Share via server, or not?

[Ian W]

We are a small business where *all* users have laptops only, and all users
travel frequently. We also have an office with a "server" that stores shared
documents. Remote connection to our LAN is via a VPN. No Exchange server - we
use an ISP & POP.

We want to share BCM 2007 contacts between the 8 of us, preferably(?)
peer-to-peer.

Q1: Do we need to do this through a server which runs a cental SQL db
against which we all sync, or can we each share our contacts out to our peers
with the understanding that synching will only happen when any two people's
laptops are on the LAN?

Q2: If we set up a central BCM db on the server, and there any BCM-related
advantages to also running our own Exchange server?

Thanks!

 

[Luther]

We are a small business where *all* users have laptops only, and all users
travel frequently. We also have an office with a "server" that stores shared
documents. Remote connection to our LAN is via a VPN. No Exchange server - we
use an ISP & POP.

We want to share BCM 2007 contacts between the 8 of us, preferably(?)
peer-to-peer.

Q1: Do we need to do this through a server which runs a cental SQL db
against which we all sync, or can we each share our contacts out to our peers
with the understanding that synching will only happen when any two people's
laptops are on the LAN?

Q2: If we set up a central BCM db on the server, and there any BCM-related
advantages to also running our own Exchange server?

Thanks!

In general, whether you choose to use Exchange as a email server for
Outlook or not, should not affect BCM's operation. BCM doesn't use
Exchange itself.

However, using Exchange may make it easier to share items (email
message, appointments) within the team. When two BCM users open an
appointment linked to a BCM contact and the appoinment stored on
Exchange, then both users will be opening the same Exchange item, and
will see each other's changes. If instead, you use a POP email server,
appointments are stored locally by Outlook and not shared. Whether
this difference is important to you depends on how much you coordinate
your workflow. If your colleagues work independently, then you won't
notice the difference between Exchange and another email service. If
your work is tightly coordinated, then definately consider using
Exchange.

With BCM, you can have a central shared database, while each laptop
has a offline BCM database. Whenever the laptop connects to the LAN
(wheteher in the office or over the VPN) BCM will sync the offline
database with the shared database. Note that BCM synchronizes BCM
entities (e.g. Business Contacts, Opportunties, Projects), but not
Outlook entities (e.g., appointments, tasks).

 

[Ian W]

In general, whether you choose to use Exchange as a email server for
Outlook or not, should not affect BCM's operation. BCM doesn't use
Exchange itself.

However, using Exchange may make it easier to share items (email
message, appointments) within the team. When two BCM users open an
appointment linked to a BCM contact and the appoinment stored on
Exchange, then both users will be opening the same Exchange item, and
will see each other's changes. If instead, you use a POP email server,
appointments are stored locally by Outlook and not shared. Whether
this difference is important to you depends on how much you coordinate
your workflow. If your colleagues work independently, then you won't
notice the difference between Exchange and another email service. If
your work is tightly coordinated, then definately consider using
Exchange.

With BCM, you can have a central shared database, while each laptop
has a offline BCM database. Whenever the laptop connects to the LAN
(wheteher in the office or over the VPN) BCM will sync the offline
database with the shared database. Note that BCM synchronizes BCM
entities (e.g. Business Contacts, Opportunties, Projects), but not
Outlook entities (e.g., appointments, tasks).

Thank you Luther, that was helpful. One remaining question (to anyone):

Is the peer-to-peer BCM syncing scenario I described above (i.e. no central
server with the BCM db) a viable option for our situation?

Many thanks,
Ian

 

[Luther]

Thank you Luther, that was helpful.  One remaining question (to anyone):

Is the peer-to-peer BCM syncing scenario I described above (i.e. no central
server with the BCM db) a viable option for our situation?

Many thanks,
Ian- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Some people on this forum have reported doing peer-to-peer, but unlike
the shared database based syncing you have to do it manually: export
all the entities that have changed since the last sync, mail the
export file to the peers, and then import the files the peers send
you, with the import merge option.