Need some advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brad
  • Start date Start date
B

Brad

Guest
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.
 
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+
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.
>
 
Back
Top