Outlook may be a very functional and popular email client but, by itself, it can’t be used to share contacts, calendars or other folders.

For that Microsoft would have you purchase and install a copy of its Exchange Server which can be expensive, not to mention complicated to manage.

Softalk Share Server addresses this by providing much the same information sharing facilities as Exchange, yet at a much lower price and with none of the Microsoft server’s complexity.

The Softalk software comes in two parts ­ a central server component and an add-in for use with Outlook. Unlike Exchange, however, the main component doesn’t require a full-blown standalone server. Indeed, on a small network a reasonably well-specified Windows PC will do, just as long as it can be left on most of the time.

Another benefit is the ease and speed at which the software can be deployed. In our experience Exchange can take hours to get up and running, whereas it took just a few minutes to install the Share Server, including the database used to host the message store. To this end Jet and SQL Server Express engines are included for use on small deployments with SQL Server recommended for larger companies.

A separate client setup program is loaded onto the server and this needs to be run on each PC, either manually or by deploying it using the remote install tool supplied. By default, this will replace the local Outlook message store, used where the client isn’t connected to an Exchange Server, with an Imap (Internet Message Access Protocol) connector. The folders in Outlook still look and behave much the same but everything in them is stored on the Softalk server, with the contents of the original local store (the outlook.pst file), optionally, copied over as part of the process.

Alternatively, the Outlook plug-in can be configured to retain the local .pst file and folders and use the Share Server connector to provide a secondary file store. Or it’s possible to leave things exactly as they are and simply provide support for shared public folders.

Whatever the setup we had very few problems making the plug-in work and were impressed with how seamlessly it integrated into the Outlook environment.

Unlike alternative solutions there’s no need for any kind of background synchronisation which can cause delays. It was also very easy to manage the sharing process using the administrator console on the server PC. This lets you see all the folders on the server, then choose those you want to share and the individuals or groups of users who will be allowed access. Any type of folder can be shared, including contacts and calendars, and varying levels of access granted ­ read, create, edit and delete.

It’s important to understand that Share Server isn’t a complete Exchange replacement in that it can’t be used as a local mail server. But then a lot of small companies use their ISP for this and it makes what is available (the information sharing) a lot easier to manage.

Tools to back up and restore the Imap store are also built into Share Server with facilities to recover individual folders if required. All of which makes for a very complete and usable solution for smaller companies looking to share Outlook contacts, calendars and other folders without having to buy or run Exchange.