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NCMIAMINCMIAMI 

Email Discussion - pros & cons of outlook, VCS email & gmail

Hi Everyone,

 

I am trying to roll-out the best email solution possible for my organization so I'd like to get the community's opinions on what they like/don't like about the various email options that are vailable for use with Salesforce.

 

Solutions that I am considering include outlook, VCS Email and Google mail.

 

At the moment I've only tested VCS Email and although it has some great points but it is still failry buggy for my tastes which has brought me to either Outlook of Gmail.

 

NC

 

NCMIAMINCMIAMI

I guess I'll get the pro/con conversation started :-)

 

 

I have yet to test the Outlook Connector or gmail with SF but I have used VCS Email for at least 2 weeks.

 

 

VCS Email Pros:

 

  • Fully integrated into to SF like the email client that should always have been there. You can bind to contacts, cases, opportunities, campaigns & events and create the same from within the email. This component work very well and is super convenient.
  • The ability to tag and star emails
  • The emails are seen directly within the history, if the option is turned on, otherwise you can show a separate inbox related list



VCS Email Cons:

 

  • Template option doesn't work
  • Not linked to SF's HTML tracking email option (meaning I send an HTML through VCS but SF doesn't track it's open status) 
  • Based on the way it has to be set-up, my emails are redirected so I can't check them via my webmail anymore nor is a copy left on my server as a backup. It's just bypassed all together
  • No folder structure. ie I can can't create a folder organizational structure - VCS says that they use tags instead so maybe I just need to get used to that way of organizing content
  • No way to create rules - this is a big one for me...
  • No way to have more than one inbox - ie I have a personal and support email - I don't want all emails displayed together in a single inbox
  • No built-in spell check - they tell you to download a browser plugin for this 
  • There are a few components from the contact side - like viewing the email from within the contact - that need to be further developed.



I'd like to compare these features and get others feedback re their experience with Outlook and Gmail.

 

NC

 
jhartjhart

Hi NC,

 

I'm an employee of iHance, which makes a product (Absolute Automation) that has similar functionality to VCS.

 

Two big differences are:

 

1.  Our product handles outbound mail, rather than just inbound mail

 

2.  Our product costs $10/month/user

 

There are many other differences that justify the cost difference.

 

If you're interested to learn more, you can check out our listing ( Absolute Automation ) or watch our demo video.

 

thanks,

john