Need some advice

[Guest Brad]

Hello All,

 

I need advice on the best path to take.

 

Here is our current situation. My client is a franchise of a building

maintenance company. We are located in Cincinnati and the corporate office

is in Kansas City. For the last 3 years my client’s network has been

completely separated from corporate and operating just fine. We are running

Windows Server 2003 as a PDC, with AD, DNS, DHCP and file and print sharing.

The office consists of 7 Client PC’s and 3 Printers. It does not have

Exchange.

 

My Client is upgrading their CRM tool to Microsoft’s CRM package that

integrates into Outlook that is hosted on corporate’s server. So, we have

setup our Watchguard box to create a VPN tunnel between Cincinnati and Kansas

City. Corporate has been having a hard time getting it to work properly.

Microsoft has looked into the problem (not sure what the problem is, I’ve

been hands off with this project) and they said that our client PC’s need to

be tied into Exchange.

 

So here is where I need advice.

 

Option 1 – Purchase Exchange Server and install onto current Server – This

is very expensive for the size of my network.

 

Option 2 – Purchase Small Business Server 2003 Upgrade and upgrade the

current Server. Pretty cost effective especially compared to buying just

Exchange, plus it’ll add additional functionality.

 

Option 3 – Would be to have users log into the corporate domain in Kansas

City to tie into their Exchange and get all of the login scripts, etc…

 

I’m not too thrilled about Option 3 but I don’t know what the

issues/ramifications would be. I feel that option 3 could take my client’s

network out of my hands and would have to rely on Corporate to much.

 

So my question is what option would be for us to take – trying to balance

short term cost, long term cost, time and energy to manage and fewest

problems.

 

Thank you for any advice you all may give.

[Guest Ryan Hanisco]

RE: Need some advice

 

Hi Brad,

 

Option one doesn't seem to be in your best interest.

 

With Option two, this should work, but from an overall corporate standpoint

this will create headaches in the future if there is the possibility that

they will have to merge into the corporate environment. This will also raise

their support costs and the complexity that is being run at the small office.

If you do go with this option, have a look at the following FAQ for

important information about making CRM work with SBS:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/faq/bizsolutions.mspx

 

Option three is probably the "best" solution if their central IT can support

them effectively. This would really simplify a lot of things and let them

better integrate across the board. It does concern me that there might be

some issues with the VPN and that they have been unable to get it to work,

though if you are trying to do it without a tie to Exchange, I can understand

the complexity as that puts you more into a hosting paradigm. Don't let this

solution scare you, as I don't think this would be working yourself out of a

job as there is plenty to support.

--

Ryan Hanisco

MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, Project+

http://www.techsterity.com

Chicago, IL

 

Remember: Marking helpful answers helps everyone find the info they need

quickly.

 

 

"Brad" wrote:

> Hello All,

>

> I need advice on the best path to take.

>

> Here is our current situation. My client is a franchise of a building

> maintenance company. We are located in Cincinnati and the corporate office

> is in Kansas City. For the last 3 years my client’s network has been

> completely separated from corporate and operating just fine. We are running

> Windows Server 2003 as a PDC, with AD, DNS, DHCP and file and print sharing.

> The office consists of 7 Client PC’s and 3 Printers. It does not have

> Exchange.

>

> My Client is upgrading their CRM tool to Microsoft’s CRM package that

> integrates into Outlook that is hosted on corporate’s server. So, we have

> setup our Watchguard box to create a VPN tunnel between Cincinnati and Kansas

> City. Corporate has been having a hard time getting it to work properly.

> Microsoft has looked into the problem (not sure what the problem is, I’ve

> been hands off with this project) and they said that our client PC’s need to

> be tied into Exchange.

>

> So here is where I need advice.

>

> Option 1 – Purchase Exchange Server and install onto current Server – This

> is very expensive for the size of my network.

>

> Option 2 – Purchase Small Business Server 2003 Upgrade and upgrade the

> current Server. Pretty cost effective especially compared to buying just

> Exchange, plus it’ll add additional functionality.

>

> Option 3 – Would be to have users log into the corporate domain in Kansas

> City to tie into their Exchange and get all of the login scripts, etc…

>

> I’m not too thrilled about Option 3 but I don’t know what the

> issues/ramifications would be. I feel that option 3 could take my client’s

> network out of my hands and would have to rely on Corporate to much.

>

> So my question is what option would be for us to take – trying to balance

> short term cost, long term cost, time and energy to manage and fewest

> problems.

>

> Thank you for any advice you all may give.

>