The following article outlines the functional changes made to the Exchange sync with the release of Sage CRM 2024 R2.1
The key changes in functionality are listed as follows:
- Bi-directional synchronization of appointments is maintained and prioritized.
- "Import Emails and Contacts" replaces the previous contact synchronization feature.
- Task synchronization will be introduced in Sage CRM 2025 R1 or a future patch.
Could I ask for some clarification on the above points please as all three aspects of the synchronisation are covered
Bi-directional synchronization of appointments is maintained and prioritized.
Many of our sites are configured as follows :
Appointment Sync Direction: CRM to Exchange Only
Is single directional synchronisation still expected to work as it did previously? Having performed some testing with Sage CRM 2024 R2.1 with the above setting configured when adding an appointment into Sage CRM it synchronises into Exchange 365. Adding an appointment into Exchange 365 does not synchronise into Sage CRM. This is expected behaviour when the setting above is configured, but it would be good to have clarification that this option is expected to work in all situations.
"Import Emails and Contacts" replaces the previous contact synchronization feature.
Previously within Sage CRM if a person record was added to My Contacts then that person would be synchronised over to Contacts within Exchange 365. The Import Contacts feature is the reverse of this functionality so is not a replacement. It is far more useful to be able to add People from Sage CRM into Exchange 365 than the other way round.
Within Synchronisation Management the option to Sync Contacts still exists, will this be removed at some point? With my testing I can see that Contacts are no longer synchronised so having the option still alliable is confusing as it implies that this feature is still available.
Task synchronization will be introduced in Sage CRM 2025 R1 or a future patch.
With the synchronisation configured as follows
Sync Contacts: Yes
Contact Sync Direction: Bidirectional
having added a task into Sage CRM that task has appeared in Exchange 365. It has been stated that this functionality will be introduced in a later release but it appears to be working with Sage CRM 2024 R2.1. Are you expecting Task synchronisation to work at all? If so then are you expecting it to work reliably?
Editing appointments that were synchronized prior to the upgrade
Within the ReadMe it states
Warning: Editing appointments that were synchronized prior to the upgrade may lead to unexpected results
Could you expand on this please and state what unexpected results are likely to occur? It is not unreasonably to assume that users will edit existing appointments, if only to mark them as being complete. Are there any specific actions which should not be carried out on existing appointments?