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AIA Small Project Design (SPD) Knowledge Community supports, celebrates, and promotes small projects by engaging designers and the public.

  • 1.  MS Outlook email management

    Posted 04-06-2018 05:34 PM

    For those of us using MS Outlook/Exchange Server email what are people using to manage the ever-increasing flow of purely digital communication?

    It's becoming more common that project info, directives, RFI's etc. are received as simple emails. For almost 20 years we have been using Outlook public folders for each project with subfolders for owner, consultant, contractor, etc. messages. By enforcing a standard syntax for the subject: <job number><job name><subject> we have been able to have firm-wide access in an easily searchable format. Capturing and retrieving has worked very well.

    Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has begun degrading functionality for public folders (can no longer do a search as of Outlook 2016) and in the next version of Exchange Server will disappear altogether. I'm now looking for a replacement tool. Most seem to be SharePoint based add-ons that add functionality inside the Outlook client, MarcoView and Colligo as examples.  

    Has anyone found a product they liked? We've looked at moving to Gmail/Google Docs and other in the cloud options, would much rather stick with Outlook.      

     



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    Paul Gladysz AIA
    Partner
    BDA Architecture, P.C.
    Albuquerque NM
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  • 2.  RE: MS Outlook email management

    Posted 04-07-2018 09:03 AM
    I've been in search of communication project management tools as well. I like using Procore for project management, but it could be cost prohibitive for small firms. It is a great place to share documents, drawings, RFI's, email communications, etc. I've used Basecamp for AIA committee communications, which could potentially be a good project management tool of utilized properly. It isn't free, but is easy to use.

    I'm interested in what everyone else uses, too.

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    Mandy Freeland AIA
    Owner / Principal Architect
    Mandy Freeland, Architect, Inc.
    Bakersfield CA
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  • 3.  RE: MS Outlook email management

    Posted 04-09-2018 05:23 PM

    We use RoundhousePM (www.roundhouselabs.com).  It's the perfect fit for what we need to manage projects outside of our office.  It's web based and handles document distribution for our plans and specs, RFI's, submittals, etc. and it's very affordable. 

     

    Craig

     

    Craig James, AIA – Founding Principal
    PRAXIS3 architecture + multidisciplinary design


    100 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 1450
    Atlanta, GA 30303
    678-904-7424  direct
    404-784-4304 mobile
    cjames@praxis3.com
    www.praxis3.com

     

     

     






  • 4.  RE: MS Outlook email management

    Posted 04-09-2018 05:33 PM
    We use Outlook 2016 with our email server hosted on the cloud through Office 365 Exchange and we are able to search our public folders without any issue.

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    Timothy Dearborn AIA
    Architect
    Architechnica
    Stockton CA
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