SBS, BCM, OneNote and Exchange

[Chris]

I am runnig a dedicated Small business server with echange. I have five
employees who are running outlook, one of which requires mobility. Business
Contact Manager with OneNote looks like the right combination of small CRM
with document storage. What I don't understand is how to pull it all together
and what to install where.

My thoughts are (and I need some confirmation and/or correction before I
start building):

Exchange sits on the SB Server,
Outlook accesses mail from the SB Server
BCM is installed on each of the client workstations.
On ONE of the machines I create the BCM database and all other
workstatations access this database.
BCM is NOT installed on the SB Server.
This means that I now have to have two machines on power 24/7. The SBS has
the mail database and a workstation has the BCM database. My preference is to
have the BCM database sit on on the server, but is this possible? (perhaps in
a directory on the server?). The server is our main machine, so its the one
with power protection, UPS, daily backups etc. I try to keep all the
information off the workstations as much as possible.

Presently we store OneNote files on the server with a mapped network drive
for each client workstation. Is a SharePoint server a better option,
particulary if we want to access the information from offsite (on a another
computer so that I don't have to drag a notebook home with me each night).

Thanks for your assistance, much appreciated.

 

[Luther]

I am runnig a dedicated Small business server with echange. I have five
employees who are running outlook, one of which requires mobility. Business
Contact Manager with OneNote looks like the right combination of small CRM
with document storage. What I don't understand is how to pull it all together
and what to install where.

My thoughts are (and I need some confirmation and/or correction before I
start building):

Exchange sits on the SB Server,
Outlook accesses mail from the SB Server
BCM is installed on each of the client workstations.
On ONE of the machines I create the BCM database and all other
workstatations access this database.
BCM is NOT installed on the SB Server.
This means that I now have to have two machines on power 24/7. The SBS has
the mail database and a workstation has the BCM database. My preference isto
have the BCM database sit on on the server, but is this possible? (perhapsin
a directory on the server?). The server is our main machine, so its the one
with power protection, UPS, daily backups etc. I try to keep all the
information off the workstations as much as possible.

Presently we store OneNote files on the server with a mapped network drive
for each client workstation. Is a SharePoint server a better option,
particulary if we want to access the information from offsite (on a another
computer so that I don't have to drag a notebook home with me each night).

Thanks for your assistance, much appreciated.

You can install the BCM database on the server using the Database
Tool:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bcm/archive/2007/03/30/database-tool-released.aspx

Conceptually, BCM does not use folder shares like OneNote. BCM talks
to a database service (sqlserver.exe) on the server machine, and sql
accesses the actual database file.

Your mobile employee should look at the offline feature in BCM,
that'll let him take a snapshot of the shared database on her laptop
and sync changes whenever the laptop can connect to the shared BCM
database.

 

[Chris]

Hi Luther,

Thanks for your assistance. I think that you have given me more technical
credit then I deserve as I am not fully understanding your answer. My
understanding of what you have said is:

I can install (using the link you gave) the BCM database onto the server.
This way I have one machine as my small business server that runs Exchange,
file server and BCM.

I would then point all my client machines (all running outlook with BCM
installed) to the BCM database on my server machine. For those staff running
notebooks then can have their outlook/BCM system synch and therefore have
offline access.

Onenote would sit on the main server in a name directory.

Thanks again for your assistance.