MS-Outlook Integration, and then some
My diary print program is, to say the least, in need of a re-write. The code is a mess, mainly due to the number of extensions it's had inflicted on it over the last 5 years.
Everyone works remotely to the Exchange Server machine, so we update our diaries on local machines and use Outlook to synchronise to the server on a regular basis. This is all well and good, but it does nothing to help when you want to see someone else's movements.
The diary program came about to fix this. It sits on the NT4 server and is fired off late in the evening to produce a consolidated diary file that anyone can access.
The nice part about the program is the way it's evolved and ingrained itself in the day to day operations. No one notices it until it doesn't run for some reason; the way all good software should run, in my opinion.
On the face of it, a program to scan everyone's diary entries and produce a consolidated file isn't that spectacular (until you try it). This one, however, extracts the diaries for all employees and:
- Stores a copy in MS-Word format for access via RAS
- Stores a copy in HTML format for access on our intranet
- Faxes a copy to the person responsible for handling our phones
- Emails a copy to all of our consultants.
The email copy was especially gratifying to produce, as it means that every consultant knows where every other consultant will be that day and the appointment list is sat in the email inbox when they start work in the morning. Again not that spectacular, until you realise that this server does not have a network connection, so I not only have to compose an email, I also have to connect (via dial-up) to our internet ISP and send the email myself!
Simple, but unobtrusive.