Zimbra + Treo + Blackberry + Cingular Wm5 device.

[gfdos.sys]

I am an old school zimbra user -- played with it from inception to 3.1 when we implemented it.

I am working with a client now that uses a linux POP mail baised service, and pays $5/month/per account for that service.

They decided that they want to share the Outlook calendars that they have so that everyone in the office could see everyone elses calendars...

That brought them to me asking about Exchange Server. (which is too expensive for anyone let alone them!)

The currently have a total of 10 users, but 3 of these users are "Partners" and they each have a SmartPhone device.... All of which are different (of course)

One partner has a Treo 650, one has a Cingular WM5 device, and the other has a RIM blackberry phone.

Now if it werent for the phones, I'd say to them: forget outlook, go to zimbra, I can use IMAP to move their emails from thier current outlook profiles to a new zimbra server, and with Zimbra 4.5x they can share calendars and Contacts... there might be some bumps and they might have to manually enter their contacts into Zimbra, and they might have to manually enter their Calenders into Zimbra.... but thats the price they'd have to pay for using open source (read: not microsoft overpriced Exchange).

I can even sync the treo and Cingular WM5 devices email with Open Source Zimbra....
However the deal breaker is being able to sync the calendar, and being able to provide some level of connectivity to the Blackberry user.

So I am here to ask a few simple questions:
1. Using just the Open Source version is it at all possible to sync the calendar with any of these devices?
2. If I need Zimbra Mobile to do it, will it work with the open source version, and at what cost?
3. For the Blackberry -- I read through a bunch of stuff here on how to sync that, and the cheapest/easiest way seemed to be to sync a copy of outlook with the zimbra server, then sync the blackberry with outlook.
So I need the Zimbra Outlook Connector to do that right?
Can I get the Zimbra Outlook Connector to work with the Open Source version, if so at what cost?

Thanks in advance for your help --- I am basicly forced to combine all this questions into one thread. My "worst case senerio" will no doubt end up with links to threads answering all these questions from one central place, so it cant be a bad thing for me to ask this for others searching to migrate all these disperate devices into the sweet solution that is Zimbra.

Gabe

[KevinH]

Hey Gabe. Your right to get sync to BB today you either need to get an Outlook Connector and do tethered sync or use our partner for BB. Zimbra is working on BES support but that won't come until later. For an operation this small the most cost effective solution would be to get it from a hosting provider who can sell single seats to each of the various connectors and sync tools you need. If you were bigger then it would make more since on-prem but not very cost effective for such a small user base.

[gfdos.sys]

KevinH,

I got to thinking about this and realized, they are using HOSTED pop mail, and outlook now... NOT exchange. SO... I dont have to give them all the features of exchange.

All three of these mobile users get OTA mail from the pop server.

Their calendar info comes from syncing their devices with outlook as the PIM, not from an OTA service like exchange or Zimbra can offer.

SO... What they REALLY need is a way to get their calendar info to and from their mobile devices: for that they can continue to use outlook.

I just need to get the calender info INTO outlook, when it is being modified using zimbra client by a secretary in the office.

That sounds like the job of the Zimbra-Outlook connector. Does it work with the open source version?

Does the Zimbra Desktop program work with the open source version? Does Zimbra Desktop have the ability to sync with Windows Mobile, Palm(treo), and Blackberry?

Just a thought... let me know

[glitch23]

Check out the new funambol clients for Outlook funambol :: open source :: Funambol downloads

And test it against schedule world, or open a trial account on funambol.net, You might be able to implement a syncML server for you clients. As far as getting Calendars into outlook, I haven't tried that, I've been using Thunderbird 2.0 and Lightning 0.5 with the Scheduleworld extension and it works beautifully

[gfdos.sys]

glitch--

are you suggesting that the funambol client works with Zimbra, or do I need their server package as well?

[glitch23]

glitch--

are you suggesting that the funambol client works with Zimbra, or do I need their server package as well?

No the funambol client doesn't work with Zimbra, and as of yet without the ZCO I haven't found a way to get the calendar info into Outlook. I do however have my blackberry sync with ScheduleWorld, which syncs with TB2 and Lightning 0.5, and Lightning syncs with Zimbra.

I was suggesting using the Funambol clients, if you can get the Calendar into Outlook.