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Synchronizing with PIMs

You can synchronize contacts, appointments, and tasks between Oracle CRM On Demand and the following PIMs:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Lotus Notes

This allows you to update contact records, schedule appointments, and keep To-Do lists in either application and then synchronize the information.

NOTE: Your company administrator sets up and enables access to Oracle PIM Sync On Demand.

About Multiple User Synchronization

The PIM Sync client supports multiple users synchronizing from the same computer, or the same user synchronizing from multiple computers. Each user does not have to synchronize from his or her computer, however, a single user ID cannot synchronize from more than one computer at the same time; this action will corrupt data.

Note: Users must be logged in to Windows on the computer that they are trying to synchronize from.

About Unicode Support

The PIM Sync client supports a subset of the languages that are supported by Oracle CRM On Demand. The PIM Sync client user interface is available in German, Italian, British-English, English U.S., Spanish, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Traditional Chinese. It also supports data synchronized in these languages.

About Contacts

New and updated contact records are synchronized between the PIM application and Oracle CRM On Demand.

Synchronizing team contacts. By default, the PIM Sync client synchronizes contacts that you own. If you also want to synchronize contacts to which you have access through a team; that is, contacts that are owned by other users, ensure the Enable Sync of Team Contacts check box (located under Additional Information under Personal Preferences) is selected.

Deleting contacts. When you want to delete contacts, delete them from Oracle CRM On Demand, not from the PIM application. Otherwise, during the next synchronization, the contacts from Oracle CRM On Demand are added again to the PIM application.

Address information. The business address fields in the PIM application are mapped to the alternate address fields in Oracle CRM On Demand. Home address information is not synchronized.

Matching account information. You might have an account or company associated with a contact in the PIM application. During synchronization, the PIM application attempts to match this account or company with an existing account in Oracle CRM On Demand. The PIM application can use Fuzzy Matching to search for accounts.

NOTE: Fuzzy Matching is enabled by default when Oracle CRM On Demand is first set up for a new company. If your user role has the appropriate privilege, you can disable Fuzzy Matching on the company profile. To disable Fuzzy Matching, select the Disable PIM Sync Extended Account Association check box in the Company Security Settings section of the Company Profile page. For information on how to change company profile settings, see Setting Up Your Company Profile and Global Defaults.

If Fuzzy Matching is disabled, the PIM Sync client searches for an exact match of the requested account, and performs the following actions:

• If only one account is found, the PIM Sync client associates the requested account with the account that was found.
• If more than one account is found, the PIM Sync client associates the requested account with an account from the search results, with no specified location.
• If more than one account is found, and all the accounts have specified locations, the PIM Sync client creates a new account for the requested account and uses it.

CAUTION: It is not recommended that you disable Fuzzy Matching because if you do, the PIM Sync client will duplicate any records that are not identical.

If Fuzzy Matching is enabled, the PIM Sync client performs the following actions:

• It searches for an exact match to the account. This is the same action that is performed when Fuzzy Matching is disabled.
• If no exact match is returned, the PIM Sync client performs a further search, this time embedding wildcards for matches that are similar to the search string.

  For example, if the account name has special characters, such as an underscore, comma, period, and so on, the PIM Sync client replaces them with a wildcard character such as an asterisk. In that case, if the PIM Sync client searches for an account called "I.B.M. Hardware Division", an account such as "Italian BM Hardware Division 132426" is returned as a match.

  If the name does not contain special characters, the PIM Sync client appends one wildcard character to the end of the requested account. In that case, if the PIM Sync client searches for an account called "IBM Hardware Division", an account such as "IBM Hardware Division (Global Operation)" is returned as a match.

• If no similar match is returned, the PIM Sync client creates and uses a new account for the requested account.

If the Disable PIM Sync Account Association check box is selected on the company profile, searching for an account match is disabled. Instead, the PIM Sync client populates the PIM Company Name field on the contact record.

NOTE: Fuzzy Matching is case sensitive. If Fuzzy Matching is enabled, users must verify that the requested account is correctly associated with the matched account.

About Appointments and Tasks

New, updated, or deleted appointment and task records are synchronized between the PIM application and Oracle CRM On Demand.

Reminders. The reminder in your PIM that notifies you of upcoming appointments, such as a 15-minute reminder, or of tasks that are past their due date does not exist in Oracle CRM On Demand. Therefore, you must manually set the reminder in your PIM application for any new appointments or tasks that are created in Oracle CRM On Demand, and then copied over to your PIM application during synchronization.

Linked Records. If an appointment or task is linked to a contact, account, opportunity, lead, campaign, or service request in Oracle CRM On Demand, this record type is named in the first line of the Body field in Microsoft Outlook. For example:

Related To: Contact: Maria Sanchez; Account: XYZ Corporation; Service Request: Provide upgrade.

Because the Related To information lists the records that are linked to the appointment or task, no changes you make to that information affect Oracle CRM On Demand. Unlike other information that appears in the Body field, the Related To line is not copied to the Description field in Oracle CRM On Demand.

NOTE: The PIM Sync client does not synchronize contacts for an appointment record, or for other appointment attendees.  Only the owner of the appointment is synchronized.

Group Meetings. Employees at your company can set up a group meeting in the PIM application, and then add it to Oracle CRM On Demand during synchronization. If you delete that meeting in Oracle CRM On Demand, and then synchronize again with the PIM application, one of the following events happens:

• If you are the owner of the record (you set up the meeting), the appointment is deleted from your PIM calendar. However, the group meeting is retained in the attendees’ PIM calendars.
• If you are not the owner of the group meeting but are one of the attendees, the appointment is also deleted in your PIM calendar. However, your name remains on the attendee list in the others’ PIM calendars.

Recurring Appointments and Tasks. You must manage recurring appointments using your PIM application. During the synchronization, recurring appointments are uploaded to Oracle CRM On Demand and appear in the Calendar. All updates and deletions you make in your PIM application continue to be synchronized between the two applications.

Each instance of a recurring task appears as a separate task in Oracle CRM On Demand. If you change an individual task record in Oracle CRM On Demand, that change is preserved; it is not overwritten during subsequent synchronizations.

Maximum number of records. To reduce synchronization time, the number of recurring appointments and tasks created in Oracle CRM On Demand has a maximum limit, as shown in the following table.

For example, if you have a daily appointment in Microsoft Outlook, and you synchronize on March 1, Oracle CRM On Demand creates 31 daily appointments (March 1–March 31). If you synchronize again a week later (on March 8), 31 daily appointments are created, but this time they extend from March 8–April 7.