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Software Review: Share360
Abstract:
Discussion of the implementation and selection of Share360 as a replacement for collaborative software for a 15 user network. The software is intended to replace an existing Windows NT Server running Exchange Server 5.5. Primary desktop operating system Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The customer already has Unix machines running IMAP Email, Web Server, Firewall and IDS system. Their desire was to have a cohesive interface for their daily collaboration / scheduling / project management needs.
Site Background:
The client is a small but growing computer consulting company with sixteen total employees. The majority of the staff worked within the confines of the office but there are remote technicians who had a requirement to access information from any number of remote client sites. Therefore a browser based solution or access via http from remote sites would be the best alternative.
The business has three distinct aspects, one is a pure on-site consulting and break fix deployment, they require scheduling and web email as well as time clocks. There is an Internet / hosting division that require time clocks, schedules, project management and unified to-do lists. Finally there is a hardware division that requires scheduling, time sheets, calendaring, to-do lists, and project management. All of these departments are supported by the front office which has the requirement to schedule, handle phone messages, to-do lists, time sheets, human resource functions like vacation and sick time requests.
Our legacy application was Exchange Server 5.5 running on Windows NT 4.0. The server and the application had provided three years of seamless functionality. After programming some custom forms we were able to coax Exchange Server into providing the following functionality:
  • Shared Calendar
  • Group Scheduling
  • Task Management
  • Call tracking
  • IMAP Email
    • Failures:
  • Web Access to email
  • Project Management – (Microsoft sells Project for this task)
  • Security
  • Ease of operation and management
  • Cost of backups
  • Requirement to use MS Outlook to exploit all features of the server
  • No usable Unix client
  • Costs associated with upgrading to Windows 2000 version
    • The customer has always been unhappy with Outlook Web Access, it did not allow them the functionality that a web based application should provide. It did not allow access to critical forms that had been created; it was slow, cumbersome and did not allow for transparency between in office and external communications. The motivation for looking at a new software package was to unify or at least simplify the following:
  • Individual schedules
  • Group schedules
  • Group calendar
  • Reoccurring off site scheduling
  • Meeting room reservations
  • Time tracking / time sheets
  • HR related form processing
  • Project management
  • Group / individual contact databases
  • To-Do Lists
  • Web based email
    • After reading the press release for version 2 from http://Share360.com/info/press/releases/20021114.html the software looked like it addressed the majority of the clients concerns.
    Deployment:
    The installation and deployment of the Share360 software on a FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE system was seamless. I am not going to discuss the actual installation because the supplied documentation was accurate and concise. After the server side installation of the software was complete the configuration was handled from the workstation via a web browser.
    After logging into the Administrative site I was greeted with simple to understand menu topics that included a Guide to Share360, a User Profile editor, Group Configuration and Application settings. After the initial setup of the software I handed the task of user creation over to our receptionist – I had created the group profiles for Hardware, Field Service, Back Office and Internet. She created the users, assigned the default permissions and allocated group membership to each person. We added fifteen users within an hour and we were ready to test drive the software.
    Share360 comes with a gracious 60 day unrestricted evaluation version and this was more than enough time to evaluate and then transition to the software from Exchange Server if the evaluation period was successful.
    Our first task was to setup each user with an individual calendar and then to add events to the shared schedule. When compared to Outlook and Exchange server the scheduling of events is trivial but changing dates and times requires a little more effort but it is well worth the energy.
    I have configured an IMAP server on another machine and the customer is now able to use one interface for all of our business functions. At first I was a little disappointed that Share360 did not include an Email server but after thinking about it, I prefer having the control of my own Email infrastructure. Share360 now seamlessly connects to a Postfix SMTP server with Courier IMAP and allows all of the remote technician’s web access to their respective schedules and mail boxes. The customer has integrated Spam filtering and robust anti-virus scanning into their IMAP server and Share360 provides the conduit to viewing and managing their mail.
    I found that Share360 handled everything as promised, from scheduling to project management to to-do lists. We often have clients who require specific scheduled needs such as the third Thursday of every month and Share360 was able to handle this requirement without issue. The aspect of the application that this small office found to be the most useful was the Project Management section. Project Management has always been difficult to justify to a small business because of the somewhat prohibitive cost associated with the competitive product. This company now has a single interface to manage jobs that are assigned to different people with disparate due dates and tasks. It is one of those features and process management tools that you don’t know that you need until you use it.
    I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the application. I had anticipated that it might have been a little sluggish but the speed and the overall feel of the application exceeded my expectations. We found some issues in the Share360 software that would not allow modifying of some reoccurring events but after a quick email then sent a patch and the issue was corrected. There is still an unresolved issue with the scheduling function but I am confident that they will address it in a timely manner.
    Overall I believe that switching to Share360 from our Microsoft Exchange Server installation has granted us the ability to mange our time, our resources and our people more effectively. Remote users now have the same access and ability as our local users and this in itself is well worth the investment in switching.
    Related URL: http://www.share360.com
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