Outlook 2003 and Sharepoint

[Liz]

I am working on a large multicenter project with three other people in a
large academic setting. We have Outlook and Access 2003 on our computers. In
addition, we have a Sharepoint website that is hosted by a third party. We
have a large list of contacts that are devided into various committees and
subgroups, and we are running into challenges maintaining the contact lists
for communication. I have a couple of questions...

At this point, we do not know of a way to link the contact information in
our Access database with our Outlook contacts and distribution lists. Is that
possible?

We have tried creating Outlook distribution lists on the global directory
with limited permissions as a means for members of our group to have access
to the lists for communications, but this requires negotiating with our IT
group to update the list. As our contact list is dynamic and there are
frequent changes, this has proven ineffective. Is there a way to share
contacts that allows others to send mail to shared distribution lists? We
have been successful in sending mail to shared contacts, but the distribution
lists will not work.

Is it possible to maintain the contact list on Sharepoint in a way that
would maintain the distribution lists?

If not, do you have any suggestions on how we could integrate these 3
Microsoft products in a way that we are not having to update and maintain 3
separate lists of contact information?

Thanks!