In a previous issue of our online newsletter - TQ Online - I discussed the sad state of Group Scheduling on the Mac. For years, we have yearned for Microsoft Exchange-like functionality, and for years we have been disappointed by many packages.

Products like Now Up-To-Date, Meeting Maker, the previous version of iCal, and Entourage all had varying levels of functionality, sharability, compatibility with mobile devices, and ease of use - but none of them was able to do it all.

Honestly, I've been disappointed with this giant gaping hole that the lack of a good calendaring solution has left Mac users. We're not talking about "big business" functionality - every business, even the smallest 2-person shop, could benefit from a good group calendar.

So when Apple announced iCal Server, I was first in line to install it and try it out. The results... in two words? It works. In eight? It will change the way your company operates.

What Group Scheduling Is

First, let's talk about what you need in a Group Scheduling solution.

- An easy-to-use calendar that you can view online and offline
- Other people (of your choosing) can see your calendars
- A few people (of your choosing) can change your calendars
- Integration with meeting notifications from other platforms
- Scheduling of meetings based on other people's availability
- Reliable syncing to a mobile device
- Cross-platform software
- Easy administration

Out of the box, iCal Server - as part of Leopard Server - does all of these things, for an unlimited number of users.

What iCal Server Does

If you've ever used iCal before, you know it's one of the easiest calendar programs out there. Adding appointments is a matter of a click and drag in the week view. To-Do's, full day appointments, and reminders integrate smoothly into your Mac experience.

When you add iCal Server, you get a lot more options for your appointment. You can add attendees to a meeting, look for available meeting times, add attachments, modify attachments in other people's appointments, and send email notifications of new appointments to non-company attendees. The notifications, by the way, are compatible with Outlook and other popular PC calendaring and email software packages.

One downside: the attendees field in the iCal server appointments doesn't work the same as in an iCal local calendar. You can't add external attendees to an event on a calendar hosted on the server - which is a real pain if you're someone that has a ton of client meetings. You have to save the event first, then right click and select "Mail Event" in order to send it to external folks.

Worse yet, that notification is a meeting - not a meeting request. So, you don't know if someone actually accepted or not - it doesn't send an email back. So we're a step away from full Outlook-like functionality here.

For internal users, the process is seamless - if someone schedules a new meeting for you, you'll see it pop up in your list of notifications. This keeps email notifications to a minimum - and the less email, the better.

   

What It Takes

Here's the bad news - to make this all work, you'll need both a server running 10.5 Leopard Server, and Leopard running on each machine that needs to access the calendar. Luckily, Leopard comes with a whole host of other improvements, so it's money well spent - but it does mean that it's not cheap to get it up and running. 10.5 Leopard Server starts at $499 for a 10-user license, with one copy of 10.5 Leopard running around $129 per user. Compared to the cost of purchasing other inferior calendaring systems and considering that you also get Apple's latest operating system, it's not a bad investment.

Setup is a bit more complicated. Once the server is installed, there are whole host of services that need to be configured before iCal Server works properly. If you're not technically inclined or don't have a lot of spare time (iCal Server is not exactly well documented), I'd recommend that we help you install it.

Once installed on the server, the configuration in iCal clients is a bit easier. iCal will find the server and connect to it as long as your machine is properly configured for your network. Then, by putting in your username and password, you have access to your calendar.

You can even allocate delegates who can read or change your calendar. For instance, a manager might be able to view her staff's calendars or an assistant could view and change his boss's calendar.

Everything will work smoothly once all of these pieces are set up. Adding appointments, notifying collegues, and checking for meeting times is intuitive.

Working Well With Others

None of this great functionality would be that wonderful if you couldn't take your calendar with you. Enter the Apple iPhone - not only the hottest mobile device on the market, but by far the best mobile device for iCal Server.

Simply sync your iPhone to your Mac - and using the built-in iTunes settings, you can have your calendar or anyone else's on your phone at any time. We've tested the iPhone and iCal extensively, and they work well together.

If you create an appointment, it will be added to your iCal group calendar during the next sync. The only downside is that when entering appointments on the iPhone, you won't be able to tell iCal if a specific appointment is for a personal calendar or a group one. It's all one or the other. Still, this is a small limitation.

Even the PC users in your office (or let's say an outside salesperson) can use iCal Server. With the proper server and network setup and Mozilla's free Sunbird calendaring program, PC users can access and modify iCal calendars with ease.

As part of Apple's Leopard Server, iCal Server gives us almost everything we've been waiting for. A colleague on a PC can schedule you for a conference call, you can accept the notification in iCal, and then you'll get the reminder on your iPhone 10 minutes before your call.

Finally, Group Scheduling has come to the Mac.