Hello All,

I'm in the early stages of starting up a company with a couple of friends - we're planning on putting together client and supplier lists using Outlook (XP) contacts.

My question is - is there any way we can have a shared contacts and Journal database given we are just using home PC's on the Internet rather than just mailing vcards around?

big thanks
Ian

forgot to mention I'm based in Holland, and the other two partners are in the US, if that's relevent...

You can share contacts when you are using an exchange server, or I did find a webbased service once that did this, for the life of me can't remember it's name - worth a google search!

This document may help

http://altn.knoflach.com/MDaemon/Whi...tConnector.pdf
dont know where the downloads are tho

If you can implement an Exchange server (and VPN tunnel to it?) then you can use a public folder.

This is what my company uses and TBH it's the most useless PITA way to store contacts...

Why not use Access if cost is a consideration?

Fen

Ian,

A common problem which most businesses face esp. when they dont want to fork out for exchange to do the job! There are alternatives but they seem to cost pretty much the same as exchange itself. You can try here http://www.outlook4team.com/ which does it by sending emails around the network (bit like shared folders) which IMHO is abit messy. I am currently working on an 'OutShare' app. which pulls out all contact and calendar info using OLE which is about 50% done but due to my current workload probably wont see light of day for another couple of months :(

Good luck

Gary

Thanks guys - I'll investigate the options :)

What are the likely costs for the Exchange Server software?

Gary - drop everything else and give the app 100% focus please!

:)

How about using a dedicated contact manager? Symantec ACT is a good one and if you only have two PC's, you can get two network cards and use a cross-over cable, so you can both see each others resources!

Thanks Housequake, I'll look at the Symantec site.

Looking likely that I'll bite the bullet and use Access.

Cabling up to share resources would be handy, although they'd have to be long to stretch to US Virgin Islands :D

Use a VPN - that'll do the trick :D

Ian,

Yeah I know :) quite alot of demand for it, Its high on the list and I'll do what I can, soon as I have a beta I'll let people on here know about. By the way it will work with Outlook 7/2000/XP

Cheers

Gary

Using an Exchange server for storing and sharing contacts really is using a sledge hammer to crack a nut - agree with HOUSEQUAKE that dedicated contact management software is the way forward.

Thanks guys,
Always a tricky one - we will certainly need an integrated contacts/supplier/billing system if the business takes off as we hope, so as soon as we start moving away from a simple Outlook system and looking at spending money we need to examine any other infomation systems that we may need. I have a feeling that a simple Access database may cover our needs and be scaleable for the short-term.
Any tips on how the three of us could 'share' an Access DB over the 'net? Is that opening a fresh can of worms?
cheers
ian

Ian,

From a cost and usage point of view seems access will be just fine, you wouldnt need to do anything more than create shortcuts on each machine and perhaps set the record locking to edited record (under tools|options) to enable concurrent access. Never used it as a front end but pretty sure you can knock up some data entry forms bound to the tables.

Good Luck

Gary