activesync 1 calendar into multiple iPhones on Exchange 2007

[ITGuyLA]

Dear Experts,

Please advise on the best way how to resolve the following technical issue.

Current Setup: A small company consists of 2 designers and 1 secretary. All of them have hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 e-mail accounts, and Outlook 2007 on each computer. Each of the designers has an iPhone linked to their MS Exchange accounts. Using Outlook 2007 on her computer, a secretary inputs appointments and contacts into one calendar in the Public Folders. From there this information is being replicated into personal calendars of each of the designers (using third party software called Add2Exchange), and from their personal calendars it is being pushed by activesync to their iPhones.

The problem with this setup is that Add2Exchange service periodically hangs, and the whole thing stops working until it (Add2Exchange service) is restarted - the exchange hosting company says that company that made Add2Exchange does not release anymore fixes and thus there is no way to fix this issue other than manual restarts each time. Obviously this frustrates both designers very much.

Can you recommend a different, more stable way to achieve this goal of having 1 calendar being pushed into multiple iPhones? I was exploring sharepoint options, but am not sure if it is possible to synchronize 1 sharepoint calendar to multiple iPhones. Thank you in advance!

 

[mspain]

Would it not be possible to just have the secretary use the "Invite Attendees" option when adding the appointment to the public calendar? Then an appointment request would be sent off to each designer, they could accept it, and it would be added to their calendars.

Just my $0.02

 

[58sniper]

mspain is right. If it's appointments, the secretary should e inviting the two designers. It will then appear in their calendar. No need for Public Folders.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[ITGuyLA]

mspain,

The designers don't want to reply to each request, this has to be done without any action from their side.

One option is that designers could share their private calendars with the secretary, but then she would have to do double work adding the same appointments to 2 calendars. Add2Exchange is a good solution... when it works

 

[ITGuyLA]

This diagram should clarify it

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/2804/sharingdiagram.png

 

[mspain]

With the invites, they don't have to reply though. They can just click Accept. If you really don't want them to have to do anything, what about turning on Auto-Accept for meeting invitations?

 

[ITGuyLA]

Here is a solution that was suggested to me by another IT guy, at a different forum. What do you think, could this be a feasible alternative?

----------------------
Hello,

Your solution would be to transition away from Public Folders and setup the company calendar as an Exchange resource account which will be used for calendaring/scheduling as per your current process.

As the company calendar account. You then set your delegate forwarding for meeting appointments, you'll add the following configuration per each team member. You would do this thru your Outlook 2003/2007 clients.

Tools -> Options -> Delegates
* Calendar - Reviewer/Editor/Author ;
Select the tick box underneath the Calendar option where it says "Delegate recieves copies of meeting-related messages sent to me"

This will allow your designers to move,add and change calendar appointments of the Company Calendar. This would be visible in their personal calendaring as its essentially forwarding to the delegates mailboxes.

Enjoy
Dan

 

[58sniper]

Or just set the designers to auto accept, as earlier mentioned.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/