Microsoft Exchange Server support for multimaster data replication provides Fabrikam, Inc. the benefits of a distributed information infrastructure. This structure enables users to share ideas and work as a team to reach decisions, even if they are thousands of miles and many time zones apart. Fabrikam, Inc. plans to use this capability to create public folders that contain process discussion plans, which enables each functional unit to participate in discussions on the plans, including how they might be improved. In this way, the company benefits from the involvement of the people who best understand how to re-engineer a process.
Another benefit of replicated information is the minimal administrative overhead that is required to keep multiple versions up-to-date. This overhead has been a problem in the company's current system because much of the information the company wanted to distribute worldwide first had to be copied manually to local office servers. This meant working with links that might or might not be functioning, that disconnect in the middle of transmissions, and that cause a variety of other administrative problems.