[Kroupware] Is kroupware good for a very small office?

[Marco Menardi]

(Sorry if I previously posted in Kde-pim, but realized only today that 
there is a specific krupware mailing list, so I re-post here since more 
apropriate).
I work in my office with a secretary. I need a software where me and my
secretary can add appointments / notes/ etc. in the same archive at the
same time. We have to share this information, and we need to modify them
even at the same time (scenario: while I'm talking with a customer I
enter an appointment for tomorrow, while my secretary is answering the
phone and writing an appointment for this afternoon, etc.).
Seems to me that KOrganizer is intended only for "personal, not shared"
archives, is it right? (I've run 2 istances of the program against the
same archive, and the last one saved overrides the first one, and not
"automatic sync" is made while working, nor a "refresh" button is
present...).
Will Krupware be good for this? Reading the "konzept" seems to me that
we have to create two different archives / profiles, and every time me
or my secretary has to enter an appointment, has to notify to the other
one to keep sincronized. I think that this will quickly produce errors,
and it's a tedious task.
I've read some Alan Cooper books and essays (www.cooper.com), an I find 
that his idea that one of the first thing to do in SW design should be 
understand the goals and the correct workflow of the user is correct, 
but often programmers forget about it (they prefer coding over all ;).
I can't imagin an office where diary / calendar / contacts / 
appointments / to do  can't be shared between the boss and his secretary(s).
I really think that mine is a common, basic functionality, even (or even 
more) for big offices.
Put that you have a boss (B) and many secretaries (S1, S2, S3). A common
scenario is that B is talking with a customer in his office. S1 is
answering the phone, while S2 is talking with a supplier and S3 with
another office boss.
S1 has to see if B is free monday at 9am, and set an appointment. Then
all the other calendars must be updated, so when S2 is looking at a free
time for a meeting, can see that ha has to set 10am, since 9 is used. B,
at the end of the conversation, will fix an appointment with the
customer, and has to see when he is free, and be able do to it by
himself, without write down the day / hour, say bye bye to the customer,
telephone to the secretary that can answer the phone, and tell her the
day/hour of the appointment, since could have become unavailable...
We do thid kind of stuff (cuncurrent access) everyday with database...
can't you use a free, multiversional, multiplatform, open source
database like Firebird (http://firebird.sourceforge.net/) to store and
manage the data (using server side triggers, and so on...)?
thanks a lot
Marco Menardi