[HLUG] Company moving to OSS blog

[Andrew Hodgson]

Hi Julian,

Thanks for this blog - it's really interesting.

I have recently completed a year long task in migrating 200 users from
Outlook to Scalix - a Linux based alternative to Exchange, like Zimbra,
and can empathise with the comments made in the blog.

We did look at Zimbra at the time, but the Outlook 2000 migration issue
was quite big for us at the time, plus Scalix offered much tighter
integration with Outlook back then - I believe Zimbra has caught up now,
though I still prefer the Scalix web interface, and I prefer the way
that Scalix uses the philosophy of using the OS packages to perform the
tasks, rather than having to install Zimbra alternatives, then wait on
Zimbra for security updates.

Users are now using the system as though they were connected to
Exchange, and people don't realise that there is a completely different
system behind the scenes doing the work.  They are now able to use
calendaring in Outlook, as well as performing the server side rules that
Exchange users are used to, and having full web access to email. 

On a system administration side, it means a lot less system
administration of the server (I do more administration on this 10 user
Exchange system at home than I do on the 200 user system at work), other
than the initial administration and tailoring of scripts to meet your
requirements.  We didn't have to upgrade our Active Directory, and all
the account management and monitoring of queues etc is done through a
web based GUI.

However, one major issue we are finding, and this seems to happen with
any client which uses its own MAPI connecter into Outlook, is that some
third-party applications have real issues in speaking direct to Outlook
through the connecter - such applications as CRM packages that integrate
with Outlook, and some syncing software - specifically Blackberry
Desktop.  In the case of the CRM package, as soon as I mentioned the
fact we were using the Scalix server, they didn't want to know, saying
that it would not be supported with anything other than Outlook
connecting via POP/IMAP or Exchange.

Both Zimbra and Scalix are still waiting for Outlook 2007 support,
however, the competition in alternative email servers is very strong at
the moment, which can only be a good thing.

Only time will tell if we end up migrating back because of these issues
- I sincerely hope not, but can see there being arguments for moving
back in the future - though as I say, both Scalix and Zimbra are really
hotting up, and this is only a good thing.  


Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: herefordshire-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk
[mailto:herefordshire-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Julian
Robbins
Sent: 21 June 2007 23:12
To: Herefordshire Linux Users Group.
Subject: [HLUG] Company moving to OSS blog

Hi

At the meeting last night I mentioned a blog that the MD of a Staffs 
company was keeping as he's converting the whole of his label printing 
company to Linux as he has had enough of Windows.

Luckily he's got some good advice, and spoken to Open Advantage and an 
Open Source company called Senokian, who are doing the hard work on the 
server side.

The blog is an interesting read. I've chatted to Adrian briefly a couple

of times, and he's doing this for real.


www.selfadhesivelabels.com/blog

Cheers

Julian

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