Introduction 

Office 365 is the online web version of Microsoft Office or MS Office as it is popularly known.

If you are using MS Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., you will benefit from using Office 365. With Office 365, you will have the option of quickly saving all your documents on MS servers. You will be able to use documents, send emails, and share files from wherever you are located. 

Office 365 and Vtiger CRM

Is your contact or customer traveling? Is your sales team spread out in different cities? Are you worried about how you will coordinate with everyone?

No problem! Create, coordinate, and reach out to co-workers and customers from wherever you are by integrating Office 365 with Vtiger CRM. 

Here are some of the benefits of this integration: 

• Access emails, documents, and spreadsheets from different locations and different time zones - now you can share all your documents.
• Access all your contacts and calendars from Office 365 and Vtiger with 2-way sync - do not worry about losing contact information or missing events, meetings, and email.
• Leverage sales insights by identifying opportunities that are not progressing and take necessary actions to close the deal.
• Save communication history for contact by archiving Office 365 emails into Vtiger CRM - ensure you do not forget what you have discussed and have speaking points ready for your next meeting.
• Get automated reminders to follow up on idle contacts that will help you generate new business and build your network.
• Get reminders about meetings, emails, and campaigns and never miss meetings with contacts.

To know more about Office 365 + Vtiger CRM, click here.

Feature Availability

Office 365 is also available in the Help Desk Starter and Help Desk Professional editions.

Integrating Office 365 with Vtiger CRM

Vtiger CRM integration with Office 365 helps you collaborate with your contacts, emails, and calendar instantly. 

Installing the Connector

Using the Vtiger connector for Office 365, you can now synchronize your Contacts and Calendars bi-directionally between Office 365 and Vtiger. 

Office 365 in Vtiger CRM is not available by default. To enable it, you must download the Office365 Connector extension from the Extension Store.

Follow these steps to install the Office365 Connector extension:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the screen.
3. Click Settings.
4. Go to Extensions.
5. Click Extension Store.
6. Install the Office365 Connector extension.
7. Click Launch to open the Office365 sync log.

Once the connector is installed, you can configure the sync settings in the CRM.

Configuring the Sync

Before you can sync your contacts, emails, and calendar between Office 365 and Vtiger, you need to configure sync settings in the CRM. You can configure these settings either from the Contacts or the Events module.

Follow these steps to configure the sync settings from the Contacts module:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. In the List View, click Sync on the top right.
6. If you are configuring for the first time, click Sign In and sign in using your Microsoft credentials, or Click Settings next to Office365 and Sync Log.
7. The Sync Settings window will appear once you are logged in to your Microsoft account. You will find three sections in the Sync Settings window.

• Contacts Sync Settings
• Emails Sync Settings
• Events Sync Settings

8. Edit the Contacts Sync Settings section for the following:
   1. Select which data must be synced from the Office365 Data drop-down.
   2. Select Sync Direction from the three options given in the drop-down.
   3. Click View to view mapped events.
      • Note: You cannot add custom fields to Contacts as the fields are mapped by default. You can only view the details.
   4. Click the Enable Contacts Sync toggle button.
9. Edit the Emails Sync Settings section for the following: 
   1. Select which data must be synced from the Office365 Data drop-down.
   2. Select Sync Direction from the drop-down.
   3. Click the Enable Emails Sync toggle button.
10. Edit the Events Sync Settings section for the following: 
    1. Select which data must be synced from the Office365 Data drop-down.
    2. Select Sync Direction from the three options given in the drop-down.
    3. Click View to view mapped events.
       • Note: You cannot add custom fields to Calendar as the fields are mapped by default. You can only view the details.
    4. Click the Enable Events Sync toggle button.
    5. Select the date from when the sync must happen in the Sync From field.
11. Click Save. 

Syncing the Records

After configuring the sync settings, you can begin the synchronization process in Vtiger CRM. This might take a few moments, depending on the number of contacts you have in your Microsoft and Vtiger CRM accounts.

You can sync the records either from the Contacts or Events modules.

Follow these steps to sync your records from the Contacts module:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Select Contacts.
5. In the List View, click Sync on the top right.
6. Click Sync Log next to Office365 and Settings.
7. Click Sync Now on the top right.

The Sync Log displays the list of Contacts, Emails, and Events synced between Vtiger and Office 365. You can click on the figures in blue to view generated records. You can also download the report as a .csv file for your reference.

Syncing Emails from Outlook

If you want all your customer emails from Office 365 to be linked to Contacts stored in Vtiger CRM, you must make simple changes in Outlook.

Follow these steps to sync emails:

1. Log in to Outlook.
2. Click on Toggle Left Pane.
3. Expand the Inbox folder.
4. Move the emails that need to be synced to vtcontacts folder. 

Now once you have moved all the emails to vtcontacts folder, log in to Vtiger CRM. Go to Contacts > Sync > Sync Log and click Sync Now button to sync the emails.
 

Limitations

Office 365 APIs have some limitations because of the bugs in their APIs.

• For Recurring Events that are created with no end date, Vtiger syncs events based on these conditions.
  • If End Date < 31-12-2100, then only 500 events will be synced.
  • If End Date > 31-12-2100, then based on the recurring condition events, will be synced until the year 2100.
• The Birthday field is not synced because the date returned from Office 365 is always one day more.
• Contacts sync does not support Group Level sync as Office 365 has a bug wherein all the newly added contacts go to the default contacts group instead of the group that was selected for sync.
• Field Mapping cannot be changed; it is fixed.