K
Ken Wallewein
This has to be getting to be an old story. Why does Microsoft perpetually
ignore Outlook Tasks?
I want to use Outlook/Exchange to manage a fairly large, active shared task
list for a small group of busy technical consultants who support a number
of client companies. Outlook is well suited to this due to its great
support for mobile users via Exchange, networking, synchronization, and
software for various PDAs.
On the other hand, there are a few seemingly-trivial show-stopper issues
that appear to be chronically ignored.
The biggest is that I need the shared/public Tasks folder to track tasks
grouped by category (e.g., "To Do", "Client Requests", "Quotations", etc.),
by client Company, and by consultant ("Checked out to" in 2007). And
within those categories to sort tasks by priority, status and/or date.
No problem, you say -- unless you need to do it on a PDA. And we do. When
we are in front of clients, discussing issues, we need to be able to log
tasks on the spot, view them on site, and discuss client priorities. I've
yet to find PDA software (Mobile Outlook? Not even close!) that
accomplishes this. They either don't do shared folders, don't handle those
fields, or don't group/sort/filter on them.
Let's be clear: I don't care which PDA does it. If it works, I'll go
there.
For another, Outlook's rigid method of handling task assignment, requiring
email messages, acceptance and private folders, is a damn nuisance. I need
to be able to assign a task to someone (or they to me), it optionally sends
a notification email, end of story. The rigid process may be appropriate
for assignment rates of relatively large tasks. It's completely
INappropriate for what I would call "lightweight" tasks, which need to be
logged and handled with a minimum of overhead. And which may actually be
performed by any of several people who "volunteer" for them.
CRM packages tend to be sales-oriented, and have poor PDA support. Help
Desk packages don't support PDAs well either. Both are far too fat for
what we need. Outlook is tantalizingly close.
Does _anybody_ know of decent solution for shared lightweight task
management?
/kenw
Ken Wallewein
K&M Systems Integration
Phone (403)274-7848
Fax (403)275-4535
(e-mail address removed)
www.kmsi.net
ignore Outlook Tasks?
I want to use Outlook/Exchange to manage a fairly large, active shared task
list for a small group of busy technical consultants who support a number
of client companies. Outlook is well suited to this due to its great
support for mobile users via Exchange, networking, synchronization, and
software for various PDAs.
On the other hand, there are a few seemingly-trivial show-stopper issues
that appear to be chronically ignored.
The biggest is that I need the shared/public Tasks folder to track tasks
grouped by category (e.g., "To Do", "Client Requests", "Quotations", etc.),
by client Company, and by consultant ("Checked out to" in 2007). And
within those categories to sort tasks by priority, status and/or date.
No problem, you say -- unless you need to do it on a PDA. And we do. When
we are in front of clients, discussing issues, we need to be able to log
tasks on the spot, view them on site, and discuss client priorities. I've
yet to find PDA software (Mobile Outlook? Not even close!) that
accomplishes this. They either don't do shared folders, don't handle those
fields, or don't group/sort/filter on them.
Let's be clear: I don't care which PDA does it. If it works, I'll go
there.
For another, Outlook's rigid method of handling task assignment, requiring
email messages, acceptance and private folders, is a damn nuisance. I need
to be able to assign a task to someone (or they to me), it optionally sends
a notification email, end of story. The rigid process may be appropriate
for assignment rates of relatively large tasks. It's completely
INappropriate for what I would call "lightweight" tasks, which need to be
logged and handled with a minimum of overhead. And which may actually be
performed by any of several people who "volunteer" for them.
CRM packages tend to be sales-oriented, and have poor PDA support. Help
Desk packages don't support PDAs well either. Both are far too fat for
what we need. Outlook is tantalizingly close.
Does _anybody_ know of decent solution for shared lightweight task
management?
/kenw
Ken Wallewein
K&M Systems Integration
Phone (403)274-7848
Fax (403)275-4535
(e-mail address removed)
www.kmsi.net