Collaboration and Productivity

Yes. With SBS 2003 R2, you can easily share information in one centralized location, allowing version control of documents and access for team collaboration. You can find the most current version of a document and have it available to you. Your internal Web site (intranet) can also be made available remotely so you have access to information over the Internet.

With SBS 2003 R2, any documents stored in the “My Documents” folder are automatically redirected onto the server. This provides two levels of protection. First, the built-in Volume Shadow Copy service allows you to retrieve accidentally deleted files or to restore previous versions of files from the My Documents folder. Second, the back up protection of the server ensures that all user files, along with your critical business data, are automatically backed up every night.

The Shared Fax Service in SBS 2003 R2 lets you send and receive faxes from your desktop. You can direct incoming faxes to a mailbox, to a folder on the server, to a printer, or to a document library on your intranet. You can also be notified when a fax is received and respond to it immediately, without waiting for someone to check the fax machine for orders. All these features help you respond quickly to customers and present a professional business image.

Yes. You can customize your intranet to work with your internal business processes. Windows SharePoint Services is used to create, operate, and manage the Companyweb intranet site. This means you can customize the site’s look and feel using pre-built templates, or by using FrontPage 2003 (Premium Edition only) to further refine and edit your intranet Web site. The site itself uses a powerful yet flexible Web Part framework, so you can add many types of Web Parts to the site directly, including document viewers, calendars, news tickers, and links to important applications and data. You can even let end-users modify their specific page views, or restrict their views only to ones you define.

This question has two parts. First, you can install applications such as Small Business Accounting (SBA) on SBS 2003 R2, and you can have as many employees access that program as you have SBA client licenses. Employees then use the SBA client interface to access the server and work with data stored on the server. Second, if an application is not built specifically for client/server operation, it is still possible to “share” that application by installing it on a server with Windows Server 2003 running in application sharing mode. Application sharing mode lets users connect to the hosted application as if it were running on their desktop.

SBS 2003 R2 cannot run in application sharing mode due to security considerations, so you must purchase a separate server to share an application using this method. Talk with a Small Business Specialist about the specifics in your environment and see how the various software components can fit your business needs.

WebEx is primarily a remote conferencing product, while Go2MyPC is a remote access product. A quick glance at the Web sites shows a key differentiator: Go2MyPC charges for remote access, typically a per-user-per-month fee. For SBS 2003 R2, access to your desktop via Remote Web Workplace is included with your Client Access Licenses. Cost-sensitive businesses may find that third-party access solutions are not cost-effective for multiple employees. In addition, these solutions do not provide automatic backup of user information stored in the My Documents folder, the ability to access network applications and resources, or have immediate access to information that others have shared on the network. In sum, these may be sufficient for individual or home users but they are not the smartest, cost-effective solution for businesses.