Well one way to look at all this is that sometimes we need to collaborate on documents with people from outside our company environment. When we need to do that Microsoft Office Groove becomes really handy then. Now Microsoft Office Groove can help all the people who are not part of the company to work and collaborate on documents, meetings, discussions or even exchanging forms like Request for Quotation or Proposal forms.

Now why can’t we do it with Office Sharepoint Portal Server? Well the answer is very clear that we need to have that (outside) user on our company portal for that user to work and collaborate on documents. The burden for the IT departments to create an account, manage appropriate permissions and make sure that there is no breach of security is what we have to go through. Moreover, how does it sound to have an outside person to be on the company portal just for collaborating on few documents?

The answer to all that is the reason we need Microsoft Office Groove 2007. We don’t need the user to be on our company portal. We can work with that outside user from within our workspace created using the Groove and collaborate on files, documents and other forms there. It will reduce the IT department headache and moreover will make the security of Office Portal Server easy to be managed within the company intranet environment. We may still have some parts of the Portal available for the guest users but that will be common for all the outside users.

For me it is really bad not to have an example for the future reference so I have a couple to give here. Firstly, let’s say we have a Microsoft Consultant which provides our IT department with the consultancy services required to keep up to date with the latest technology trends and ensures that the company infrastructure is maintained over time. We can work with our partner Microsoft Consultants on infrastructure related documents and technology upgrade documents etc. For all this we can create a Groove space between the companies IT manager or IT Head with the partner Microsoft Consultants. Here in this workspace we can share and revise and publish a document which is going to be used as the company’s infrastructure document for a specified period of time. We may have some company’s backup and restore documents or we may have company’s IT infrastructure roll out plan. All this can be done from within Groove and then the final version can be released using Groove Sharepoint Tool to the Sharepoint Portal Server 2007. Where the workflow will take the documents for the appropriate approvals and sign off’s.

Now, secondly for a person working as a self employed or as a private consultant or providing any sort of consultancy services is a strong candidate for Office Groove 2007. Not only Office Groove is going to be of high importance to such a person but to the company’s which are dealing with these types of personnel’s. Companies can schedule meetings, collaborate on documents can get online advices in case of company’s corporate legal or taxation matters. The list goes on beyond what we think.

Office Groove is definitely good product to be used along with Sharepoint Portal Server and it is one of the tools which we all should look at. It is the technology which will be used a lot more in the near future among the corporate employees and other people providing services to these companies.

1. Log in to your Gmail account.

2. At the top of any Gmail page, click settings.

3. In the Mail Settings window, click Forwarding and POP.

Note: Gmail is turning on POP3 support for users in phases. if Forwarding and POP does not appear, your Gmail account cannot be configured for POP3 support

4. In the POP Download section, select Enable POP or all mail or Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on

5. Click Save Settings

6. In outlook, on the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts

7. Click Add a new e-mail account, and then click Next

8. ClickPOP3, and then click Next.

9. Under User Information, do the following:
1. In the Your Name box, type your full name the way you want it to appear to other people.
2. In the E-mail Address box, type your e-mail user name followed by gmail.com.

10. Under Server Information, do the following:
1. In the Incoming mail server (POP3) box, type pop.gmail.com.
2. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) box, type smtp.gmail.com.

11. Under Logon information, do the following:
1. In the User Name box, type your full e-mail address, including gmail.com.
2. In the Password box, type your password.
3. Select the Remember password check box.

Note: You have the option to have Outlook remember your password by typing it in the Password box and selecting the Remember password check box. Having Outlook remember your password means that you wont have to type your password each time you access the account; however, it also means that the account is vulnerable to anyone who has access to your computer. Use strong passwords that combine upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Weak passwords don’t mix these elements Strong password: Y6dhlet5 Weak password: House27. Use a strong password that you can remember so that you don have to write it down

12. Click More Settings

13. On the General tab, under Mail Account, type Gmail

14. Click the Outgoing Server tab, and then select the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication check box.

15. Select Use same settings as my incoming mail server

16. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Server Port Numbers for Incoming server (POP3) select This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) check box.

17. Change the outgoing server (SMTP) port number to 465 and the lncoming server (POP3) port number should change automatically to 995. Under the Outgoing server (SMTP) for Use the following type of encryption connection drop down list select (SSL) encryption drop down value

18. Click OK.

19. To verify that your account is working, click Test Account Settings. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet.

20 Click Next, and Then click Finish.