Contacts in CRM and on Phone

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Hi All,

Lots of question recently and your help greatly received so far.

Scenario

So we now have lots of nice contacts in our CRM and I am about to go on a business trip.
By default it appears that contacts in the CRM do not automatically copy to my Outlook.
This is fine as we have hundreds of contacts that are not directly associated with me and I therefore do not want them on my phone.

So what is the best practice for the contacts that are associated with me and those that I do want to ensure appear in my Outlook?

What if accounts added 5 new accounts and their associated contacts. How do I ensure that my Outlook only takes a copy of these important accounts/contacts and not all of those on the CRM?

Is this something to do with ownership?

Thanks all!

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Ragnar Hilmarsson 3,427 on at

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Hi Wayne

You can configure outlook synchronization filter, Check this article from Power Objects.

www.powerobjects.com/.../synchronizing-shared-crm-contacts-outlook

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Community Member on at

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Hi Wayne,

It is correct what Ragnar says, that you need to modify the synchronization filters and find a way to mark the Contacts (that you don't own) but you that want synchronized. You modify the filters in Outlook - File - CRM - Synchronize - Filters. I liked an workaround I red in the article suggested by Ragnar: "Use the built in Connections.

1) Make a connection role (ie. "Outlook Sync")

2) Make a User "Connect to" other users contacts

3) Add a Outlook filter to sync Contacts connected to me

4) Optional: Add a Outlook filter to sync to a whole Accounts' contacts that you have connected to

Have a look at screendumps at my site (it's in Danish, but screendumps are english Outlook plugin): http://wikap.dk/2012/01/vejled...

/Henrik

"

Keep us posted!

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Wayne Walton 13,730 on at

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From one Wayne to another, I'll share my oldest CRM trick for Contact sync: www.waynewalton.com/how-to-sync-arbitrary-contacts-from-crm-2013-to-outlook ;)

Mine's better for one-off contacts that don't exactly have relationships other than you want them synched, and Ragnar's post above is more for standard groups you want to set up. They both fundamentally work the same way.

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Community Member on at

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Thanks for help all.

A few more questions if I may....

So originally, my Outlook automatically Sync to our CRM.

When I was originally playing around with the import of our accounts and contacts, I set the owner as myself. As a result my Outlook now shows all the contacts in the CRM.

Now I would like to clean up my Outlook contacts but I am not sure of the correct procedure for this. At present I have set my Outlook to no longer sync with the CRM, I did this via the options with the CRM plugin and unticked the sync every 15 minutes check box.

I was thinking that I could now just go into Outlook and delete all the non required contacts and turn back on syncing with the CRM but what impact will this have. If the sync is two way, will it delete all my contacts from the CRM?

Also, is anyone able to advise or point me in the direction of how personal contacts and duplicate contacts are handled? If I have a personal contact in my Outlook, what happens if they get added to the CRM by our accounts department? I guess I will see both entries?

Thanks all!

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tctc on at

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Hi Wayne, in you turn on sync the contacts will not be deleted in CRM. The system behaves quite defensive. I wonder if you turn on again the sync with different rules, if you'll get the same contacts back? Probably you will have to remove and add the ORG again in the Configuration Wizard.

My recommendation for douplicates would be to sync the douplicate to CRM, there you use the merge function to get the information right again.

Regards tc

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Community Member on at

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Thanks for reply.

I have run some tests with the following results:

Firstly I created a contact and assigned the owner.

When I synced Outlook with the default rules, I could see a copy of the contact.

When I changed the owner it removed the contact from my Outlook.

All good so far.

I then change the ownership back to the original contact and ensured that Outlook could see it again (which it could). Then I decided that I would delete this test contact from within Outlook. It remained in the CRM which was fine.

However, I am now struggling to get this contact to appear back in Outlook!?

I have read that people say you need to remove the Outlook profile and start it again to make Outlook sync but surely this cannot be true? It sounds a massive overkill fix.

When I tried the fix you suggested, I assign to me but nothing appears to happen?

Perhaps I don't understand fully what the filters are trying to achieve.

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Community Member on at

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Hi Wayne,

I finally got your method working (I was missing an element).

New question, if you decide to delete the contact from Outlook, is it possible to get it to sync again from Outlook? Your method works but having deleted the contact I don't appear to be able to get it back.

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Wayne Walton 13,730 on at

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You know, I don't know. If you remove the Contact Sync connection from the CRM contact, let Outlook and CRM fully sync, and then re-add the connection, that might work.

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tctc on at

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well, this seems to be the fastest solution, as described here: mscrmonline.wordpress.com/.../how-to-bring-back-synched-ms-crm-2011-outlook-contacts

Regards tc

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Community Member on at

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Thanks. I have not been able to find an easier way but this link appears to explain it in the most simple way.

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