Shared Contacts Options
From Provider Notes
For more information about ISC's Exchange Service, visit the Provider Web at [1].
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ISC Microsoft Exchange: Shared Contacts Options
The features and functionality for shared contacts that are often requirements or key criteria in deciding which of the following options will best meet a department’s needs are:
- Inclusion in address lookup and auto complete when composing messages.
- Wireless synchronization with a smartphone/PDA.
Proxy - Contacts in “primary” user account, other users have proxy access.
This model is appropriate in cases where one or several people maintain contacts in support of someone else, such as when an administrative assistant maintains contacts for/with a senior administrator. It is possible to limit shared/proxy access to contacts only (independent of email and other account information), and to read-only privilege, so this model may also work for a larger group where “ownership” of the contacts is clear.
Group Account - Contacts in a group account that multiple staff can access.
This model is appropriate in cases where a group of people all need to maintain/access a common set or sets of contacts.
Public Folder (being phased out by MS, not supported/recommended)
Public folders are being phased out by Microsoft in favor of SharePoint Services as a recommended way to support shared contacts, and are not supported on ISC’s Exchange Service.
Windows SharePoint Services
Microsoft’s Windows SharePoint Services runs under Windows Server and supports sharing of contacts with Outlook as well as other collaboration tools/functionality. This requires setup and support of Windows SharePoint Services locally, but may be a good solution in departments that already support the required Microsoft AD infrastructure and where there may be interest/benefit in the broader set of collaboration tools provided.
| Proxy | Group Account | Public Folder | SharePoint | |
| Lookup / Auto-Complete | primary user only | No | Yes | Yes |
| Smartphone/PDA Sync | primary user only | No | No | No |
