Bug in Outlook Sync **URGENT HELP NEEDED**

Hi,

I was hoping to get others to test this and I will send this to CommitCRM support. We are utilising the Outlook sync process for our business.

Our Engineers are currently logging into Outlook Web access and putting in their availability as some are contractors.. This is important so our dispatching can view there CommitCRM calendar to allocate jobs.

The problem is that if a staff member puts a reccurrance appointment into there Outlook calendar, it does not sync across into there calendar withinCommitCRM.

It does however work if you put single entry appointment both ways.. I have tested this on several accounts and it seems to be the same..

Can anyone out there using the Outlook sync process please advise if this is occurring for you.. We are utilising Microsoft Exchange as well.

Kind Regards,

Peter Kenneally

Hi Peter,

New/Edited Appointments, Tasks and Accounts in RangerMSP are synced to Outlook

New/Edited Appointments, Tasks and Contacts in Outlook are synced to RangerMSP

Recurring appointments should be created in RangerMSP and from there they are synced to Outlook. Any update you perform to any of the appointments in the recurring series in Outlook will be synced back toRangerMSP. Any update you perform in RangerMSP to any of the appointments in the recurring series will be synced back to Outlook.

It works the same when syncing with Exchange.

HTH

Bracha

But that does not fix my problem. Our engineers only use the web interface so they cannot enter reoccurring appointments in there calendar.. We need them to to be able to put reoccurring appointments in there Exchange calendar which is then synced back..

Why can't reoccurring appointments in Exchange be synced back to the engineers calendar in CommitCRM.. That to me is a real issue..

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the additional feedback. I understand how it would be helpful and we may address this in one of our future releases. At the moment, recurring appointments should be added in RangerMSP and they will be synced with Outlook/Exchange. Updates to these appointments in Outlook will then sync back toRangerMSP.

Sherry

Hey There,

This is not a "fix" to your exact problem but in the meatime you could configure RCP over HTTP for your users to use a local copy of outlook. That should resolve it for the time being. The downside being they need a copy of outlook on there machine

That is going to get messy as our engineers don't all use Outlook locally.. Why does reoccurring appointments not work when you create an entry within Outlook for it to sync back toCommitCRM.. If this is not available, at least if the techs could access there calendar within the web interface that would certainly resolve the issue ??

It concerns me as I personally work within my calendar in outlook to place entries etc.. if I place a reoccurring appointment in there, the office will not know if they look at my CommitCRM calendar.. we will basically have to work with both calendars to ensure there is no problems with scheduling appointments as I can see conflicts occurring if we dont.. This really needs to be resolved as I am sure other sites will come across this..

Any solution yet to this problem ?? I was under the impression that calendar sync worked both ways.. though it does not seem to be the case with reoccurring appointments...

Hello peterk,

Your feedback is logged into our requests system. It will be evaluated and we may add support for it in the future.

Here's a summary on how the RangerMSP Outlook two-way Sync works:

New/Edited Appointments, Tasks and Accounts in RangerMSP are synced to Outlook

New/Edited Appointments, Tasks and Contacts in Outlook are synced to RangerMSP

Recurring appointments should be created in RangerMSP and from there they are synced to Outlook. Any update you perform to any of the appointments in the recurring series in Outlook will be synced back to RangerMSP. Any update you perform in RangerMSP to any of the appointments in the recurring series will be synced back to Outlook.

Thanks,

Bracha

Thanks for the update.. though I just want to understand why you cannot create a recurring appointment in outlook and have it sync back to CommitCRM ?? Is it a difficult thing to setup within the system ??

Hi,

Actually, yes, syncing recurring appointments is a complicated issue and there is more than meets the eye to it... Both applications use a completely different set of rules and implementation, and it's not a trivial subject. Anyways, as said, we will try to address this issue in the future.

Bracha

I am currently evaluating CommitCRM and this is something that I just ran across today. I have several recurring appointments that are either for personal items or another company that I run in my outlook calendar. I really need CommitCRM to be able to recognize these entries to things for get scheduled for me inCommitCRM.

Hi ascendnet - thanks for chiming in on this, however, there's not much we can add on top of the already suggested solutions (such as creating recurring appointments in RangerMSP first, and sync them with Outlook). I realize this is not ideal, however, it will do the job. As said, all of your feedback is taken seriously, and I will make sure the message passes through :-)

Bracha