Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync supports the synchronization of both contacts and optionally, calendar items (appointments and meetings). The synchronizing of contacts is a two-way sync between Outlook and InterAction, whereas the synchronizing of calendar items is only from Outlook to InterAction.
Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync occurs between the InterAction database and your Microsoft Exchange Server. End users do not need to do anything for the synchronization to occur. For more information, see How Does Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync Work?
Contact Synchronization
Both InterAction and Outlook let users maintain lists of their contacts. When using InterAction for Microsoft Outlook, a user’s Outlook contacts are synchronized with a corresponding list of the user’s contacts in InterAction.
You can only synchronize a user’s Outlook contacts with the contacts in that user’s contact list. You cannot synchronize Outlook public folders with InterAction.
The first time a user’s Outlook contacts are synchronized with his or her contact list in InterAction, InterAction contacts are added to Outlook and the Outlook contacts are added to InterAction. Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync then keeps the two lists synchronized - when you update a contact in Outlook, the corresponding InterAction contact is updated with the same changes. Similarly, when you update a contact in InterAction, the corresponding Outlook contact is updated. See the Loading Data into InterAction guide for more information on user contacts.
Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync does not “match up” contacts. For example, if a user has Jane Tarnoff in Outlook and Jane Tarnoff in InterAction, when Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync runs for the first time, duplicate contacts will be created.
Calendar Synchronization
Users that create appointments and meetings in Microsoft Outlook can add these directly into InterAction provided that they are future-dated, non-recurring, and the calendar synchronizing feature is enabled. Information on attendees is also included with the appointment in InterAction, provided that the attendees are InterAction contacts.
Subsequent changes to the calendar item in Outlook (for example, change of time, date, location, attendees) are updated in InterAction through the calendar sync. This is a one-way synchronization. Appointment information stored in InterAction cannot be edited.
Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync, with calendar synchronization enabled, must be run once before users can add appointments to InterAction.
If you add an appointment to InterAction that includes attendees that are not InterAction contacts, you are given the opportunity to add them to InterAction.
Note: Why Should an Organization Add Appointments to InterAction?
There are two main reasons why adding appointments to InterAction is extremely beneficial to your organization. One has to do with accurate information and the other has to do with quickly retrieving information.
Invariably, meetings are set up in Outlook and times change, attendees are added and deleted, and meetings are cancelled. If a user simply created an activity in InterAction that a meeting is to take place, any changes or updates in Outlook would not be reflected accurately in InterAction. By adding the appointment to InterAction, any changes made to the Outlook calendar item is reflected in InterAction through the calendar sync.
Secondly, think about how much easier it would be to determine how many of your colleagues are meeting with a top client in the next month or which of your sales representatives has the most meetings in the next month by simply doing a search in InterAction. Search for the client, and quickly view all the appointments applicable to that company contact. Search for a sales representative and quickly see how many meetings she has set up for the next month. If this was done in Outlook, you would have to go through numerous colleagues calendars (a very timely exercise) to acquire the same information.
How Does Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync Work?
Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync is a process that you can schedule to run on a regular basis that synchronizes each user’s contact list in InterAction with his or her contacts in Outlook as well as InterAction appointments with updates from Outlook. This process is run using InterAction Process Manager. Process Manager is an application that is used to run scheduled processes to perform different functions. You can schedule processes using InterAction Administrator. See the Administering InterAction guide for more information.
For contacts, synchronization occurs automatically between the Microsoft Exchange Server and InterAction; users do not have to take any action for their contacts to be synchronized. Similarly, they are not required to use a custom form to add, edit, or delete contacts or calendar items from Outlook.
Each user’s mailbox in Exchange is identified and matched up with his or her user contact list in InterAction. After the mailbox and user contact list have been matched, they are synchronized on a scheduled basis by the Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync process. Any additions or changes made to data in Outlook are added to the contacts in InterAction. Also, any changes made to contact data in InterAction are added to the user’s mailbox in Exchange.
For calendar items, a user must explicitly indicate that the Microsoft Outlook calendar item should be synchronized with InterAction. The calendar item must also be future dated, and non-recurring.
Calendar items from each user’s mailbox that have been added to InterAction are stored as appointments in InterAction at the firm level. Changes cannot be made to appointments in InterAction. Synchronization between the two versions occurs on a scheduled basis by the Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync process. Any additions or changes made to calendar items in Outlook are added to the appointments in InterAction. Changes cannot be made to the appointments within InterAction.
What Information is Synchronized?
InterAction synchronizes information between Outlook and InterAction. This synchronization makes the user’s contacts in Outlook a mirror image of the user’s contacts in his or her InterAction contact list as well as a user’s calendar items in Outlook with the equivalent InterAction appointments. From their user’s contact list in InterAction, users can determine which contact information they want to send to the firm. Another process called User to Firm Contact Sync then handles the process of sending the contact information from the user’s contact list to the Firm List. InterAction appointments are part of the firm data initially.
InterAction offers you the ability to turn Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync for contacts on or off for each user. For example, assume Ed Roberts and Lisa Short are both InterAction users and therefore have user contact lists. You may synchronize Ed Roberts’s contacts between Outlook and InterAction, but not synchronize Lisa Short’s contacts.
Depending on how the user has set up access to his or her user contact list, making a contact Private may not prevent the user’s delegate from seeing the contact in Outlook. For information about this setting in Outlook, see your Microsoft Outlook documentation.
You cannot, however, turn synchronization on and off for individual contacts within users’ collections. For example, Ed Roberts cannot specify five contacts that he only wants in Outlook. Users who are worried about privacy have the ability to control who can see their contacts.
A user can add a contact only to his or her contact list in InterAction. This makes the contact only available to the user and his or her proxies. A user can also make a contact Private which prevents even the user’s proxies from accessing the contact in InterAction. For example, if Ed has a contact that he does not even want his secretary to see, he can designate that contact as Private so only he can see that contact when he is logged in to the InterAction Web Client.
If a user’s contact list is not set for synchronization, that user also cannot synchronize calendar items.
For calendar synchronization, it is either enabled for everyone or disabled for everyone. For example, you cannot set up calendar synchronization on a group or user basis. If calendar synchronizing is enabled, everyone has the ability to add meetings and appointments to InterAction from Microsoft Outlook. Also, similar to selecting the type of PIM Sync you are using, once calendar synchronizing is enabled, it cannot be disabled. Unlike contacts, users can choose which items in their calendar are synchronized.
For more information, see Enabling and Disabling Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync for User Contact Lists.
Similarly, users cannot specify which fields are or are not synchronized between Outlook and InterAction for contacts and calendar items, with the exception of the Outlook Notes field for contacts as discussed in Outlook Notes. For a list of the fields synchronized, see Field Mapping.
Can I Reuse Outlook Contacts?
No. Do not take an existing contact in Outlook and change the name to create a new contact. For example, in Outlook you have a contact named Joe Smith at XYZ company that you no longer need. However, you need to add Jane Rogers as a contact that also works at XYZ company. In order to save time, you take Joe’s contact and rename it to Jane.
Now Outlook synchronizes with your user contacts in InterAction. Eventually Jane is synchronized to the firm contacts and back down to other users’ Outlook lists. InterAction does not realize that this is a new person since the ContactID is the same. Joe Smith’s name has now changed to Jane Rogers in the InterAction firm list and all activities, relationships, etc. of Joe’s are now attributed to Jane.
Instead of creating all of these issues, simply delete the Joe Smith contact in your Outlook client and create a new contact for Jane.