Sharing & Viewing Calendars E-Mail & Contacts Online
If, like many of us, you live by your Outlook Calendar and rely on your reminders to remind you not to forget important stuff, but get frustrated that others can’t see your entries (so have to call you or your PA to find out your availability) you should be accessing your Calendar over a shared server.
The great thing is that by using a MS Exchange Server, your PA or someone to whom you have delegated permissions, can view your calendar online and send / accept meeting requests on your behalf – even view your e-mails! So, if you work remotely and are not able to log in to your company’s server when out of the office, an exchange server just could be an option for you! Yes, I know there are other online calendars (and good ones) out there which are accessible via the web, but why complicate your life by having two and run the risk of double bookings when you can stick with what you’re used to and see everything all in one place!
Share Your Contacts
Whoever organises your mail-merge will need to access your contacts. Why make life difficult for both of you by having to convert them to a different file format and send files back and forth via e-mail when you could allow access via your Share Account?
N.B: Speaking from experience, believe me, it can be troublesome exporting and importing contacts, particularly if you are running a different version of Outlook to your PA so save yourself some trouble, not to mention a considerable amount of time.
If you need help with setting up a shared server, I’d be delighted to help. There are some issues which can crop up depending on your mobile devices and which ones you use so it’s best to seek advice before you start if you want to avoid the frustrating technical stumbling blocks.
SharePoint
If you work with one or more colleagues are fed up with to’ing and fro’ing documents over e-mail, or sharing a PC, have you thought about using SharePoint? For a very small financial investment you can use a shared server which hosts all your documents in one place for everyone to access.
Rackspace offers not only this service, but can also set up SharePoint
for you where you can store all your docs in one place without the worry of losing data, and where everyone you give access to can see and even work on them. So for example, if you are working on an Excel spreadsheet which requires input from a colleague, all you need to do is upload the file to your SharePoint space and hey presto!
Just another great invention from our friends at Microsoft. Love’em or hate’em you have to admit, they know what they’re doing and, let’s face it, if they make your life easier, what’s not to love?
Read more from the Virtually 24/7 Blog:
Writing Blog Posts
How To Ensure a Smooth Office Move
The Role of the Executive PA in 2010
About using Virtual PA Services
Ideas on what to delegate before you go on holiday
Comparing-costs
A Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time By Organising Important Events
Newsletters R Us
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