One of the key benefits of using Mercury is all of the great integrations with Microsoft products. This of course includes Outlook 365.
Let's take a look at what Outlook Sync does and how it works.
Emails
As standard, we configure Server Side Synchronization for all users for Office 365.
How Server-side-synchronization works
Emails sent directly from within Mercury are tracked against the relevant records.
Emails sent from Outlook are not tracked until the candidate or contact replies. The reply is then tracked in Mercury. For Candidates, these emails are shown under Closed Activities and for Contacts, these emails also show on the timeline in the centre of the Contact Form (shown below).
It is therefore advisable to send emails from Mercury in the first instance as not all outbound emails from Outlook are automatically tracked. It’s the Reply to emails that are tracked and the previous conversation can be seen in the email trail. You can of course use the Dynamics 365 app to track any emails from Outlook at the point of sending.
Synchronization occurs at least once every 15 minutes. Officially, Microsoft advises the sync is "dynamic". So the more emails you receive to be tracked, the quicker the sync is (could be a few minutes), however we cannot control the sync time.
Internal emails are not tracked unless there is a third party included as a recipient on the email.
Emails can only be tracked automatically against one record – please ensure you clean up any duplicates otherwise unexpected tracking will occur on the oldest found record. In particular ensure any test records are removed.
Be aware of any outlook folder rules that you have in place, Server Side Sync will only look into the Inbox and rules that move emails to sub-folders will mean the email won’t be tracked.
Individual data for Mercury email signatures will pull through from Office 365 user records as Administered by you.
Please also advise if there are any mailboxes that should not be set up to track against Mercury.
To break it down...
Emails sent via Mercury
When sending an email directly from Mercury, it will appear in the Timeline of the recipient that it is being sent to. It will also appear in your sent items in Outlook.
Emails sent via Outlook
When sending an email from Outlook, these will not automatically sync to Mercury. There is an easy way to sync emails, with the Dynamics 365 App on your Outlook ribbon.
Click onto the App, and then using the Track without Regarding option:
This will track this email back to the Timeline of the Contact you are emailing.
If you also wish for the email to be linked to an additional record within Mercury, then enter this into the Regarding field.
Replies from Emails Sent
All responses will sync into Mercury onto the Timeline of that Contact, no matter whether the email is sent via Mercury or Outlook.
Tasks
Tasks have a 1-to-1 sync with Outlook tasks. This means all of your Tasks created in Mercury will appear in your Tasks list in Outlook. They can be amended or completed with from Mercury or Outlook.
Appointments
Appointments have the same setup as creating an Appointment from Outlook. They have a 1-to-1 sync with Outlook and appear in your Outlook calendar. If you amend the Appointment in Outlook, it will update in Mercury.
The Appointment will send a calendar invite out to any Contact within the Required and Optional fields.
The Required and Optional fields can be edited and either additional Contacts can be added to the invite or can be removed, if you do not wish for an invite to be sent.
If you choose to remove the Contacts from the Required field, it will still link to them and that record, as the name or item in the Regarding field will also receive this Appointment on their Timeline.
Frequently asked Questions
Do my Follow-up calls appear in my Outlook calendar?
The short answer to this is no, they do not. They do not link to Outlook as they are not an Appointment or a Task. It may be possible for your IT department to sync them to appear as a Task. For more information, please speak to our Service Desk.
When I send emails from Mercury, do they appear in my Sent items in Outlook?
Yes, they do. Whether sent as a single email or a multiple emails (bulk) then they will appear in Outlook.
How do email chains works?
We always recommend sending emails to your Contacts directly from Mercury. The reason for this is because it automatically begins the tracking process, meaning that all emails sent and received from that email chain will then all be recorded in the Timeline of that Contact. The extra bonus is that the sent emails will also appear in your sent items in Outlook!
If the original email is sent from Outlook it will not automatically track, however the tracking can be started by using the Dynamics 365 App. Even if the App is not used to start the tracking, if the Contact responds to the original email, the response email will be auto tracked into the Timeline in Mercury, with the trail that includes the original email. If a reply is sent via Outlook, again, it will not track unless the App is used.
If an email is sent to a Contact via Outlook, untracked, they respond and then you reply, that email will not be tracked. If you wish to see this response in the Timeline you must track the response. Alternatively, you could go to the Contacts Timeline and locate the response email, and simply either select the option to Reply, Reply to All or Forward. Because the response is coming from Mercury, it will automatically appear in the Timeline.
When setting up an Appointment for a Contact in a different time zone, will the time be set correctly?
Yes, it will. It will sync with their Outlook time zone setting.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If an email is sent via Outlook, not tracked, and then later a user tracks it using the Dynamics App, then within the Timeline, the email entry will show the date tracked and not the date the email was created.