Synchronization with Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook

Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook is a client application that provides the sales force automation and marketing functionality of the Microsoft CRM application within Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft CRM synchronizes a local copy of a user's contacts, tasks, appointments, and e-mail data with Microsoft® Outlook®. With Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook, users can work online or offline and either within the Microsoft CRM application or within Outlook.

Definition of Terms

Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook: A client application that provides the sales force automation and marketing functionality of the Microsoft CRM application within Microsoft Outlook. This is also referred to as the Outlook client.

Online: The state of a computer that is connected to the Microsoft CRM server.

Offline: The state of a computer that is disconnected from the Microsoft CRM server.

Classes

The following table describes the classes of the Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook objects.

Details

Microsoft CRM maintains a local store (Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 Desktop Engine, MSDE) on a user’s computer for Microsoft CRM data and does not use the local store in Microsoft Outlook for the Microsoft CRM application storage. Data from the Microsoft CRM server can be synchronized with this local store for offline access to data. In addition, there is two-way synchronization between this local store and Outlook for contact, task, calendar, and e-mail items. The synchronization between MSDE and the Microsoft CRM server uses a queue approach, which replays client-side transactions back to the server. The synchronization from server to MSDE is performed through SQL server replication. In the online state, the client uses the server database and not MSDE.

When you run a synchronization process, Microsoft CRM overwrites existing information without verifying or comparing the "last saved" date. This means if you changed a record a week ago, and someone else changed that same record earlier today, if you synchronize in the afternoon, your changes will overwrite the other person's, even though your changes are older. If, however, you and another user change different data, both changes will be saved. For example, if you have a customer named Jeff Smith and you change his first name to John, and another user changes his last name to Rodman, when you both synchronize your data, the customer's name will be John Rodman.

The following table shows how objects are mapped from Outlook to Microsoft CRM.

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