Outlook Synchronisation Guide Version 6.10
webCRM September 2011
Outlook Synchronisation guide
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Installing Outlook Synchronisation Plug-in ............................................................................................. 3
Daily Use of Outlook and webCRM......................................................................................................... 6
Synchronising Emails........................................................................................................................... 7
Synchronising Contacts ....................................................................................................................... 8
Contact linking in Outlook................................................................................................................... 9
Synchronising Appointments/Meetings ...........................................................................................10
Synchronising Activities / Tasks ........................................................................................................12
Outlook Plug-in configuration...............................................................................................................13
Advanced synchronisation settings ..................................................................................................14
Configuring Outlook Integration with webCRM ...................................................................................16
Historic data/manual synchronisation..............................................................................................18
Debugging .........................................................................................................................................18
Help and Hints.......................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
This information assumes you have subscribed, or are planning to subscribe to our Outlook Synchronisation
module. You can subscribe by selecting this option in the Main Menu item Configuration and then License.
webCRM synchronises the following data with Outlook:


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Outgoing and incoming emails when they are 'ticked' in Outlook
All Meetings
All Tasks (called Activities in webCRM)
All Contacts (called Persons in webCRM)
Attachments when used with the email and website integration tool
Outlook synchronization (requires subscription to the Outlook Integration module)
Outlook synchronisation is compatible with:



Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Vista or Windows 7
Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Standard Outlook or using
Exchange server)
Windows Terminal Services
You will need to install a small webCRM plug-in to your Outlook on every PC. This plug-in adds a few new
buttons to your Outlook client and a new tab in the Outlook configuration window. At fixed intervals, or when
you open and close your Outlook system, the plug-in will connect to your webCRM system and synchronise
data defined within the webCRM configuration section. Please note that you need to be connected to the
Internet so that data can be transferred.
The Outlook integration module only needs to be configured once for all users. This is done in the webCRM
system, you will need full security access rights to do this i.e. Access = "All rights" as a webCRM user.
For users of webCRM who run Outlook on a Terminal Services platform it is necessary to use the msi file in
order to install the Outlook Synchronisation service correctly. This is downloaded from the Integration section
within webCRM.
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Installing Outlook Synchronisation Plug-in
Close your Outlook system and run the Outlook setup program in webCRM. The plug-in program is available
from your personal user settings page on the Main Menu:
On the Personal User Settings you will see the following screen:
Important:
You must be connected to the Internet during the
installation process.
Your Outlook must be shut down while installing
The plug-in is approximately 6 MB of size
Some of the installation steps may take a few
minutes, please be patient and do not click
Cancel/Abort
You must be logged into the local PC with
Administrator privileges and run the program as
administrator (right-click on the file and choose ”run
as administrator”)
You must reboot your PC after installation to apply
all changes
Note:
Depending on your security settings you may be
asked to "Allow" the installation to continue. Do so
when prompted.
Click on Download Plugin to start the installation
process:
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The screenshots below show the typical process however please note they may not be completely identical to
the screens you will see:
Click Run
Click Setup
Click Next
Click Close
Please note that:
Open your Outlook – you need to be connected to the Internet at this point. In order for Outlook to
communicate with webCRM you must correctly enter:
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
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System code (dbn)
User name (usd)
Password (pwd)
These settings will be found on the Personal Use Settings page in webCRM as displayed previously.
Having your user credentials on hand please navigate to the
Outlook Plug-in configuration window (to be found in different
locations depending on Outlook version – explained below) and
enter the required user credentials.
Please note that if system code, user name or password is
missing or incorrect, an error message will be displayed.
Once the user credentials are entered please test the connection
between Outlook and web CRM by clicking the “Test and save
settings”. Once the connection is correctly established the
settings are saved and the integration module is ready for use.
Please note: if you need to synchronise historic data (created prior to the plug-in installation date) you have
to run manual synchronisation. The process is described later in this guide.
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If the connection is not established please recheck the correctness of the user credentials, your internet
connection and try again.
Location of the Outlook Plug-in configuration window in Outlook 2003 and 2007.:
In Outlook click "Tools" and "Options" and then the webCRM tab
Location of the Outlook Plug-in configuration window in Outlook 2010:
The configuration of the Outlook synchronisation module is to be found in a different place in Outlook 2010.
Navigate via the Office Button at the top right of the screen and select ‘Options’ as below:
Then select Add-ins and you will be able to configure the webCRM Outlook Synchronisation module as
previously documented.
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Daily Use of Outlook and webCRM
When you view your Outlook bar you will see the following button positioned at the left hand side:
General Synchronisation
By Clicking the Sync button you will start the process of webCRM and Outlook syncing with each other
depending on the settings configured by your webCRM administrator.
It is important that when you
first use the webCRM outlook
plug-in you click the Sync
button, to initiate the
synchronisation. You will see
the following screen which
needs no input as it will
synchronise automatically.
Once this process has
completed you may synchronise
any historic data. Please refer
to the Historic data/manual
synchronisation section of the
document.
Adding New Records to webCRM
You may need to quickly add a record into webCRM in order to
synchronise an email, task or appointment. By clicking the
webCRM button a webCRM window will appear allowing you to
add new records very quickly.
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Delete emails
Once an email has been synchronised you have the option of deleting all these synchronised mails. Once you
click the delete button you will be offered the choice of deleting a selection or all previously synchronised
emails will be deleted.
Please note that in outlook 2007 that the delete function is to be found under ‘Send/Receive’
Synchronising Emails
Outbound: Create outbound e-mails in Outlook as you would normally do. If you want the e-mail to be copied
to webCRM, you must first fill in all e-mail data. Then you tick the "Synchronise this with webCRM" button.
Outlook immediately connects to webCRM and creates the Outlook e-mail as an outbound e-mail in webCRM. If
the e-mail is addressed to multiple recipients (either in “To” or “CC” or “BCC”), it is only the first e-mail
address in the “To” line that the email will be synchronised to in webCRM.
If the first email address in the "To" field does not match
an existing e-mail addresses in webCRM, nothing is
created in webCRM and an error message is displayed. If
more than one result is found on an email address, the
first one is chosen.
Inbound: If you want an inbound e-mail
copied to webCRM, simply click the
"Synchronise this with webCRM" button.
Outlook immediately connects to
webCRM and creates the Outlook e-mail
as an inbound e-mail in webCRM.
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If the "From" email address does not match any existing e-mail addresses in webCRM nothing is created in
webCRM.
Notes on e-mail:
1. E-mails can only be synchronized from Outlook to webCRM.
2. E-mail attachments are never copied from Outlook to webCRM unless they are used in combination
with the email and website integration tool.
3. In general outbound e-mails should be sent from webCRM. However, you can send e-mails from your
Outlook and have them copied to webCRM (attachments are not copied). In the webCRM system you
can CC or BCC your own e-mail address in order to have an outbound e-mail from webCRM copied to
your Outlook with attachments. However, it will appear in your Outlook e-mail in-box. You can
manually move it to the sent e-mail folder if you prefer or create an Outlook rule to do so
automatically.
4. The optional webCRM module "Inbound e-mail and web-site integration" supports e-mail attachments
which are copied from Outlook to webCRM. Please see separate documentation for this module.
5. Outlook offline: When your computer isn't connected to the Internet, you can still modify all data
check marked as "Synchronized with webCRM". When you do reconnect to the Internet and open or
close Outlook, updated data will be synchronised.
6. If you create new data when Outlook is offline you cannot click the "Synchronise this with webCRM"
button. When the Internet connection is present at a later time, you can click the "Synchronise this
with webCRM" at that time and add Organisation name/E-mail address as appropriate.
Synchronising Contacts
Creating a new contact in Outlook:
Create the new contact in Outlook as you would do normally. If you want the contact to be synchronised with
webCRM, you must first fill in all the contact data – The Company name is mandatory. Then you click the
"Synchronise this with webCRM" button. Outlook immediately connects to webCRM and creates the Outlook
contact as an Organisation and a Person in webCRM.
If the organisation already exists in webCRM – the contact is
added as a new Person to that organisation. Please note, that
if the organisation in question is created with a ‘division
name’ as well, you have to fill in ‘organisation name
‘//‘division name’.
Creating a new contact in Outlook – for the B2C version (no Organisations in webCRM):
Create the new contact in Outlook as you would normally do. If you want the contact to be synchronised with
webCRM, you must first fill in all the contact data – either the Company name or an e-mail address must
be filled in. Then you click the "Synchronise this with webCRM" button. Outlook immediately connects to
webCRM and creates the Outlook contact as a Person in webCRM. If you update any of the mapped fields
Outlook and webCRM will be updated when the system synchronises.
Please note if you delete a contact in Outlook it will not be deleted in webCRM
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Contact linking in Outlook
In order to make the linking of contacts to other forms in Outlook,
it is advisable to configure the “Contact linking” option. This will
result in the contact search field displayed at the bottom of other
Outlook forms (appointments, tasks) enabling the user to
search/enter the contact the form should be linked to.
To configure this in Outlook 2007 Click
Options>Preferences>Contact Options and enable the Contact
Linking on all forms.
To do the same in Outlook 2010 click File>Options>Contacts and enable the Contact Linking on all forms.
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Synchronising Appointments/Meetings
Create the new appointment in Outlook as you would do normally. You may synchronise by the first email
address in the To.. section if you have selected the ‘Invite’ option within Outlook.
You may also alternatively synchronise by the Organisation name or an alternative email address by filling in
the webCRM Organisation/email section.
If you want the appointment to be synchronised with webCRM, then you click the Synchronise this with
webCRM" button. You may then send the invite.
Outlook immediately connects to webCRM and creates the Outlook appointment as a Meeting in webCRM.
Contact Linking within an appointment
If you have configured the contact linking in Outlook you may also
select the contact from the Outlook contact list, without having to
fill in the Organisation name. If the contact also exists in webCRM,
the appointment will be synchronised into the webCRM calendar.
Please note you have to first save and then synchronise the
appointment.
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Note:
1.
2.
3.
4.
We recommend you book multiple day arrangements in webCRM in the following cases:
a. Appointments booked as whole day events in Outlook stretching over more than one day, will
ONLY be booked as a one day appointment in webCRM. Accordingly with holidays or absence
booked in Outlook.
b. Another case is when we stretch the event by setting particular dates and times for start and
end points. In this case we have a restriction. The plugin enables only the following event
durations: 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 300, 360, 480, 600 or 720 minutes. So
maximal duration is 12 hours and not the whole day. This restriction is applied only for
synchronisation.
If you change the time or description of the appointment in either Outlook or webCRM, these changes
will be synchronised.
If you create a Private appointment that you wish to be synchronised to webCRM just tick the option
within the Outlook appointment form.
You may synchronise using the organisation name. If you have multiple divisions in webCRM then the
organisation should be input in the format “webCRM//UK” for example. This allows the appointment to
be saved to webCRM against the Company “webCRM” and Division Name “UK”
Multiple Participants
When you create an appointment in webCRM you can select multiple participants from you own organisation. If
you do this and the other participants have the Outlook synchronisation module installed, and in webCRM
configuration, the multiple participants options is selected for meetings, then the meetings will also
synchronise to their Outlook calendars.
Delete or change Meetings
If you ‘Delete’ a meeting in in Outlook, the meeting will be flagged as ‘Cancelled’ in webCRM. If you ‘Cancel’
a meeting in webCRM it will
then be removed in Outlook.
If you ‘Delete’ the meeting in webCRM it will be ‘Unticked’ in Outlook and you will be prompted to put in a
new organization/e-mail to sync against.
Outlook Invitations
If you send or receive an invitation within Outlook you will have to first save or accept the invitation and then
synchronise the appointment by first ticking the ‘Use email’ filling in the Organisation name or Contact Linking
option.
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Synchronising Activities / Tasks
When you create a new task in
webCRM it will be synchronised
into Outlook if the synchronise
tasks option in webCRM has been
selected.
The task in Outlook will have the
due date filled in from webCRM.
The subject will be a combination
of the Company Name, Action,
Contact details and Description
from webCRM. You will also see
that the webCRM notes are copied
into the notes section of the
Outlook task. These are held
between the /* separators.
Completing Tasks
You may complete an Activity in
webCRM and it will also change the %Complete status in the Outlook task. If you wish to complete the task
within Outlook, just change the % Complete to 100% and the Activity will be completed within webCRM.
Creating a new task in Outlook:
Create the new task in Outlook as you would
do normally. If you want the task to be
synchronised with webCRM, you must first fill
in all the task data.
The Organisation name at the top is
mandatory, and must be the name of an
existing organisation in webCRM. Then you
click the "Synchronise this with webCRM"
button. Outlook immediately connects to
webCRM and creates the Outlook task as an
Activity in webCRM.
You may also use contact linking as described in the Appointments section of this document to synchronise to
the correct record in webCRM.
Creating a new task in Outlook – for the B2C version (no Organisations in webCRM):
Create the new task in Outlook as you would do normally. If you want the task to be synchronised with
webCRM, you must first fill in all the task data. The "Organisation" input at the top is supplemented with
"email" and is mandatory. It must be the Organisation name or email address of an existing Person in
webCRM. Then you click the "Synchronise this with webCRM" button. Outlook immediately connects to webCRM
and creates the Outlook task as an Activity in webCRM. If the Organisation name or email address is not
unique (more than one match) nothing is created in webCRM.
When Activities are synchronised into Outlook any notes from the activity are also copied into the body of the
task as shown in the example.
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Outlook Plug-in configuration
In order to change the default synchronisation settings
or synchronise historic data you have to navigate to the
plug-in configuration window and make your choices
regarding:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
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Synchronisation options and frequency
Historic data/manual synchronisation
Security protocol
Proxy server
E-mails to ignore
Debugging status
Synchronisation of e-mail attachments
Synchronisation prompting
Checking e-mail addresses on webCRM server
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Advanced synchronisation settings
These settings can be found in “Advanced settings” section of the
plug-in configuration window.
Show add-in tab makes the add-in tab visible in Outlook. This tab
contains the webcrm menu consisting of:
“Outlook<->webcrm” manual synchronisation button used for
synchronising all items at one go
“Delete synchronised emails” button used for deleting from Outlook
emails that have been synchronised with webcrm
Prompt before synchronising an appointment and prompt before
synchronising an email will display a prompting message window
every time you send or receive and email or create an
appointment. Please note this prompt will display for every email
other than addresses you specify in the Emails to ignore. Email domains entered in this field will not
be automatically synchronised. For example, if we have an email address: ttt@yourcompany.com and
we want to ignore all emails with that domain when synchronising we have to enter
“yourcompany.com” in the field. Please note that these emails can still be synchronised manually.
Outlook synchronization with webCRM can be run at varying
intervals. Simply select your choice from the drop down list. Select
"Sync manually only" for no automatic synchronization at intervals.
Please note that changes to the synchronisation frequency will only
take effect after subsequent restarting of Outlook.
“Check email on webCRM server” option will make the plugin to
match the sender’s email (only the first email address in the “from”
field will be considered) both with Outlook contact list as well as
webCRM database. Note that this option will slightly slow down the
synchronisation process.
“Synchronise email attachments” - if you have purchased the Email
and Website Integration Module you may also configure the system
to upload any attachments included in the email (up to 30Mb)
otherwise no attachments will be saved into webCRM, just the
email. Simply tick the box to allow attachments to be uploaded.
Use SSL to connect to server will enable the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which is the standard
security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser
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If you are connecting to the internet through a proxy server you should activate the option “Use proxy
server” and enter the URL address of the proxy server you are using.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Outlook configuration in the webCRM system determines which data entities are
synchronised. The configuration must be done by a webCRM user with access rights = "All rights".
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Configuring Outlook Integration with webCRM
Requires webCRM access level = "All rights"
To configure what data can be synchronised between webCRM and Outlook you will need to navigate from the
Main Menu to Configuration -> Integration -> Outlook. You will see the following screen:
You can determine the level of integration for each data type by selecting the corresponding arrows. You can
enable integration from webCRM to Outlook, from Outlook to webCRM, both ways, or no integration at all.
Select if the synchronization shall be:
1.
for all webCRM data
2.
for webCRM data only where the current user is appointed responsible (owner)
3.
for data where the use is a participant. In this case webCRM will synchronise with the participants’
Outlook if the synchronisation module is installed. Please note that this setting will synchronise
events when the user has a status of an owner or a participant.
Select if you want reminders activated in Outlook for Activities and / or Meetings.
Note: The configuration is common to all users. Individual user configuration is not possible
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Next you set up the mapping of data fields. This is done on the same screen as the configuration above. See
an example of the field mapping on the next page. If
you have defined custom fields in webCRM, these will
show in the field mapping.
You will notice that for some of the fields the mapping
is fixed. Others you can change. If you subscribe to
the B2C version (no organisations) the mapping will
look slightly different.
Note: The field mapping is common to all users.
Individual user mapping is not possible.
Note: When entities are created in Outlook and then
synchronized with webCRM, the system will assign
default values for all data fields in webCRM – even those data that are not synchronized during update /
create. For data fields of type drop-down (pick list) the system will assign the value at the top of the pick list if
no value is supplied in the data from Outlook.
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Historic data/manual synchronisation
The date of installation of the Outlook plugin, will be the date from which the synchronisation will start. If older
items need to synchronised then manual synchronisation
option should be chosen. You do that by clicking the
“Import/export older items” button, which opens the
following window. Here you can specify the direction of
the synchronisation, the items to be synchronised and
the time range.
Please note that:
Only the data types configured in webCRM for
synchronized with Outlook are displayed
Activities with status "Completed" are not synchronized to
Outlook tasks
In order for contacts to be created / updated in webCRM
the Contact name and Company field for the contact
must have a value assigned. (For the B2C version (no
organisations) a valid Contact name + e-mail address
should be used instead)
For e-mails to be created in webCRM, the Person with the same email address must already exist in webCRM.
Nothing will be created in webCRM unless the same type of data synchronisation has been enabled in your
webCRM Outlook configuration. This must be done by a webCRM user with access rights = "All rights".
Failure to follow the above instructions will cause the data records to be ignored.
Debugging
The debugging function is used for tracing any errors in the operation of the Outlook plug-in. The default
setting is “Operation log”. You can choose the following
options:
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
Operation log

Debug

Info

Warn

Critical error
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Help and Hints
(= Organisations/Persons, Activities and Meetings)
1.
Deleting data in webCRM does not delete data in Outlook. Deleting data in Outlook does not delete
data in webCRM.
2.
The "Synchronised with webCRM" checkbox at the top of Contacts, Tasks and Appointments in Outlook
denotes if the data is marked to be synchronised with webCRM. Data created in Outlook and not
synchronised with webCRM can be synchronised at a later time simply by clicking the "Synchronise
this with webCRM" button.
3.
Outlook and webCRM stores an internal ID for the synchronisation process. This ID depends on the
folder the data is stored in. This means that whenever data is moved from one folder in outlook to
another, the ID is altered. Hence we don't recommend moving data to another folder in Outlook once
the data has been synchronised.
4.
Synchronised data cannot be un-synchronised. Delete the data instead, and create a new instance.
5.
Comments for Meetings and Activities in webCRM are copied to Outlook between the characters "[/]"
and "[\]". This is necessary in order for the synchronisation to keep track of comments written in
webCRM and comments written in Outlook. When you add text to comments in Outlook, you should
always insert the text after the "[\]" characters.
6.
Due to internal Microsoft setup it might happen that the “+” sign in front of a phone number will
disappear on synchronising contacts from webcrm to Outlook.
To solve the problem it is enough just to initialize local phone settings on the computer. You need to
open Control Panel, go to Phone and Modem option (see attached image) and enter any settings. After
this change the "+" sign will not be removed
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7.
If the Outlook invitation feature to other Outlook users is used, configure webCRM like this and the
invited get all info from Outlook only
If the Outlook invitation feature to other Outlook users is not used, configure webCRM like this and
invitees get all info from webCRM only
In this case only if the Outlook user is the same as the Meeting responsible in webCRM will any
updates in Outlook be synced to webCRM.
The meeting responsible must manually select all participants in webCRM (in this case we recommend
to create Meetings in webCRM and not in Outlook)
Notes for Server Installations
Integration with
webCRM
Pre-conditions
Notes
Once installed the Server
administrator must
perform a ‘roll-out’ to the
users, which then have to
type their own
credentials to webCRM
Remote Desktop
Supported
The Server administrator
should use the .msi file for
both an external or internal
server
Hosted Exchange
Supported
A local mail client must be
present
Hosted Remote
Desktop
Not Supported
(unless the preconditions for the
Remote Desktop
are satisfied)
Terminal Server /
Citrix
Supported the
same as Remote
Desktop
The Server administrator
should use the .msi file for
both an external or internal
server
Office 365
Supported the
same as Hosted
Exchange
A local mail client must be
present
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Once installed the Server
administrator must
perform a ‘roll-out’ to the
users, which then have to
type their own
credentials to webCRM