Outlook vs. ShoreTel

[trio2shine]

I was curious if anyone out there has any suggestions or assistance to offer for the following situation:

What happens is, on some machines and only intermittently, the STMapi process grabs hold of the Outlook .ost cache file and doesn't seem to want to let go of it, even after closing the Shoretel Agent and Outlook (Outlook will never open as long as STMapi is accessing the .ost file)- I can see all of this happening just by watching the hard disk activity in Filemon.

Of course, it is entirely possible that it isn't a problem with the Shoretel software as we haven't ruled that out. If I remember correctly, I think I've seen something similar happen with Office Communicator and it's Outlook integration piece as well. I was just hoping that you may have known about this or seen it happen with the Shoretel client with another customer before.

We are currently running ShoreTel 7, if I can include any other information that would help anyone in assiting please let me know.

Thanks in advance

[eazeaz]

Outlook Problems

I don't have any hard evidence, but it sure seems that the PCM caused us some issues with outlook.

It took a while to notice, but sometime after the shoretel system was installed, we started having outlook say "A data file was not closed properly" when starting outlook. There were no problems caused by this except that outlook kicks off a "Data Check". This data check brings all but the fastest machines to their knees for about an hour or so (depending on the OST/PST size).

It seemed to happen EVERY time you open outlook.... even if you close it properly and leave it sit for 10 minutes before shutting down the computer.

Our solution was to switch back to non-cached mode. While I hated to do it, it sure has been a much better experience. Cached mode seems to crap out when you get around the 2GB pst/ost size. The machine gets slower and slower and slower. Only our Quad core workstations could cope decently.

No more "Outlook data file was not closed properly" messages, no more slow outlook. And yes I am aware that most people cannot switch out of cached mode due to remote offices, etc. We however have an exchange server at each location.

So long answer to your question I believe that the PCM does act badly in regards to outlook. I think it keeps processes open causing the ost/pst files to be marked as "corrupt" as well.

We just upgraded to 8.0 and I will do some testing with it to see if it is any better.

I really wish that Shoretel would de-couple the PCM from the version of Server. For instance, one would sure love to be able to be on the newest version of the PCM without having to upgrade the switches, firmware in the phone, etc.

You would think it would not be too hard to have the newest versions have a "compatibility" mode that would allow all the legacy features work. Could you imagine if you had to upgrade exchange for every upgrade/patch of outlook?

With version 8 having the Voicemail viewer built into the Call Manager, we are considering removing the outlook integration completely. It buys us very little at this time that I can tell. Especially since now they can look at the PCM and see all their voicemail in one place. VM seems to get lost in outlook anyway.