1. What is Exchange Connector?
2. Why Exchange Connector?
3. What are installation prerequisites?
4. Installing Simply Component
5. Installing Exchange Component
6. Scheduling Simply Cron
7. Mapping users
8. Syncing Contacts, Calendar events and to-dos, and attaching emails

Exchange Connector

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Exchange Connector enables you to automatically sync Contacts, Leads, Organizations and Calendar events and tasks between Exchange client (Eg: Outlook web app) and Simply CRM. You’ll need to be familiar with terms like Exchange Server, Outlook and Powershell beforehand diving into actual installation process.

Exchange Server

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Exchange Server is collaborative application developed by microsoft. It is an information management system that helps you to manage emails, share calendars, contact lists, etc. Exchange is basically installed on your servers unless you’ve decided to host exchange.

Users

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You’ll need to create users in Exchange Server and map them to users in Simply CRM.

You can create users in Exchange Server by clicking on Start -> Active Directory Users and Computers

MailBox

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You can also configure MailBoxes to your Exchange users. This eliminates the burden of installing Outlook on each and every user’s machine. While creating MailBoxes, you’ll be prompted to select the users to whom MailBoxes should be assigned.

You can create, and designate MailBoxes to Exchange users by clicking on Start -> Exchange Management Console -> Recipient Configuration -> Mailbox

Powershell

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Powershell is an object oriented programming language and interactive command line shell for MS-Windows. It was designed to automate system tasks, such as batch processing and create system management tools for commonly implemented processes. It can integrate with .NET environment and also be embedded within other applications.

Outlook

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Exchange is installed on your servers, but users do not access it directly. Outlook acts as an interface to view and manage data that is stored in Microsoft Exchange.

Why Exchange Connector?

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Exchange Connector has a lot of benefits over Simply CRM Outlook plugin. As data is stored and managed from Exchange, it is said to be backbone of the system. Having Exchange installed on your servers, you need not have to install Outlook on individual client machines. Ample time of techies can be saved — Imagine an organization with hundreds of employees working in it. Drag-and-drop feature is another major advantage. You can simply select and drag records onto desired folders. It also supports duplicate check to eliminate redundant data. You can install Exchange Connector on your server to stay connected and in sink.

Installation Prerequisites

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Before installing Exchange Connector, verify that the configuration and software prerequisites are satisfied.

1. Exchange Server 2010
2. Power Shell 2.0
3. Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Extended
4. On-Demand version and Simply CRM 5.4.0
5. Exchange clients we support include : Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook Web Access, Outlook for Mac, ..etc

Installation process

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You’ll need to install two different components; Simply component, should be installed in Simply CRM; Exchange component, should be installed on Exchange Server.

Installing simply component

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Simply CRM On Demand users

Users of Simply CRM On Demand should contact support@simplyhq.com to have the Simply component installed in their instance. This can be completed within 24 hours upon request. After we install simply component on your behalf, a new module called Exchange Connector is installed on your account.

Please follow the steps below to access the module.

1. Click icon in the top right
2. Click CRM Settings
3. You can locate Exchange Connector under Integration block

Simply CRM Open Source users

Open source users need to follow steps mentioned below to install Simply component

1. We will forward you the Simply component file in zip format
2. Download and unzip the file into root folder of Simply source
3. Run Customization/apply.php from your browser. For instance if you open simply on the browser with URL http://demo.simplyhq.com then you need to run http://demo.simplyhq.com/Customization/apply.php
4. This will install a new module called Exchange Connector. You can locate it in ‘Settings’ page under ‘Integration’ block

Installing Exchange server component

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On-Demand Simply CRM users and Open Source users will have to install an application on IIS which acts as a middle ware between Simply CRM and Exchange Server.

For installing this application, you’ll have to have following privileges:

1. Administrator credentials which has permissions to Read/Write/Access on the IIS server.
2. Administrator should have impersonation role. This can be done by running the following command on Exchange Management Shell

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name:”ROLENAME” -Role:ApplicationImpersonation -User:”USER_NAME”

For instance, New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name:exchange_connector -Role:ApplicationImpersonation -User:Administrator

Follow few simple steps to install Exchange server component

1. We will forward you the Simply Exchange server component file in zip format
2. Unzip the file and double-click on setup.exe file

3. Click Browse to provide path where Exchange Connector should be installed. Click Next

4. Read license agreement and click on check-box to accept the license. Click Next

5. Select Installation path and click Next

6. Enter the license key provided to you and click Next

7. Provide your Simply CRM URL, User Name, and Access Key. Click Next. You can get User Name and Access Key from your My Preferences page.

8. Provide your Active Directory information. Click Next

9. After successfully finishing the installation process, click Finish

Scheduling Simply Cron

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To fetch the information from Simply CRM to Exchange, we’ve provided an executable file called simplyCron.exe. This executable file should be executed very often to synchronize data between Simply and Exchange. To achieve this, you’ll need to create a task in Windows Task Scheduler.

Follow few simple steps to set-up cron

1. Click Start > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler

2. In the Task Scheduler page, right-click and select Create New Task

3. Provide a label and description to your task in Name and Description fields under General tab respectively

4. Click on Triggers tab and schedule a new trigger.

5. The recommended values are : Daily and Repeat task every 10-15 minutes Indefinitely.

5. Click on Actions tab to create a new action.

6. Click Browse to find path for SimplyCron.exe file on your computer. You’ll need to browse through Exchange Component installation files > SimplyCron folder > SimplyCron.exe.

7. Once done, the task is displayed along with list of other tasks

Mapping Users

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After successfully installing Exchange Connector, your Exchange Server users will be available for mapping. By mapping users between Exchange Server and Simply CRM, your data is synced on both ends automatically.

Follow few simple steps to map users

1. Log into your Simply CRM account. You’ll need to have administrator privileges to map users
2. Click gear icon in top right
3. Click CRM Settings
4. Click Exchange Connector. You can locate Exchange Connector under Integration block
5. Click on (+) icon, highlighted below, to initiate mapping

6. Now select respective users from the drop-downs, and click Add button

Syncing Calendar, Contacts and Attaching Emails

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Simply CRM gives you the ability to sync your contacts, calendar events and tasks, and supports attaching emails to Leads, Contacts and Organizations. After successfully installing Exchange Connector, different folders are created on your Exchange email client. Eg: Outlook web app, Outlook. These folders are responsible for managing synchronization process.

Attaching Emails

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You love managing all your Contacts, Leads and Organizations in Simply CRM. You also love organizing emails on your Exchange email client. Eg: Outlook web app. These are not two different platforms anymore. Exchange Connector brings together the best of these two features. Select an email from your Outlook web app and drag onto selected folder : VContacts, VLeads or VAccounts. Exchange Connector will search for records in Simply CRM based on email id, and attach that email if record is found. If record is not found, a new record is created in Simply CRM and email is attached to it.

Select desired email from your Exchange email client and simply drag them onto desired folder. For instance, I’ve dragged an email onto VContacts folder.

Look-up is done, contact record is found and my email attached to it successfully. I can find the email in Email section in detail view of contact record in Simply CRM

Syncing Contacts

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Contacts that are created, updated, deleted in VContacts folder will be automatically updated in Simply CRM. On the other hand, the operations you perform on contact records assigned to you in Simply CRM are also updated in VContacts folder. Changes done on your Exchange client are updated instantly. However, the changes done in Simply CRM might take some time to affect on your Exchange client — it depends on cron frequency set by your administrator.

Syncing Calendar Events

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Events with type Call, Meeting or any other custom event type other than To do in Simply CRM will be created under VEvents folder. Events that are scheduled, modified and deleted are automatically updated in Simply CRM and vice-versa.

Syncing Calendar To-dos

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Tasks are termed as To-dos in Simply CRM. All tasks that are scheduled, modified and deleted are automatically updated in Simply CRM and vice-versa.

Help us fix issues

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Have issues with exchange connector? All you have to do is run Monitor.exe file that is shipped along with Exchange Connector package. Here’s the path to locate Monitor.exe file. Browse through path where Exchange Connector is installed > Monitor folder > Monitor.exe. You’ll need to execute the Monitor.exe file. As a result, a log file in text format is generated. You’ll need to forward us the file on support@simplyhq.com. This will help us in figuring out what went wrong. Here’s path to locate the log file. Browse through path where Exchange Connector is installed > Simply Exchange Plugin > Logs > log.txt

Click on the check-box beside Enable Logging

Monitoring Folders

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The folders, VContacts, VLeads, VAccounts, VEvents, VTask, are responsible for synchronization process. If any of these folders stop responding, that means Exchange Server has lost their track. We’ll need to subscribe the folders again to start tracking changes. To achieve this, you’ll have to enable Monitor folders check-box. You’ll find this option after running Monitor.exe file.