Partial migration from local Outlook to Exchange Server?

[Lee]

Hello

I am a freelance consultant with a number of clients. Many of these have
supplied me with email accounts so I appear to be from their organisation
when dealing with third parties. In all, I have some 20 POP accounts running
continuously and local mail filters move incoming mail into the relevent
client's folder.

One of my biggest clients now wants all staff and consultants to move across
onto a hosted exchange server so we can share contacts, calendars and so
on - all of which makes a lot of sense.

The exchange server hosting company has sent through documents to assist in
migration but all these are aimed at internal staff members and basically
involves a process as follows:
- backing up local .pst file
- clicking on an autoconfiguration file for the new exchange server
- syncing all data from the .pst file to the new exchange system

Now, I have some issues with this:
I do not want *all* my data/emails/tasks etc to be moved across to the new
server.
I only want contacts relevant to that client to enter the hosted contacts
database.
I only want calendar appointments relevant to that client to be visible on
the exchange server with all other appointments visible purely as
"free/busy" information.

I am sure that I cannot be the first person to have been in this situation
and that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have probably already thought
this one through. I have googled extensively but cannot quite put my finger
on what I should be doing and, perhaps more importantly, in what order.

Could anybody please point me in the right direction?

Thank you.

Lee

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am a freelance consultant with a number of clients. Many of these
have supplied me with email accounts so I appear to be from their
organisation when dealing with third parties. In all, I have some 20
POP accounts running continuously and local mail filters move
incoming mail into the relevent client's folder.

One of my biggest clients now wants all staff and consultants to move
across onto a hosted exchange server so we can share contacts,
calendars and so on - all of which makes a lot of sense.

The exchange server hosting company has sent through documents to
assist in migration but all these are aimed at internal staff members
and basically involves a process as follows:
- backing up local .pst file
- clicking on an autoconfiguration file for the new exchange server
- syncing all data from the .pst file to the new exchange system

Now, I have some issues with this:
I do not want *all* my data/emails/tasks etc to be moved across to
the new server.
I only want contacts relevant to that client to enter the hosted
contacts database.
I only want calendar appointments relevant to that client to be
visible on the exchange server with all other appointments visible
purely as "free/busy" information.

YOu have several things you can do. The first is to create an Exchange
account. You'll need VPN access to the Exchange server or use RPC over HTTP
if it's configured that way. This won't affect your existing PSTs in any
way if you specify the Exchange server as your delivery location. You can
create another PST and copy infomration to it from the server if you wish to
keep a local copy as well. Alternatively, you can create a new PST and make
it your delivery locaton. WHen connected to the Exchange server, all of the
Exchange data will be downloaded to that PST. You can still use rules to
move things around as they come in. If you create calendar data, it will
get created in the PST's Calendar folder by default, but you can always copy
it to the Exchange Calendar so that people can see your free/busy
information.

Exchange can also act as an IMAP or POP server, if the admins have enabled
it. As an IMAP or POP server, however, you won't have access to calendar
information.

 

[Lee]

YOu have several things you can do. The first is to create an Exchange
account. You'll need VPN access to the Exchange server or use RPC over
HTTP if it's configured that way. This won't affect your existing PSTs in
any way if you specify the Exchange server as your delivery location. You
can create another PST and copy infomration to it from the server if you
wish to keep a local copy as well. Alternatively, you can create a new
PST and make it your delivery locaton. WHen connected to the Exchange
server, all of the Exchange data will be downloaded to that PST. You can
still use rules to move things around as they come in. If you create
calendar data, it will get created in the PST's Calendar folder by
default, but you can always copy it to the Exchange Calendar so that
people can see your free/busy information.

Exchange can also act as an IMAP or POP server, if the admins have enabled
it. As an IMAP or POP server, however, you won't have access to calendar
information.
--

Brian

Thank you for covering the options for me. I think I am getting there.

I have been reading up about uploading free/busy info to the web. Do you
know anything about this? Am I right in thinking that I can keep my main
calendar within my own local PST file and then upload the free/busy info to
a website. I then need to communicate the free/busy info to my client to
use for scheduling.

L

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have been reading up about uploading free/busy info to the web. Do
you know anything about this? Am I right in thinking that I can keep
my main calendar within my own local PST file and then upload the
free/busy info to a website. I then need to communicate the
free/busy info to my client to use for scheduling.

Alas, I'm unfamiliar with this.

 

[Lee]

Alas, I'm unfamiliar with this.

OK. Thanks for responding.