What is GroupOutlook ?

GroupOutlook from Amarillo Software allows you to easily and affordably share Outlook calendars, contacts, e-mail, tasks, journals and notes without Exchange Server.

GroupOutlook works with a mix of Outlook 2000, 2003, XP and 2007 clients.

GroupOutlook allows the users of Outlook within your team to easily share Outlook information both within the office environment or anywhere in the world that they have Internet Access - this is all done without the need to use Exchange Server. Outlook users can share all of their personal folders including email. So, tasks, calendar, journals, contacts, mail and notes can be shared.  However, if you only want to share one of your folders that is fine too - you can share as much or as little with the people you choose.  You can also make changes to your local data when you are not connected to the Internet and synchronize when you next have access to the server.

Public Folders

In addition to the personal folders, GroupOutlook allows Public Folders such as Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Tasks, Journals and Mail to be created. These public folders are incredibly powerful and have numerous uses, eg: a shared contact folder acts as an incredibly efficient central address book, a shared calendar for resources like a conference room simplifies room booking. You can have an unlimited number of public folders within GroupOutlook and there is full access right control, so you can limit who can see the data, who can post data, who can edit it and who can delete it.

 

Group Calendars

As well as these Public Folders, GroupOutlook easily allows the creation of GroupCalendars - so that you can see on one Outlook view the Calendars of the members of a group. Again there is full access control and an unlimited number of groups available. Public Folders provided by GroupOutlook are better than any calendar offered by any version of Exchange including 2007.

 

Why Choose GroupOutlook ?

A good question, and one that we are sure you always ask when evaluating new software products. Well there are many reasons such as the fact that there is virtually no training required for end users, you really just need to let them know where the shared folders appear within their Outlook. The installation process is simple.  The technology that GroupOutlook uses is established and uses standard protocols. Put simply we believe that GroupOutlook offers the best feature set and it really is the Intelligent way to share Outlook data. Don't believe us, download GroupOutlook now and try it out for yourself.

 

Why look for an Exchange Alternative ?

Exchange requires expertize to install, configure and maintain. If you have a dedicated IT department staffed by MCSE qualified gurus that live and breathe Microsoft Exchange Collaboration systems then you are probably very well looked after - if you don't then you should consider a simpler solution. GroupOutlook is cheaper, easier to install, easier to manage and allows you to concentrate on using the power of the shared data rather than coaxing the system to work.

Some of our most technically aware sites do infact employ MCSE qualified staff - but these organizations have realized that there is a solution that suits their organization better.

All of our support staff are MCSE certified and have worked in organizations running Exchange.

GroupOutlook allows users to share: email, tasks, calendar, contacts, notes and public folders. This is centrally configured and the end user continues to use the email tool they are comfortable with - Outlook.

GroupOutlook Architecture

GroupOutlook runs as a web service on IIS 5, IIS 6, IIS7 or PWS. It is recommended that the Operating System for the web service is:

• Windows 2008 server
• Windows 2003 server
• Windows 2000 server
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP professional (XP Home cannot be used for the server as it can not run IIS)
• Vista Home
• Vista Ultimate
• Windows 7

Administrative Console

This is a windows application that can connect to the web service from any machine on the LAN or over the Internet (dependent upon security permissions). The Administrative Console allows the creation / editing of GroupOutlook Users and Public Folders and the full control of Access Rights. The fact that GroupOutlook can be administered across the Internet means that it is possible to easily manage remote locations without the need for external software.

Outlook Addin

The GroupOutlook Addin for Outlook is easily deployed to users and is a very small application that runs seamlessly within Outlook. The GroupOutlook Outlook Addin connects to the service from wherever the user is, either on the LAN or across the Internet. When the user does not have access to the GroupOutlook web service the data is still available and changes may be added in the offline state and synchronized as soon as the service is available again. All versions of Outlook after and including Outlook 2000 are supported. An environment of mixed versions of Outlook is supported including Outlook 2007.

• GroupOutlook runs as a web service and can be connected to via the LAN or internet. SSL can be used to secure the communication.
• Low system requirements
• Can run with mixed versions of Outlook - Outlook 2000 and above
• Highly Scalable
• Secure
• Proven Technology
• Uses Internet standard protocols and not custom services. The benefit of this is that when you upgrade your firewall or upgrade to newer versions of Windows, there are no unexpected issues.