Outlook Integration added to Zurmo Commercial Editions

Zurmo, Inc. has invested significant resources into developing an Outlook Plugin. The integration tool is included in Zurmo Pro and is an optional add on for Zurmo Group. The integration tool introduces new functionality including:

1. Archiving emails from outlook to CRM.
1a. Sending and archiving when composing an email from Outlook

So, let’s look at some examples as to how this works to save you time.

I send an email to Sandy in Outlook, asking her if she could include me in her famous Fourth of July party:

I send that email from Outlook. If I want it to be associated with Sandy’s account in the CRM, all I have to do is click “upload and send“:

Now when my colleagues and I are looking at Sandy’s record, the email I have sent to her is displayed under her recent activities:

2. Syncing Contacts (both ways)

Oh my goodness! I just heard back from Sandy and low and behold some of her contact info has changed! I better make a change in my CRM and in Outlook. But, with the integration tool I only have to change the information in one and the other will automatically update the other.

Let’s see what Sandy’s contact info looks like in Outlook before I make any changes:

Okay. Now I’ll update her information in Zurmo and let’s see if it transfers over to Outlook:

Okay, that wasn’t too painful. I better brush up on my wakeboarding for the party though. Let’s be sure everything is synced and up-to-date in Outlook:

Now, for the moment you all have been waiting for… Let’s see what her contact info looks like now in Outlook:

Voila! Sandy has been updated.

3. Syncing Calendar (both ways)

Now it’s time for me to put my expected invitation at Sandy’s on my calendar. Since I work off of multiple systems, as most people do in 2013, I want my calenders to talk to one another.

Okay, so I will create the event in Outlook…

Now I’m going to check it out in Zurmo…

4. Syncing Tasks (both ways)

Finally, since we all can be a little spacey, it’s always a good idea to set tasks for ourselves. The great thing about the Outlook Plugin is that we can assign a task that is associated with a specific record in Zurmo and it will appear in our Outlook task list. Or, vice-versa.

Okay, let’s create the task in Outlook and see what it looks like:

Alright. Not bad. Now let’s head over to Zurmo and see it there:

Yep. The task has been created in Outlook and is found in Zurmo – both in my “Open Tasks” Portlet on the Homepage and in the tasks associated with the record, Sandy.