, folks. This is definitely going to be painful then.

Without knowing what your mail server solution is currently, personally, I'd
push for the following: Switch to outlook *now* and configure it to use
both your current mail server and the Exchange server. I mean, I would
couch it this way with the decision makers:

Either you have to train the users on *two* applications in two seperate
sessions (once for the 'Calendar only' application, once for Outlook) or you
train them *once* in Outlook and teach them how to use both outlook with the
current mail solution and with Exchange at the same time, let alone the
issues of having to roll out two different software packages rather than
one.

Either that, or you hire a programmer to write a custom calendaring
application for you.