I have been playing ‘exchange guy’ for a couple of months now and I think I now understand why corporate is in love with Exchange.
I am still learning the ins and outs of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and I have a long way to go.
But the ability to share calendars, with full permissions to the end users, and the idea of public folders has got to be a corporate wet dream..
I have used shared calendar systems before (Oracle comes to mind) and Exchange has it beat because of the integration with the rest of the collaboration that is needed in the corporation. By allowing other users (secretaries, whomever) the ability to create entries, while still allowing coworkers the ability to read certain types of entries – wow, that is tres cool!
But the big winner for me has to be public folders. Create a folder, tie an email address to it, set permissions allowing specific
the ability to read, write, auhor, or block them – then tie an email address to said folder and subscribe it to a mailing list. Now everyone can be involved but you do not need to have a list exploder (mailing list) internally just to keep specific items in the public (or so) eye of multiple users. This would save a TON of space for many corporations, especially those that have many internal mailing lists between different departments and within said departments.
Now I just need to get my users to look at it.This will *not* replace mutt as my MUA (mail user agent) of choice, nor will it replace Postfix as my MTA (mail transport agent) of choice, but it will help me work with my employees and coworkers more efficiently.
Now, before someone hops in here and says that OpenSource software
can do – let me explain my position.I don’t need to spend a ton of time working, implementing, patching, and maintaining a bunch of OpenSource packages for my internal (and in essence, corporate) email. In fact, I need to use the right tool for the job, and until I see something as slick as Exchange (via Outlook for those that still use Windows for their OS of choice, or Outlook Web Access for those of us who do not) in terms of integration..well, I’ll just pick this tool as I can’t choose any other tool that will do as well for what I need to get done.
Comment away! I look forward to it.