Notes sharing for multiple users across a network??- Help

[Edcculus]

Quick random question for any sys admin type people out there.

My boss has asked me to come up with a solution, and I don't really know where to start. The probem is that the plant I work in has a meeting every 2 weeks. Evey department manager is supposed to keep notes and share them at the meeting. Right now, they share a common Word document on the network. Everyone is supposed to insert their portion, then the document gets printed out and passed around at the meeting with each departments notes filled in. The problem is that all of our managers are slack. They wait until the last minute, then are all trying to access the document at the same time. Inevitably, someone gets kicked out, or someone saves over a version another person is working on.

I need something, preferably not web based that can sit on the network where all of the managers can access it. Even some sort of simple forum type software might work too. Any suggestions?

 

[SweetSounds]

You need collaboration software - Microsoft Sharepoint has provisions for this.

But, if you don't want to go out and deploy a SharePoint infrastructure, I'd use PowerPoint.

Have each manager put their stuff on a slide (or 2 or 3) and send them to one person before the meeting. That person can stack the deck into one PPT and off you go.
Works for Word docs too - Have every manager send their copy to a single person. That person stacks the data into one file for printing.

Of course the other option is to have HR tell them to do their jobs

(That's a joke, I know it's not POSSIBLE for managers to all work together, and with a clock )

What does work though, is if you hand out the finished document, and then point out that manager such-and-such didn't turn in their homework on time, and therefore is not included.
Public humiliation almost always works...

Good luck!

 

[Homercidal]

Have you looked at Whiteboard software? There is collaborative software also, but a lot of it is based on Linux, or is expensive. What type of email system do you have?

Seems like it would not be too hard to find something out there that can run on a simple Linux web server or a simple Windows Workstation running a web server. You are not too concerned about security since it will running only on the inside of the network, and only the ports required.

 

[IrregularPulse]

We have an Access Phone Log that multiple user run. We each have logins and update the same file with different records but are running the same file from the network. Each manager could have their own login for it, then you could have a summary option that outputs all the entries to a common record to on demand, say, just before the meeting starts and can then be printed. One of our old techs wrote it. You know Access?

 

[Homercidal]

I am wondering if Google apps has something that will work. One question might be is it secure enough for the environment.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

The easiest solution with no cost would be to use the sharing feature in Excel. Give each person their own range of cells to key their info. Only issue is Excel's character limit. You're only allowed 1024 characters per cell. It would be easy to copy/paste the text to a more manageable format once all is in.

 

[SweetSounds]

Come to think of it, I'd start with public humiliation...

"Jim and Bob didn't get their work done on time, so they are not included in the packet today. Maybe next week they will plan ahead"

Trust me, you'll only have to do it once

 

[IrregularPulse]

Come to think of it, I'd start with public humiliation...

"Jim and Bob didn't get their work done on time, so they are not included in the packet today. Maybe next week they will plan ahead"

Trust me, you'll only have to do it once

I work with sales guys all the time, and I would love to do this!! But I really don't think it would help. They can be rather dense.

 

[Edcculus]

thanks guys, those are all some great ideas. For the person who asked, we use Exchange for our email server. Most people are accessing it through Outlook.

With the excel idea, is there a way around multiple users trying to access it? I'm sure it goes like this: Suzie opens it to update her section. She is the type of person that leaves 1000000 applications running in the background and forgets its open. She goes to lunch. Bob then tries to access it, but can't save because its open on Suzie's computer. Is there any for one excel document to pull info from multiple separate documents?

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

thanks guys, those are all some great ideas. For the person who asked, we use Exchange for our email server. Most people are accessing it through Outlook.

With the excel idea, is there a way around multiple users trying to access it? I'm sure it goes like this: Suzie opens it to update her section. She is the type of person that leaves 1000000 applications running in the background and forgets its open. She goes to lunch. Bob then tries to access it, but can't save because its open on Suzie's computer. Is there any for one excel document to pull info from multiple separate documents?

Excel's sharing feature allows it to be opened by multiple users at the same time. When you click save, you will get notification of who else has made modifications (their changes are highlighted in different colors). As long as two people aren't making changes in the same cell, there is no problem. Conflicting changes are prompted by the second person trying to save and they will have an option to overwrite the previous save. The key to avoiding this would be to make sure each user has their own, specified cell range.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

How about a word document that is nothing more than a page per person, and that page is just a link to a specifically named document for each person.

They each edit their document and then you print the "master" which pulls in their page.
Might want to have each of their pages start with "As of xx/xx/xxxx" so when you print you know if they have updated their document.