Cell/e-mail/calendar: What device do you use to keep organized?
This question was posed to me by a colleague who is just leaving a job as a system administrator for a major educational institution for the freedom and stresses of independent consulting. Up until now he has used the university's tools, and now that he is going to fly solo he wants to make the right decisions.
Of course any of these devices can work as stand-alone systems, but then you are relying on that one device. If the battery dies, or worse if it gets stolen, you are in real trouble. So rather than decide on the device, I would work from the other end and establish a back-end solution. Microsoft Exchange Server provides a great infrastructure for e-mail, calendar, and contacts, and can be accessed from any device no matter what your situation.
Because I know that this colleague will be working on several contracts with a consulting group I would recommend that rather than spend the time and money setting up the infrastructure for himself, he work things out with that group to piggy-back onto their system. This would allow him to either use that group's e-mail (friend@congrp.com), or set up his own domain on that server (friend@frienddomain.com), or a combination of both.
I have been working with InFront Consulting Group for much of the past year, and have been using their Exchange Server for all business that pertains to them. However because the infrastructure was already set up I also have my main e-mail set up on a different server. While there are advantages to this there are also setbacks; neither Outlook nor Windows Mobile 6 will not allow you to connect to multiple Exchange Servers. I do have to maintain separate profiles for each, and more often than not I just use Outlook Web Access for one of them.
There are also disadvantages to allowing others to manage your severs for you. At present both organizations are using Small Business Server 2003 R2, which is a great solution for their needs. Unfortunately it does not allow for Exchange Server 2007, with the famous Unified Communications which I have been bragging about. I will have to make do until one or the other organization upgrades, which had I been in command of my own servers I would have done during my summer downtime. However truth be told for my own needs Exchange 2003 suits me just fine!
So going back to the original question, the answer is not one or the other… the answer is YES to all of them… I use them all, but I make sure that I can use any or all of them from
wherever I am and am always certain that I have the most up to date information. No go forth and organize!