Share contacts in Outlook 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

We have a very simple 2-computer office and need to periodically update our
separate Contacts files on both of our systems so we're viewing the same
information. In other words, I need her contacts merged into mine and mine
merged into hers. Is there any way of doing this? At this point in time we're
forced to PRINT the contacts and then manually match our databases. At the
very least, is there a way of distinguishing new entries or updates by date?
 
If both computers are networked then you may want to consider our solution
http://www.tabtag.com which allows you to store shared Outlook Items in a
common set of folders (actually in a SQL database so you can get at the
information from Access or Excel etc)
 
BCM database? Could you clarify, please? I prefer Lotus Notes (my old office)
and have not been a big fan of Outlook; with this preference comes a lack of
knowledge about Outlook. I personally find it silly that you can't simply
"insert" contacts from another database into an existing database. I would
think that MS would/could make this an easy thing to do. Reading all the
posts here, it seems that I'm not the only one with this problem. Seems like
it's a significant design flaw. So any detailed help you can provide would be
useful.
 
Sorry, I seem to have missed the start of this thread. We have a small
business with 4 on-the-road users who need to share their BCM contacts
with each other and office personnel so that each can input to a common
database and have an updated copy on their laptops when they connect.
We run Small Business Server and BCM v2. How do we create a common
database? Thanks
 
It's possible but whether it would be practical or efficient is another
story. Your office users would be able to connect to eh database fairly
easily but your remote users might need to create a VPN connection and then
access the database.
I'd host the database on SBS. I'm not sure how well it fits with SQL Server
but that would be a preferred option if possible.

Don't forget that with SBS you can always access a shared folder on
Exchange - VPN or, possibly, cached mode with Exch 2003 and Outlook 2003.
 
Update on this:
I would't recommend connecting via VPN. It should work but the connection
would need to be always active to access the database (there is no cache of
it).
Also, BCM installs a separate instance of MSDE even when SQL Server is
installed. MSDE drops in performance at 8 simultaneous connections so
sharing should be restricted to that amount unless you are willing to suffer
a performance loss.
 
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