Exchange 2007, SharePoint 2007, and Groove Book Help

Slowhand

Well, guys. . . it looks like I finally got some responsibility at my work. My company is in the process of purchasing Exchange 2007, SharePoint 2007, and Groove, in order to migrate off our old Exchange 2000 Server, as well as set up a document management environment. It's a big project (as I'm sure many of you already know all too well), and I'm going to be one of the two people really spearheading the project. Here's the trouble: while I have plenty of experience working with Microsoft servers, AD, and the like, I don't have as much experience with Exchange, and even less with SharePoint and Groove. So, I'm going to be studying like my life (or my job) depended on it. My first stop is downloading the trial software of everything we're implementing, and then I'm going to be picking up some books.

I've narrowed it down to four books for each product, and I'd like to get some feedback on what everyone thinks of each. Pros, cons, comments, all is welcome. Except for smart comments like "just use Linux". It's not my decision on what we buy, nor do I think it's feasible to toss out our infrastructure and build up a new one, so I'm going to stick to what I'm working with. I'm hoping for constructive feedback. I'm aware a lot of these books aren't even out yet, so if you have opinions on previous books in the series, the authors, or if you've heard anything about the particular books, that'll help too.


SharePoint 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Unleashed

Beginning SharePoint 2007: Building Team Solutions with MOSS 2007

Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 Inside Out


Exchange 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed

Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Implementation and Maintenance Study Guide: Exam 70-236
(Was thinking about taking the cert, seeing if anyone has an opinion on Exchange training in this series.)


Groove

I haven't really found any books or resources regarding Groove, so any recommendations are a good thing.


I was also thinking about picking up 2007 Microsoft® Office System Inside Out for some heads up on Office 2007, since we're going to be getting brand-new workstations with Vista and Office 2007 to go along with our new document management solution. I'm also checking out webcasts from Microsoft's Events and Webcasts page to see what they're offering. I know that the Microsoft Partner site is doing a "24 Hours of Exchange 2007" series, where they're going over freakin' everything regarding the product.

georgemc

I'm not sure how useful it will be, but here's the link to Microsoft's free eLearning for Groove.

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=99495

P.S. Course doesn't work in Firefox, appears to work fine in in IE 6

Georgemc

Slowhand

Every little bit helps. Thanks for the link. And I think the reason it only works in IE is because the e-learning is Media-Player based, or is an IE plugin. I can't remember which, but it's Microsoft-specific.

blargoe

I don't have that particular pocket consultant guide, but every other one I've used has been excellent.

I think you need to take it one product at a time. Get Exchange implemented first. You gotta have that communications backbone going or the rest of it won't matter.

Does your company have any kind of Premier relationship with Microsoft such that you could spend a few thousand dollars for some consulting help before you implement? Most people no matter how smart really need more than just a couple of books to complete such a vast project in a reasonable amount of time.

How many users are you supporting?