We are in the need of some general email management for a group of project / power users. The need is fairly simple, to copy / move an email from MS Outlook directly in to SharePoint. Having a prompt to ask for some metadata would be a nice, but not necessary bonus.
I know of some 3rd party apps, KnowledgeLake / Calligo as examples. If possible, we would like to avoid them, or at least, find one which is super simple for our users. We don’t want / need additional features.
Any feedback would be welcome,
LarryN
Hi LarryN,
We had similar requirement. We ended up using Colligo. Its nice and easy also metadata management is good.
Nilesh
Thank you all, I have heard everyone loud and clear…. Harmon.ie has been added to my review list, and shocking to no one apparently, has already made it to the second round of testing.
Still evaluating every product, so we will see how it goes. I will keep this thread active, and ensure to provide my scorecard and rational behind my decisions.
To close the loop on why I am not using OOTB, here is some more context. The users, who are quite non-technical, and used to a very painful to watch process of copying (copy /paste) contents of vast emails exchanges to a clob memo field. ** read only list view of libraries in Outlook is so not cool Microsoft ** [I am not sold on the rational, but I do get the underlying drift that we want partners to still prosper]
The users cannot handle explorer views, and need to have a simple prompt with 1 key attribute question. [Project #] as a pick list.
For the low cost for 100 users, all 4 of the product offerings being reviewed gives the users a simple, nearly full proof approach that they seem ok with.
Again, thank you all for the responses, and good conversation. I hope this thread remains active now, and serves as a benefit to others in a similar situation in the future.
LarryN
I second (third?) Harmon.ie… before SP2013, it had all the missing drag’n’drop features, quick archiving, even browsing the SP site w/o a browser…
Most of that is ootb in 2013 now, but Harmon.ie still supports the email drag’n’drop.
Also, you could utilize Site Mailboxes, and forward everything to that address. Or perhaps even Incoming Email feature on a DocLib.
Or Robin’s cool trick below with the calendar drag trick.
OR you could even open the Doc Library with Explorer view, and you should be able to drag’n’drop bulk archive the items that way. Maybe even use categories, create a custom rule and have it send to the explorer view webdav URI automatically.
There are a few options for sure..
Larry,
I have used harmonie with MOSS2007 and Outlook 2007/2010 and it works very well making it simple to load items to SharePoint directly from Outlook and to send links to the documents in SharePoint instead of having to forward the actual documents. I’ve seen demos of how it works in SP2010 and SP2013.
However, there is a simpler method with OOTB features. Won’t work for bulk movement, but it’s simple to connect a library in SharePoint to Outlook (most folks realize it can be done with Calendar lists)… Actions > Connect to Outlook.
With a calendar list you can view the SharePoint list next to your Outlook Calendar and drag and drop items from one calendar to the other (from SP to Outlook and vice versa).
With the SharePoint Lists/libraries, you can drag items from outlook directly to the library (assuming you have adequate permissions to library).
With SP 2013 you can use InfoPath to add metadata properties (and I know there are some options for creating forms and metadata within Outlook, but I don’t have experience with that).
-Robin
screenshots of permissions message (Outlook 2013) and the SP Lists in Outlook attached.
Update: I am going to cede the point of OOTB being a fail, which will now lead me down the path of reviewing 2 or 3 software packages.
1. Knowledgelake Connect
2. Macroview Message
3. Colligo
I will reply when I reach the end of my evaluation, and am even more open to comments / opinions.
Thanks for the replies,
LarryN
