Technically Speaking…

In my role as a system administrator, I provide support for many applications.  One of these applications is SalesLogix.

We use Saleslogix to store non-financial customer information and other things you would find in a CRM application.  Sometimes, the simplest things get the best of us.  Since I had an interesting incident while working with a Saleslogix user, I thought I would share.

SalesLogix can integrate with Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to push email messages relavant to customer accounts/contacts into SalesLogix.  This is a good thing for two primary reasons:

1. It keeps all information about a contact and account in one place
2. It allows the user who received the message to keep their mailboxes cleaned up without losing information.

I am sure there are a load of other reasons to like the integration between Outlook and Saleslogix, but those are the two that stick out for me right now.

When sending an email to Saleslogix, Outlook looks for a record with a matching email address.  If found, the dialog box to allow the message to be inserted appears.  If the address is not found, Outlook gives up.

The issue I saw today was as follows, the email came in from user@company.com.  When put into Saleslogix, nothing happened.  The contact where it should have ended up, was not changed, but did exist.

The email address for the record in Saleslogix was entered as something different from the actual email address, u.ser@company.com.  This causes Outlook to do nothing, because the record in Saleslogix has a different email address than the record in Outlook.  Since these do not match, nothing is done with the message.

The best way to fix this (other than dragging and dropping the message from Outlook to SalesLogix) is to copy the existing value of the contact’s email field into email 2 and then enter the email address used by outlook into the Email field for the contact in Saleslogix.

To retrieve the email address from an Outlook mail message, open the message and right click the name of the sender on the From line.  Then choose Outlook Properties (or properties) and record the email address listed there.  If the sender is within your organization you may need to select the E-mail Addresses tab in Outlook Properties.

Once this is done, you should be able to click the Record history to Saleslogix button (shown on the toolbar in the main application window of Outlook) and have the message recorded to the history for the contact with that email address.

It is likely that most Saleslogix users and administrators are aware of this issue, and that it doesnt happen too often, but I thought it a good idea to share just incase there are some who have not yet seen this.

Applications, Email, Outlook Applications, CRM, E-mail, integration, Outlook, saleslogix

Assigning delegate access to your mailbox or parts of your mailbox can be a great way to make sure your email is watched or meetings managed while you are out of the office.  It can also be useful to those with assistants and very busy schedules allowing the assistant to manage incoming mail and meeting requests.

It is important to note that while delegation within Outlook is useful in many situations, the access should not be taken lightly.  Sending email on behalf of another user can be a very powerful thing, use it very carefully and be sure that you are considering both your own and the other user’s best interests.

How do I delegate access?

To delegate access to your mailbox to other users complete the following steps:

1.   In Outlook select Options from the Tools menu

2.   In the Options Dialog box click the Delegates tab (shown below)

Figure A

Adding delegates

3.   Click the Add button to select the users who will receive access to your mailbox

4.   Enter the name(s) or select users from the list

a.   Ctrl+Click will select multiple users

5.   Click the Add ->button to include the selected users

Once all of the accounts have been added, click the OK button on the add users dialog box

This will display the Delegate Permissions dialog for your mailbox.  On this dialog you can specify access for the user or group of users you selected previously.

Note: When selecting multiple users to provide delegate access, all of the users you select at once will receive the same access rights to your mailbox.  To assign different access to users you will need to complete the steps presented here for each user or group of users.

6.    On the Delegate Permissions dialog (shown in figure B below) you can specify the degree of access the selected user(s) will have for each section of your mailbox.  The access types are available:

• Editor - users with this permission can read, create, and modify items in the selected mailbox folder
• Reviewer - users with this permission can read items in the selected mailbox folder
• Author - users with this permission can read and create items in the selected mailbox folder

Each folder listed on the delegate permissions dialog can have different permission and these are configured separately by choosing a permission level for each in the dialog box for the folder.

Figure B

Configure delegate permissions by choosing the access level for each folder listed

For the calendar folder, you can also check a box to send meeting requests to your delegate as well as to yourself.  This will speed up the response process by delegates because a copy of the item will arrive in their mailbox as well.

For the delegate user or group as a whole, you can select one or both of the following checkboxes at the bottom of the permissions dialog:

• Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions - emails the delegates you selected to let them know that they have been assigned access to your mailbox. The email will summarize the level of access the user(s) have as well.
• Delegate can see my private items - this allows delegates to view calendar and other items marked as private

7.   Click OK on the Delegate Permissions dialog box to save the permissions

8.   Click OK on the Options dialog box to alert the chosen delegates of their access rights

Note: Some folders may not appear as soon as access is assigned for the delegates, there may be a need for them to logon again to see these items.  Also it may be a requirement to have the delegates open calendar items as a shared resource if they do not appear.  This should not affect their delegate access.

Assigning delegates is a great way for managers and supervisors or departments with multiple staff members to get help managing their email and meetings.  It can also help keep things flowing during periods of extended time away from the office.

Managing outlook delegation effectively can make everyone’s day a bit easier and remove some of the burden from your organizations IT staff when others need access to your resources.

Office, Outlook, Productivity delegation, Outlook, resource management

Have you ever found yourself burried in voicemail messages? Whether you are out of the house for a few minutes or in an area with no cell reception, surely there have been days where you didnt get your voicemail as readily as you might have liked. I know this happens to me occasionally.

Being a VoIP user, I like getting email notifications of any voicemail messages I receive… this allows me to listen to the messages from anywhere I have Internet access and removes the need for me to check in with the VoIP provider’s site to see if there are messages for me to listen to. However, for my cellular phone there is no email convenience feature to email me when I have a new message. Or is there?

There is a solution out there that doesnt cost anything for its basic service. The website is called GotVoice and allows you to setup your cellular phone or traditional home phone to have its voicemail retrieved and emailed to you. You can play the message right from the email. Unified messaging for non-IP telephony.

The service works by collecting information about your phone when you set up your account. You tell GotVoice your phone number and voicemail pin number, and it calls your phone based on a schedule you configure and retrieve’s messages. Then it emails them to you.

You can sign up for plus service, which emails the voicemail message(s) as email attachments in MP3 format, and allows more checks per day (10 checks per day, up from 3 with the free service) or Premium service, which will deliver voicemail in an RSS feed and allow playback from Itunes (or an RSS Reader) and carries 24 checks per day.

The basic service allows you to listen to voicemail from your account, you click on a link in the email and the GotVoice web player pops up and plays new messages.

The service is secured by user supplied login/password that is stored in a database, configured and set by the user.

Also, with the free service you will get ads on the account screen and in the emails received denoting messages.

Basic service is free, Plus service is 4.95/month and Premium service is 9.95/month. From the limited use I have had with the service it seems pretty cool. We will see how it goes for a few days, sounds like a cool idea though.

Email, Internet toys, News

The other day a colleague emailed me to ask if it was possible to print out all of the email messages in one folder within MS Outlook. After thinking (and deciding not to be a smartass and suggest that doing so would kill alot of trees) I emailed to let him know this could be done and was easy to do. So here goes.Using Outlook 2003 selec the folder whose contents you wish to print, then turn off the preview pane. (Just for safe measure, select the view menu and then reading pane -> off). After doing this, simply choose File -> Print

When the print dialog opens, select the print style of Table rather than Memo and on the right of the dialog, make sure the number of pages is set to All. Then click Print (or OK)

I will post a screenshot of the Print Dialog and the appropriate selections tomorrow as they live on my work PC.

Email, Outlook