function readOnly(count){ }
Starting November 20, the site will be set to read-only. On December 4, 2023,
forum discussions will move to the Trailblazer Community.
+ Start a Discussion
Gareth DaviesGareth Davies 

Automatic Integration with Exchange?

Hi,

Any one know of a way to keep Exchange and SF.com in sync automatically. (not using a manualy triggered Intellisync).

Problem:

Field Salesforce with GPRS enabled outlook devices (Blackberry's, XDA and other).

Want to make sure they are notified when someone else books them for an appointment and when they book an appointment. For various reasons just using Exchange or just using SF.com will not work.

Does anyone know of 3rd party synchronisation tool?

Thanks

Gareth.

adamgadamg
If Outlook Edition provided scheduled sync, would that solve the problem?

The other option is to coax devangel or another of VB/.NET hackers here into writing a toolbar/applet that pops an alert whenever an appointment is created for the selected user..
Gareth DaviesGareth Davies

HI there,

We really need behind the scenes integration. The Outlook Sync requires an action to take place (i.e. press the button). With a large salesforce there are going to be times when calanders get out of sync between the two systems. As an organisation the company uses Outlook to synchronise meetings with each other - and use teleappointers to fix appointments for some of the sales team (recorded in SF.com). Some people being scheduled for meetings use Outlook (Exchange server based) but not SF.com.

When a meeting is set in Exchange it immediatly becomes availble on mobile employees XDA devices via GPRS data, unless we can integrate behind the scenes this would not be the case if the appointment was set in SF.com. Our users would have to resynch in order to see the appointment.

We think we have found a third party product that will do this for us from Canyon Bridge (product is called cbforce). If you have any other suggestions that we can evaluate that would be great ( or any experience with cbforce).

Thanks

Gareth.

Message Edited by Gareth Davies on 04-02-2005 12:32 AM

SweetBoxSweetBox

The website www.geotide.com has a product that currently synchronizes email in exchange user mailboxes with Salesforce contacts.  Email arriving from or going to Salesforce contacts is recorded in the appropriate contact.  The product runs as a service on the Exchange Server so it does not rely upon manual synchronization but users.

The next release will update contact information on a per user/mailbox basis.

eddieeddie
Since we have already built a synchronization engine between salesforce.com and Lotus Notes, we have been asked to develop a server side synchronization between salesforce.com and exchange. Is there enough of a need out there for us to develop this exchange integration? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
DevAngelDevAngel
I may be biased, but yes, there is definitely a need for a Server side integration with exchange.  In particular in the support center where you get emails that need to be logged as cases in salesforce.com.
Gareth DaviesGareth Davies

Well I think there is - this would solve a few issues on the client site where outlook is really the preferred calendar and people are not always able to run intellisynch (mobile wokers etc) and where many people need to synchrnonise together.

Esp. important with call centres and teleappointing.

G

WarrenWarren

One way of implementing email2case would be to write an Exchange scripting agent that runs when the _OnMessageCreated is fired.

This could be written in VBScript or JavaScript and if the Salesforce Office toolkit were installed on the server, that could be used to simplify the code required to form and send the SOAP packets to the SalesForce API.

Any takers?

Denis MarkovtsevDenis Markovtsev
This answer is a bit delayed, but may still be useful.

I recommend you to consider the Agile GrinMark to Exchange Synchronizer (GESync). It provides server-side integration between Salesforce and Exchange. Integration includes two-way synchronization of Contacts, Accounts, Leads, Meetings, Calls, Tasks; Archiving emails; special scenarios to replicate and create items like Opportunities and Cases from your email client. This solution works without any client-side plugins. No need for additional configuration of standard mobile or desktop email clients (Outlook, Entourage, Mac Mail, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, etc.).

Microsoft Exchange: 2007, 2010, 2013, Office365

Free trial version is available so you can try GESync before making a decision.
http://www.grinmark.com/requesttrialform.html
http://www.grinmark.com/products/gesync/

If what you need is one-time synchronization, then trial mode may be enough to get required results.

Best regards,
Denis Markovtsev
GrinMark CRM Integration Team
http://www.grinmark.com
sales@grinmark.com (mailto:sales@grinmark.com)