“CB Exchange Server Sync is a time-saving solution!”
– Scott McGarrity, Business Development Representative at Orangutech
Partner: Orangutech
Headquarters: Ottawa, Canada
Customers: British Columbia municipalities (Canada)
Activity: Public Sector
Product application: CB Exchange Server Sync
When you are a software and solution consulting firm and all your customers seem to run into the same problem, you know it is time to go out to the market and find the best solution for them.
This was precisely what happened to Orangutech, an Ottawa-based company that is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. They kept seeing their customers having to manage multiple Outlook accounts and wasting much time jumping from one account to another. Worst of all, when it came to managing their calendars, they would regularly miss appointments and sometimes even double book themselves. It is not easy to keep track when you have multiple accounts!
CB Exchange Server Sync comes into play
Scott McGarrity, Business Development Representative at Orangutech, explains that their first customer with CB Exchange Server Sync was the Peace River Regional District.
Regional districts are British Columbia’s way of ensuring that all residents have access to commonly needed services. The scope of services varies with each Regional District but can include aspects like water supply, sewerage disposal, and solid waste management.
In the case of the Peace River Regional District, they are using Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, and they needed a solution that would transparently synchronize Exchange mailbox calendars. They needed a solution with a high degree of reliability, and that required no user interaction so that it could replace the system they had in place.
Why did you choose CB Exchange Server Sync?
They found out about CB Exchange Server Sync through intensive googling. Ian Thieves, IT Coordinator at the Peace River Regional District, explains: “While there are other solutions in this space, they are all client-sided. CB Exchange Server Sync and CodeTwo were the only two options that ran on the Exchange server itself. CodeTwo for Exchange 2016 no longer supported mailbox synchronization, which is what we had been using in the past. CodeTwo support even told us they were not interested in maintaining this feature in the future.”
Having selected CB Exchange Server Sync as the best option on the market, the Peace River Regional District project started with a trial. Moving the project to production was smooth, and they had CB Exchange Server Sync up and running in only a couple of weeks.
Final solution details
The final solution is self-hosted and still using Exchange 2016. In terms of client interfaces, the Peace River Regional District uses Outlook, Outlook for mobile, and Outlook Web Access (OWA). They synchronize contacts, calendars, task lists, and public folders. Ian Thieves goes on to explain they needed a certain level of customization. They were glad to see how straightforward it was to set up: “The user interface is fairly intuitive, and it is easy to create and maintain fairly complex relationships between mailboxes, mailbox subfolders, and public folders”
Ian Thieves became a fan of the product “CB Exchange Server Sync was very easy to implement. The documentation provided is more than sufficient, and once the service is installed, it is very reliable.”
The support from Connecting Software and Orangutech was also a very positive point for him: “Orangutech provided extremely good support both during the deployment and afterward.”
After the first project, the potential of CB Exchange Server Sync became even clearer. “Everyone at Peace River is very happy with the solution. There is no longer the fear of double-booking meetings because all exchange accounts are now in one mailbox.” assures Scott McGarrity.
Other Regional Districts and Municipalities soon heard about it, and Orangutech knew they would love it “CB Exchange Server Sync is a time-saving tool!”.
How the system works
CB Exchange Server Sync works on the server side, and it can take care of:
- Email synchronization,
- Calendars synchronization – including reminders, tags, and recurring events
- Folder synchronization – you can synchronize, not only the Inbox folder but also Sent Items, Drafts, subfolders… everything!
- Contacts synchronization
- Notes synchronization
- Tasks synchronization
After you set up CB Exchange Server Sync and define the sync pairs defined, everything is automatic. For example, entering a new appointment in account A will create the same appointment for account B. Moreover, all details about it (like the category) will be transferred.
This works 24x7 as it is server-side, and it works for as many Exchange accounts as you need, for different servers or domains, and also in different Exchange server versions.
Who is Orangutech?
Orangutech is an Ottawa-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in both Collaboration and Content and Application Development. Founded in 2003, Orangutech helps clients modernize their workplace while maximizing user adoption and effective collaboration using Microsoft centric services and software. Orangutech is Ottawa’s recognized leader in developing roadmaps and architectures for Office 365, SharePoint, MS Teams, SharePoint to GCDocs, and Dynamics 365.
Thanks a lot to Orangutech and the Peace River Regional District for this detailed case study of the synchronization scenarios.
For more on CB Exchange Server Sync, check out
Ana Neto
Technical Advisor
at Connecting Software
Author:
I have been a software engineer since 1997, with a more recent love for writing and public speaking. Do you have any questions or comments about this story or about CB Exchange Server Sync? I would love to have your feedback!