Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM Ver. 3.0 Users Guide · Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM is an...

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Implicit FrontEnd™ for SugarCRM™

Ver. 3.0

Users Guide

Implicit Inc.

August 2015

Implicit FrontEnd

for SugarCRM

User Guide


Trademarks Implicit, the Implicit Logo, Implicit Sync, Implicit Sync for SugarCRM, Implicit FrontEnd, Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM and combinations thereof are trademarks of Implicit Inc. Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Sync Framework and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. SugarCRM is registered trademarks of SugarCRM Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies. Disclaimer The contents of this document are provided in connection with Implicit Inc. ("IMPLICIT") Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM product. IMPLICIT makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this publication and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. No license, whether express, implied, arising by estoppel, or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights are granted by this publication. Except as set forth in IMPLICIT FrontEnd License Agreement, IMPLICIT assumes no liability whatsoever, and disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to its products including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or infringement of any intellectual property right. IMPLICIT's products are not designed, intended, authorized or warranted for use as components in applications intended to support or sustain life, or in any other application in which the failure of IMPLCIT's product could create a situation where personal injury, death, or severe property or environmental damage may occur. IMPLICIT reserves the right to discontinue or make changes to its products at any time without notice.


Contents

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5

2. Installation ............................................................................................................................................ 6

2.1 Preparing for the installation .............................................................................................................. 6

2.2 Installing the Pre-Requisites Components .......................................................................................... 6

2.3 Installing the Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM Outlook Add-In .......................................................... 9

3. Initial Configuration and Synchronization .......................................................................................... 12

3.1 Licensing and SugarCRM Account Credentials .................................................................................. 12

3.2 Initial Synchronization ....................................................................................................................... 13

4. Options ................................................................................................................................................ 24

4.1 General Options ................................................................................................................................ 24

4.2 Sync Configuration ............................................................................................................................ 25

4.3 Email Archiving .................................................................................................................................. 26

4.4 Sync Pane Configuration ................................................................................................................... 28

4.5 Advanced Configuration ................................................................................................................... 29

5. Sync Pane ............................................................................................................................................ 30

5.1 Details Pane ...................................................................................................................................... 31

5.2 Search Pane ....................................................................................................................................... 32

6. Synchronization................................................................................................................................... 33

6.1 Initial Sync ......................................................................................................................................... 33

6.2 Sync Now ........................................................................................................................................... 33

6.3 Background Sync ............................................................................................................................... 34

7. Accounts, Opportunities, Cases and Notes ......................................................................................... 35

7.1 Account List ....................................................................................................................................... 35

7.2 Account Form .................................................................................................................................... 36

7.3 Searching for Accounts ..................................................................................................................... 38

8. Contacts and Leads ............................................................................................................................. 39

8.1 Contacts Synchronization ................................................................................................................. 39

8.1.1 Outlook Contact Form .................................................................................................................... 39

8.1.2 Contact List .................................................................................................................................... 40


8.1.3 Contact Search ............................................................................................................................... 41

8.2 Leads ................................................................................................................................................. 43

8.2.1 Lead List ..................................................................................................................................... 43

8.2.2 Lead integration with Email ....................................................................................................... 44

9. Calendar and Tasks ............................................................................................................................. 45

9.1 Calendar Synchronization ................................................................................................................. 45

9.1.1 Outlook Calendar Form .............................................................................................................. 45

9.1.2 Meetings Relationships .............................................................................................................. 46

9.2 Tasks Synchronization ....................................................................................................................... 47

9.2.1 Outlook Task Form ......................................................................................................................... 47

9.2.2 Tasks Relationships ........................................................................................................................ 48

10. Email Archive................................................................................................................................... 49

10.1 Email Sync Pane .............................................................................................................................. 49

10.2 Manual archiving of Email ............................................................................................................... 50

10.2.1 Manual archiving of incoming Email ........................................................................................ 50

10.2.2 Manual archiving of outgoing Email ........................................................................................ 52

10.3 Auto archiving of Email ................................................................................................................... 52

10.4 Creation / Syncing of accounts, contacts / leads based on incoming emails ................................. 54

11. Custom Modules and Fields ............................................................................................................ 56

11.1 Adding Custom fields to a standard SugarCRM Module ................................................................. 56

11.2 Adding a Custom Module ............................................................................................................... 58

11.3 Deploying Customizations ............................................................................................................... 60

12. Document Archive .......................................................................................................................... 61

12.1 Archiving Microsoft Office Documents ........................................................................................... 61

12.2 Archiving Non-Office Documents ................................................................................................... 62

13. Web Browsers Integration .............................................................................................................. 63

13.1 Internet Explorer ............................................................................................................................. 63

13.2 Chrome ............................................................................................................................................ 64

13.3 Common Functionality .................................................................................................................... 64

14. Implicit FrontEnd Taskbar Application ............................................................................................ 67

15. Offline Mode ................................................................................................................................... 68


1. Introduction

Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM is an extensive integration platform between SugarCRM and Microsoft

Outlook. It offers a rich feature set tightly tailored with Microsoft Outlook and other Office applications.

Through a very intuitive and easy to use interface, Implicit FrontEnd maintains both Outlook’s and

SugarCRM’s user experience and native look & feel.

Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM allows you to:

• View and interact with key SugarCRM data directly from within Outlook

• Bi-directionally synchronize SugarCRM accounts, opportunities, contacts / leads, calendar, tasks,

cases & notes

• Take immediate actions upon receiving or responding to emails from contacts / leads

• Maintain complete archive of your email correspondence with your customers and prospects

• Automatically sync Outlook's calendar with SugarCRM and archive meetings to their respective

contacts and accounts records

• Archive document directly from within Office apps such as Microsoft Word / Excel.

• Maintain full synchronization and archive emails and documents even when you are offline.

• Increase your productivity by not having to switch back and forth between Outlook and

SugarCRM


2. Installation

2.1 Preparing for the installation

Before running the Outlook Add-in installation please make sure of the following:

1. Your computer is connected to the network and you are able to browse the internet

2. If you are connected via a proxy, make sure that your Internet Explorer browser is properly

configured to use the proxy as the installer will need to download and install several Microsoft

components from the Microsoft site

3. Close any open Office applications.

2.2 Installing the Pre-Requisites Components

Before installing the Outlook add-in, the installer will check the desktop for components that are

required for Outlook add-ins to work and install/upgrade any missing component:

.Net Framework 2.0 and above (Outlook 2007) and .Net Framework 4 client profile (Outlook

2010 / 2013)

Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 Core Components and Provider Services

Microsoft Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies (Outlook 2007 only).

Microsoft SQL Compact Edition.

Microsoft Visual Studio for Office second Edition Runtime

You will first need to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) for each of the components.


Fig. 1 – Sync Framework License Agreement


Fig. 2 – SQL Server Compact Edition and VSTO License Agreements


Upon accepting all EULAs, the installer will download and install each of the components

Fig. 3 – Installing pre-requisites

2.3 Installing the Implicit FrontEnd for SugarCRM Outlook Add-In

Once the installation of the pre-requisites is completed, the installer will begin installing the Implicit

FrontEnd Add-in.

Fig. 4 – Installing the Implicit FrontEnd Outlook Add-In

Click Next to continue. You will be prompted accept the Implicit FrontEnd EULA:


Fig. 5 –Implicit FrontEnd End User License Agreement

Next, you will be prompted to select the installation folder. By default the installation folder will be set

to: \Program Files\Implicit\Implicit FrontEnd. Choose Browse to select a different folder. Then click

‘Next’.

Fig. 6 – Installation Folder


Next, the installer will be prompt you to confirm the installation and start copying the files:

Fig. 7 – Confirm Installation

Fig. 8 – Installation Complete


3. Initial Configuration and Synchronization

3.1 Licensing and SugarCRM Account Credentials

Upon Launching Outlook for the first time after install, you’ll be prompted to enter the Implicit FrontEnd

license key:

Fig. 9 - License Dialog

The following ‘Welcome Dialog’ will show up and prompt you to enter your user name and password

that you use to login to SugarCRM. The SugarCRM server address is based on the license you entered

and is read-only.

Fig. 10 – SugarCRM Account

Upon clicking “OK” the Outlook add-in will communicate with SugarCRM to retrieve the configuration

information and prepare the software for first configuration and the first synchronization cycle.

If your SugarCRM instance is configured to use LDAP authentication, your SugarCRM administrator will

provide you with an encryption key that was used to enable LDAP authentication on the server. In that

case check the box and enter the key.


3.2 Initial Synchronization

Once Implicit FrontEnd is able to successfully log in to your SugarCRM account, it will proceed to

perform an initial synchronization process. During this process, SugarCRM data will be selectively synced

from your SugarCRM account to Outlook.

Note: The initial sync cycle focuses on synchronizing the selected information from SugarCRM to

Outlook. Outlook data will be synced to Outlook only after the completion of the initial sync.

The system will first prompt you to configure which modules should be synchronized:

Accounts

You may turn on/off Accounts sync as well as select the direction to sync Accounts:

SugarCRM to Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM

You may choose to sync accounts that are assigned to you individually or if you are a

member of one or more teams, you may select the teams.

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Fig. 11 –initial Sync – Accounts


Opportunities

You may turn on/off Opportunities sync as well as select the direction to sync Opportunities:


You may choose to sync Opportunities that are assigned to you individually or if you are a

member of one or more teams, you may select the teams.

Only Opportunities that were created, modified or expected to close within the selected

timeframe will be synced

Fig. 12 –initial Sync – Opportunities

Cases

You may turn on/off Cases sync as well as select the direction to sync Cases: SugarCRM to

Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM

You may choose to sync Cases that are assigned to you individually or if you are a member

of one or more teams, you may select the teams.

Only Open cases are synced


Fig. 13 – initial Sync – Cases

Contacts

You may turn on/off Contacts sync as well as select the direction to sync Contacts:


You may choose to sync all Contacts that are assigned to you or contacts that were active

within the selected timeframe (e.g. 3 months)


Fig. 14 –Initial Sync – Contacts

The initial synchronization of contacts may potentially involve thousands or records. It is

therefore essential to minimize this amount of data and select only the “freshest” data set

which represents those accounts and contacts with whom have had recent business

transactions.

The initial sync dialog allows you to define the business activities that should be used to define

active accounts / contacts:

o Contacts that have been created or modified within the last N months

o Contacts associated with all accounts, open opportunities or cases that have been

created or modified within the last N months

o Any contacts that are related to meetings which are synced to Outlook


o Any contacts that are related to tasks which are synced to Outlook

o Any contacts that are related to notes which are synced to Outlook

o Sync only contacts associated with the above activities, with whom I have

communicated via Outlook

By including all contacts that meet the above criteria, we may potentially end up with a very

large list of contacts. The list will consist of all the freshest and most relevant contacts but may

also include non-relevant contacts. By “non-relevant”, we mean contacts that you may have

never had any email correspondence with and therefore it is assumed unlikely that you may

need these contacts to be synchronized to Outlook. It is therefore essential to narrow down the

list of contacts by applying the last filter “Sync only contacts associated with the above activities

with whom I have communicated via Outlook”. This will ensure that only those contact whose

email addresses are known to Outlook will be synced during the initial cycle.

This is a great way to minimize the amount of contacts you will be syncing, yet ensure that they

are the freshest and most relevant to you. If you are installing Implicit FrontEnd on desktop with

Microsoft Outlook which you have used to communicate with your SugarCRM contacts and

leads, we recommend that you check this box. This will filter the list and sync only the contacts

that show up in your Outlook email cache.

You will, of course, be able to extend this set of contacts and sync additional contacts on an on-

going basis based on email activities, meetings with contacts etc.

If however, you are installing Implicit FrontEnd on desktop with a fresh environment, we

recommend that you uncheck this box, otherwise no contacts will be synced during the initial

sync phase.


Leads

You may turn on/off Leads sync as well as select the direction to sync Leads: SugarCRM to

Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM

You may choose to sync Leads that are assigned to you individually or if you are a member

of one or more teams, you may select the teams.

You can choose to sync only Leads that have been created or modified within the selected

timeframe.

Fig. 15 –Initial Sync – Leads


Meetings / Calls

You may turn on/off Meetings or Calls sync as well as select the direction to sync Meetings /

Call: SugarCRM to Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM.

By default any SugarCRM meetings or calls that are related to your account and are

scheduled today or in the future will be synced. If you wish to also sync meetings or calls

that have occurred in the past, check the box and select the timeframe.

Fig. 16 –Initial Sync – Meetings / Calls

Tasks

You may turn on or off Tasks sync as well as select the direction to sync Tasks: SugarCRM to

Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM.

Only Tasks assigned to you are synced

Only Tasks whose due dates are greater than the selected date are synced


Fig. 17 –Initial Sync – Tasks

Notes

You may turn on or off Notes sync as well as select the direction to sync Notes: SugarCRM to

Outlook and Outlook to SugarCRM.

Only Notes that have been created or modified within the selected timeframe are synced


Fig. 18 –Initial Sync – Notes


Once you configured the filters for the initial sync, the system will prompt you to start synchronization.

The Sync Now dialog allows you to select the type of items that you wish to sync to Outlook.

Fig. 19 – Sync Now

Select the items you wish to sync and click Sync Now.

Note: The initial sync cycle may take some time depending on the amount of records you have in your

SugarCRM account. During this time, the synchronization process will run in the background and you will

be able to continue working with Outlook. If you prefer not to run the initial sync process at this time,

click Close. You will be able to initiate this process at any time by clicking the Sync Now button on the

toolbar.


Upon Clicking Sync Now, the following dialog will come up to inform you that process will now continue

on the background via the Implicit FrontEnd Taskbar application (as shown in the screenshot). The

taskbar application will display bubble notifications at the end of each phase in the process and you can

click on these bubbles to get additional status information.

Fig. 20 – Initial Sync Notification


4. Options

You may view and edit the Implicit FrontEnd settings by clicking the “Options” menu under the drop-

down button on the toolbar:

4.1 General Options

Fig. 21 – General Options

User Account

This section displays your account information: SugarCRM instance you are connected to and your user

name and password. You can click Verify to make sure you can log in to the server.


Synchronize

This section allows you to configure several settings related to synchronization:

Automatic background synchronization and how often

When creating new Outlook items such as contacts calendar and tasks – should those be

marked for synchronization by default? Or, if you prefer, you may turn this setting off and

manually select the items you wish to mark for synchronization.

When items are deleted from SugarCRM – should the corresponding items be deleted from

Outlook?

Synchronization Priority

If the same items have been modified within one sync cycle – who should take precedence: Outlook or

SugarCRM?

Log File

For support purposes you may be asked to enable logging, select the maximum size of the log file and

view the log.

4.2 Sync Configuration

See section 3.2.


4.3 Email Archiving

Email archiving options allow you to define the rules for archiving incoming and outgoing email.

Fig. 22 – Email Archiving Options

Auto-Archiving Rules

You can select one of the following options:

Archive all incoming/outgoing emails received from or sent to SugarCRM contact/leads –

Implicit FrontEnd will examine each incoming/outgoing email. If it was received from or sent to

a SugarCRM contact or lead that has been synced to Outlook, Implicit FrontEnd will

automatically archive the email to both the contact’s the account’s records on SugarCRM.

Archive incoming/outgoing emails received from or sent to selected SugarCRM contacts or

accounts – In this case Implicit FrontEnd will archive emails for those contacts and accounts for

whom archive rules have been set.


Do not automatically archive emails

Manual-Archiving Rules


“Prompt me to select relationship before archiving” – If selected, Implicit FrontEnd will prompt

user upon clicking Archive Email to select the records (accounts, opportunities etc.) to associate

the archived email with.

Do not prompt – The archive dialog will not be shown and the default setting will be used to

archive the emails to their respective contacts and accounts

Automatically find and sync contacts/leads if not already synced to Outlook – When checked,

and prior to archiving emails, Implicit FrontEnd will first search Outlook to find a matching

contact/lead. If not found, it will search SugarCRM and if the contact/lead is found on the

server, it will sync it to Outlook and then archive the email.

Default follow up time

Email Attachments


Archive attachments

Maximum attachments size

Limit the file type to the specified list of file extension (comma delimited)


4.4 Sync Pane Configuration

Fig. 23 – Sync Pane Configuration Options

This Sync Pane configuration tab allows you to select which modules (out of the ones that you enabled

under the sync configuration tab) will appear on the Sync Pane and their order of appearance. Simply

enable the ones you would like to see and use the arrow buttons to re-order the list.


4.5 Advanced Configuration

Fig. 24 – Advanced Configuration Options

The Advanced Configuration tab allows you to:

Change License Key – This is typically used to switch from a trial license key to production

Reset Configuration - Use Reset Configuration only if you need to switch from one server to

another or if you need to switch user accounts. In this case synchronization cannot be

maintained across accounts and it is therefore necessary to reset Implicit FrontEnd to its initial

state and re-synchronize the data from the new server/account.

Caution: Reset Configuration will retain all the native Outlook data: contacts, calendar, tasks and

emails but will remove all the non-native Outlook items such as accounts, opportunities etc.


5. Sync Pane

The sync pane consists of a details tab which displays information about the selected Outlook item and allows users to take actions, and a search tab.

Fig. 25 – Sync Pane


5.1 Details Pane

The Sync Pane supports two viewing modes:

Extended view – Extended information is displayed

Brief View – Only brief summary is displayed. This mode is designed to allow rapid switching between email messages with minimal information being retrieved from Outlook / Implicit FrontEnd database.

The information displayed on the Sync Pane depends on the type of items being selected. For example: the above is a screenshot of the Sync Pane displayed for emails when the system recognizes the email address of the sender as a SugarCRM contact. In this case it displays the following:

Contact information

Account Information

List of account’s opportunities

List of contact’s and account’s meetings/calls

List of contact’s and account’s tasks Or any other modules that you selected under the “Sync Pane” configuration The two checkboxes on the right hand side allow users to select whether the information shown on the bottom half of the screen is related to the contact, the account or both. User Actions

Clicking on any of the items will open the item for viewing/editing: contact, account, opportunity, case, calendar or task.

Clicking “Activities and History” will open the contact’s or account’s list of all related items

Clicking the “+”allows user to create a new item such as new opportunity/case for that account or calendar/task for the contact

Notes:

1. Outlook items will be displayed on the Sync Pane only after they have been synced to SugarCRM.

2. Details pane is displayed only if the email is received from a contact / lead that have been synced to Outlook. If the email address of the sender is unknown, the search pane will be displayed and provide functionality to search for the account, contact or lead on SugarCRM, sync them to Outlook and archive the email to their corresponding records.

3. If you are using Microsoft Exchange and the selected email is received or sent to another user on the Exchange server, the system will assume that this user is not a SugarCRM contact or lead and the details tab will not be displayed


5.2 Search Pane

The search pane allows you to search for records in Outlook or on the SugarCRM server. The search is contact sensitive and adjusts itself to the selected folder/list. We will describe the search functionality for each of the types of items in the following sections.


6. Synchronization

6.1 Initial Sync

The initial sync is a process that takes place when you launch Outlook for the first after installation. It is

described in details in section 3.2

6.2 Sync Now

You can trigger a sync cycle at any time by clicking Sync Now on the Implicit FrontEnd toolbar. The

following dialog prompts you to select the items you wish to sync

Fig. 26 – Sync Now

The following options are available:

Automatically start – Select this option to start synchronization upon launching the dialog.

Otherwise, you can modify the items selection and click Sync Now again.


Close this dialog after synchronization - The dialog will be automatically closed upon completion.

6.3 Background Sync

To have the system periodically sync in the background, select this option under the general section of

the Options dialog (section 4.1).


7. Accounts, Opportunities, Cases and Notes

SugarCRM data such as accounts, opportunities cases and notes are accessed via Outlook’s Implicit

FrontEnd ribbon.

Fig. 27 – Implicit FrontEnd Ribbon

In this section we will describe the functionality for accounts. The functionality for all opportunities

cases and notes is identical except for the actual data fields which are of course specific to each item.

7.1 Account List

Fig. 28 – Accounts


The list includes all accounts that have been synced to Outlook through any of the following

mechanisms:

Accounts assigned to you which were synced to Outlook during the initial sync phase described

in section 3.2

Accounts that are synced to Outlook when you select to search SugarCRM for un-synced

accounts and click “Sync to Outlook”

Accounts that are synced to Outlook when you select to archive an email (if contact/account are

not already synced).

The account information and its related data is displayed in the Sync Pane (see section 5)

7.2 Account Form

You may click New to create a new account, or click on any existing account in the list to open the account for viewing/editing:

Fig. 29 – Account Form

Any new account you create or any modifications to existing accounts will be automatically synced to

SugarCRM upon the next sync cycle.

The overview and “More Information” tabs are the equivalent of opening an account record in

SugarCRM.

The related data tab shows all items related to the account:


Fig. 30 – Related Data

Related data includes list of any SugarCRM items that were synced with Outlook (or created in Outlook

and synced to SugarCRM):

Opportunities

Cases

Activities (meetings and tasks)

History & Notes. History includes held meetings and completed tasks.

Contacts

Received / Sent Email (any emails associated with the account that were archived to SugarCRM)

Documents (any documents associated with the account that were archived to SugarCRM)

Clicking on any item in any of the lists will open the item in Outlook. Documents will be opened in their

native application (Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc.)

Users may also add items directly into the account by clicking New. Note that the new item will

automatically be related to the selected account.


7.3 Searching for Accounts

You can search for accounts in Outlook or un-synced accounts on SugarCRM by any of the account

fields:

Fig. 31 – Search Pane

By default only accounts that are assigned to you will be synced to Outlook. If for example, you need

access to accounts assigned to other users, you can search for un-synced accounts by user.

To sync accounts from SugarCRM to Outlook, simply select the accounts and click “Sync to Outlook”.


8. Contacts and Leads

8.1 Contacts Synchronization

8.1.1 Outlook Contact Form

Contacts are of course native to Outlook and the Implicit FrontEnd integration with Outlook allows you

to take full advantage of the rich functionality that Outlook provides for managing contacts.

As you can see in the screenshot below, an Implicit FrontEnd pane (called “Form Region”) extends the

standard contact form to offer SugarCRM-specific functionality.

Fig. 32 – Contact Form

Selecting to sync an Outlook contact with SugarCRM marks the item as a green Outlook category to

provide you with a noticeable visual indicator that this contact is synced (as oppose to personal contacts

that should not be synced with SugarCRM). Any SugarCRM contacts that are synced to Outlook will

automatically be marked as green.

Through the extended contact form you can select to archive any email received from or sent to this

contact and automatically associate it with the contact and its account.

Clicking the “Activities and History“ link will launch the contact’s list of all related records.


8.1.2 Contact List

Fig. 33 – Contact List

Similar to emails, the Sync Pane extends the Outlook’s contact list view and provides detailed

information on the selected contact (see section 5.1). Through the sync pane you can view/edit any

SugarCRM items related to the contact or the account as well as create new items.

You can also use the Search Pane to search for contacts in Outlook exactly as you do in SugarCRM:


8.1.3 Contact Search

Outlook Contact Search To search for contacts in Outlook, use the search tab on the Sync Pane:

Fig. 34 – Outlook Contact Search

This pane allows you to search your Outlook/Exchange contacts folder. It will filter the view in Outlook

and show only those contact which meet your search criteria.


SugarCRM Contact Search To search for contacts on the SugarCRM server (which may or may not have been synced to Outlook), select the contact folder and click the Contacts Search button on the Implicit FrontEnd ribbon (toolbar):

Fig. 35 – SugarCRM Contact Search

Note: Contacts which have not been synced to Outlook will show up with an icon of a green globe on top of the standard contact icon. To sync them to Outlook, select the set of contacts that you wish to sync and click “Sync to Outlook”. Notice that after the synchronization, their icon changes to the standard contact icon.


Contact integration with Email when you receive an email from an unknown person, the Sync Pane will contain links to:

Find a contact / account on SugarCRM and sync them to Outlook

Create new contact / account and sync them to SugarCRM This functionality is described in details under section 10.4

8.2 Leads

8.2.1 Lead List

To view leads, click the Leads button on the Implicit FrontEnd ribbon (toolbar):

Fig. 36 – Leads

Searching for leads is the same as searching for contacts (described under 7.1.3)


You may click on any lead in the list to open the lead for viewing/editing:

Fig. 37 – Lead Form

Any new lead you create or any modifications to existing leads will be automatically synced to SugarCRM

upon the next sync cycle.

The related data tab shows all items related to the lead (See description of related data under section

6.2)

8.2.2 Lead integration with Email

When you receive an email from an unknown person, the Sync Pane will contain links to:

Find a lead on SugarCRM and sync it to Outlook

Create new lead and sync it to SugarCRM This functionality is described in details under section 10.4


9. Calendar and Tasks

9.1 Calendar Synchronization

9.1.1 Outlook Calendar Form

Calendars are also native to Outlook and the Implicit FrontEnd integration with Outlook allows you to

take full advantage of the rich functionality that Outlook provides for managing calendar events and

synchronizing your meetings with SugarCRM calendars.

Similar to the contact form, Implicit FrontEnd form region extends the standard calendar form to offer

SugarCRM-specific functionality.

Fig. 38 – Calendar Form

Selecting to sync an Outlook meeting with SugarCRM marks the item as a green Outlook category to

provide you with a noticeable visual indicator that this meeting is synced (as oppose to personal

appointments / meetings that should not be synced with SugarCRM). Any SugarCRM meetings that are

synced to Outlook will automatically be marked as green.


Note: Outlook makes a distinction between appointments which are calendar events without attendees

and meetings where an email invite is sent to other meeting attendees. Implicit FrontEnd allows you to

sync both appointments and meetings with SugarCRM.

When sending a meeting invite to SugarCRM contacts, the meetings will be synced to your SugarCRM

calendar as well as archived to the contact’s record on both SugarCRM and Outlook. Similarly, when

accepting a meeting invitation from a SugarCRM contact or a lead, the meeting will automatically be

synced and archived accordingly.

Note: At the bottom of the calendar form you can optionally specify if the meeting is related to other

SugarCRM items such as account, opportunity, case, contact etc. In this case, in addition to syncing the

meeting with the contacts record, it will also be associated with the item you specified.

9.1.2 Meetings Relationships

Sync Pane – meetings related to accounts, opportunities, cases, contacts, leads etc.

Fig. 39 – Sync Pane – Calendar

Related Data View

Fig. 40 – Sync Pane – Calendar


You can view/edit and create new meetings directly from each of the views and automatically associate

them with the related item.

Note: Active meetings show up under Activities. Past meetings which were held, show up under the

History tab.

9.2 Tasks Synchronization

9.2.1 Outlook Task Form

Similar to calendar form, Implicit FrontEnd form region extends the standard task form to offer

SugarCRM-specific functionality.

Fig. 41 – Task Form

Selecting to sync an Outlook task with SugarCRM marks the item as a green Outlook category to provide

you with a noticeable visual indicator that this task is synced. Any SugarCRM tasks that are synced to

Outlook will automatically be marked as green.


At the bottom of the task form you can specify what the task is related to and separately the contact

involved.

9.2.2 Tasks Relationships

Tasks follow the same except look & feel as calendars. See section 8.1.2


10. Email Archive

Implicit FrontEnd provides rich email integration and archive functionality in the following areas:

Identifying email sender/recipients as SugarCRM contacts/leads and displaying all relevant

information and all related records upon selection of the email

Manual archiving of incoming/outgoing email

Auto archiving of incoming/outgoing email

Creation / Syncing of accounts, contacts and leads based on incoming emails

10.1 Email Sync Pane

Fig. 42 – Email Sync Pane

As shown if Fig. 42, the system recognizes the email address of the sender, identifies him as a SugarCRM

contact and displays all the information of the contact, its account and all related data.


If you configure the system to automatically archive incoming / outgoing email received from or sent to

SugarCRM contacts /leads, the email itself is automatically archived (as you can see by the Implicit

FrontEnd green category).

When for example you receive an email from a customer or a prospect, you will be able to immediately

and without having to take any manual actions, see all the key information about the contact, its

account, opportunities and any scheduled activities. You can immediately create an opportunity simply

by clicking the plus sign next to the opportunities section, schedule a follow up meeting or create a task

for yourself.

For more information about the Sync Pane functionality, see Section 5.

10.2 Manual archiving of Email

10.2.1 Manual archiving of incoming Email

To manually archive one or more email messages from an Outlook folder (e.g. Inbox), select the email(s)

and click the Archive Email button on the toolbar or right-click and select Archive Email from the context

menu. Depending on the settings of the email archiving rule that you configured (section 4.3), the

system will execute the following logic:

1. If you selected to automatically find and sync contacts/leads if not already synced to Outlook –

the system will scan all selected emails and extract all email addresses of their senders. Next it

will search Outlook to find matching contacts/leads. If not found, it will search SugarCRM and if

finds matching contacts / leads on the server, it will sync them to Outlook.

2. If you selected to not to be prompted when archiving email, the system will automatically

archive each email with its respective contact and account.

3. If you selected to be prompted when archiving an email, the system will bring up the Archive

Email dialog shown below in Fig. 43


Fig. 43 – Email Archive

The archive dialog provides you with three options to associate the archived email:

Archive each message with its respective SugarCRM contact / lead and account records – this is

default option and a common practice for most SugarCRM users. In the case of multiple emails

this is the only option available.

The system displays a list of all records associated with the account. If you want to associate the

email with a different record such as an opportunity or a case, select the second option and

check the desired boxes.


If you want to associate the email with a different record which is not part of that account,

select the third option and choose the type and actual record which the email should be related

to.

You can also choose to create a follow up meeting or task on the specified date in order to follow up on

the customer correspondence. This will automatically create an Outlook meeting or task and sync it with

SugarCRM.

When you select a single email to archive, the subject field displays the subject of the email and allows

you to modify the subject of the archived email.

10.2.2 Manual archiving of outgoing Email

To archive an outgoing email, simply compose the email and instead of clicking Send, click “Archive and

Send” as show below. The system will prompt you to archive the email by displaying the same archive

dialog as for incoming messages.

Fig. 44 – Archive and Send

10.3 Auto archiving of Email

As described in section 4.3, you can configure the following auto-archiving rules:

Do not automatically archive emails

Archive all incoming/outgoing emails received from or sent to SugarCRM contact/leads –

Implicit FrontEnd will examine each incoming/outgoing email. If it was received from or sent to

a SugarCRM contact or lead that has been synced to Outlook, Implicit FrontEnd will

automatically archive the email to both the contact’s the account’s records on SugarCRM.

Archive incoming/outgoing emails received from or sent to selected SugarCRM contacts or

accounts – In this case Implicit FrontEnd will archive emails for those contacts and accounts for


whom archive rules have been set. This option is driven by two rules which you can set, either at

the contact or the account level. Fig 43 shows the selection you can choose to make for each

individual contact to archive all email received form or sent to the contact

Fig. 45 – Email Archive Rule per Contact

You can also set a similar rule at the account level such that any email received from or sent to

the account email domain name will be archived

Fig. 46 – Email Archive Rule per Account


10.4 Creation / Syncing of accounts, contacts / leads based on incoming emails

When an email is received and the email address is not recognized by the system (i.e. does not match

and contact or lead in Outlook), the email search pane will display the following three option:

Fig. 47 – Create / Sync Account, Contact or Lead

Find and Sync Contact / Lead – Implicit FrontEnd will search for the email address on SugarCRM

and if found it will sync it to Outlook.

Create account / contact - Implicit FrontEnd will prompt you to select the account for which the

contact should be created:

Fig. 48 – Account Selection

If the account exists in Outlook, simply start typing the name and it will display the matching

account. If the account does not exist in Outlook, the system will search SugarCRM for the

account name you entered and if found (if for example the account is assigned to another user)


it will sync it to Outlook. Otherwise, it will prompt you to confirm creation of a new account and

display an Outlook contact form with the account already selected.

Create Lead – Implicit FrontEnd will extract the name an email address from the email, and display a

lead form with these fields pre-populated so that you can enter the rest of the lead information. The

lead will then be created on SugarCRM and synced to Outlook.

With all three options, upon completing the creation and sync of the account, contact or lead, the

selected email will be automatically archived to that record.


11. Custom Modules and Fields

11.1 Adding Custom fields to a standard SugarCRM Module

To add custom fields to a standard SugarCRM module, go to Options > sync Configuration, select the

module and click “Custom Fields”.

Implicit FrontEnd will display a list of drop-down lists arranged in two columns. Each of the controls will

contain a list of custom fields that are defined on the SugarCRM server for the module you have chosen.

Select the fields you would like to display in Outlook. Once a field is selected it will be removed from the

list of available custom fields. This allows you to select the fields you would like to sync to Outlook as

well as define the layout of the form in Outlook.

The following example illustrates custom fields being added to the Contacts module:

Fig. 49 – Contact - Custom Fields


You may also select a blank entry to create a separator in the form.

Once the fields have been selected, click Save to go back to the Sync Configuration dialog, click “Sync

All”. “Sync Now” dialog will show up. You can now click the Sync Now link that corresponds to the

module you have modified. This will synchronize all the custom fields you selected from SugarCRM to

Outlook.

Once you have synchronized the custom fields, open a contact from in Outlook and click “Custom

Fields”.

Fig. 50 – Contact - Custom Fields Form in Outlook

As you can see the form layout corresponds to the layout you selected. Each field will be displayed

depending on its type: text entry, list control, date, checkbox, etc.


11.2 Adding a Custom Module

To add a SugarCRM custom module, go to Options > sync Configuration, and select the module for the

list of available modules.

Fig. 51 – Adding Custom Module

Click the checkboxes below it to enable this module and select the direction of sync.

Click “Custom Fields” and follow the directions in section 11.1 on how to add custom fields to your

module. This step is exactly the same whether you’re creating a custom module or adding custom fields

to a standard module.


Fig. 52 – Adding Custom Module

Once you’ve selected the custom fields, click the “Columns” tab and define the columns. Those are the

columns that will be used when displaying lists of the custom module you have chosen:

Fig. 53 –Custom Module – Columns


Once the fields /columns have been selected, click Save to go back to the Sync Configuration dialog, click

“Sync All”. “Sync Now” dialog will show up. At the bottom you’ll see a new type of items called “Other”.

This represents all the additional modules not explicitly listed. Click the Sync Now link next to “Others”.

This will synchronize all the custom module items from SugarCRM to Outlook.

Once you’ve added one or more custom modules they would show up in the menu under “More”:

Fig. 54 –View Custom Modules

11.3 Deploying Customizations

Implicit FrontEnd customization mechanism is designed to be used either by users or by administrators.

The mechanism allows administrators to create a set of customizations and deploy them to all users by

exporting them to a single customization file and sending the file to all users. This can be done prior to

the initial deployment or at any time after. User need to import the customization file through the “Sync

Configuration” tab and then sync to bring the new custom module items from SugarCRM to Outlook.

Fig. 55 –View Custom Modules


12. Document Archive

12.1 Archiving Microsoft Office Documents

Implicit FrontEnd provide tight integration not just with Microsoft Outlook but with Microsoft Word and

Excel. As part of Implicit FrontEnd installation on your PC, a Sync Pane will be added to Microsoft Word

and Excel.

Fig. 56 – Word / Excel Sync Pane

This Sync Pane allows you to archive Office documents to SugarCRM directly from within Office apps. To

archive a document follow these steps:

1. Save the document

2. Click the Sync Pane button on the Implicit FrontEnd ribbon

3. Check the “Archive this document on SugarCRM” checkbox


4. In the “Related to” drop-down, select the SugarCRM records type the document is related to:

account, opportunity, case, contact, lead etc.

5. In the “Related to Item” start typing the name of the item. The system will auto-complete your

entry based on the items that you have synced to Outlook.

6. You may continue editing the document and simply save it as you normally do on your PC and

close it.

There is no need for any explicit upload. The document will be automatically archived to the

SugarCRM record that you have specified upon the next synchronization cycle.

12.2 Archiving Non-Office Documents

To archive non-office documents such as Adobe PDF, browse to the folder, select the document, right-

click and select Send To -> Implicit FrontEnd.

The following dialog will prompt you to select the SugarCRM record to archive the document to:

Fig. 57 – Archiving non-Office Documents


13. Web Browsers Integration

Implicit FrontEnd allow users not only to access most of SugarCRM functionality from within Outlook but

also access Outlook from their Web browser as they are working with SugarCRM.

Currently support browsers include: Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Google Chrome.

The functionality and user interface of the Implicit FrontEnd plug-in is identical across the two browser

but the initial behavior of each browsers after installation is slightly different. In the next two sections,

we will describe the specific behavior of each browser and in section 13.3 we will describe the common

functionality.

13.1 Internet Explorer

Upon launching IE for the first time after installation, IE will display the following message at the bottom of its window and prompting you to enable the plug-in:

Fig. 58 – IE message to enable Plug-in

Once enabled, you will notice that a new Implicit FrontEnd toolbar is added. Upon attempting to access

Outlook from within the browser for the first time, you will be prompted to allow such access. To avoid

being prompted again select “Do not show me the warning for this program again.”

Fig. 59 – IE message to enable access


13.2 Chrome

Upon launching Chrome for the first time after installation, Chrome will display the following message at the bottom of its window and prompting you to enable the plug-in:

Fig. 60 – Chrome message to enable Plug-in

13.3 Common Functionality

The Plug-in menus are context sensitive. They dynamically adjust to the URL displayed in the browser.

When you are logged out of SugarCRM, all functions will be unavailable except for login and About.

Fig. 61 – Menus

Once you are logged in to SugarCRM, the menu will continue to adjust itself based on the item that is

currently selected in the browser. The following example shows the available functionality when you

select an email that was archived to SugarCRM.


Fig. 62 – Action on Archived Email

The following is a list of all available functions:

Open in Outlook – Open the SugarCRM item in Outlook. If the item has already been synced, the function will open the Outlook item corresponding to the record being viewed in SugarCRM. If the item has not been synced yet, it will be synced first and then opened in Outlook. This function is available to all modules.

Email - This function is available to the following modules:

Contacts / Lead – Compose a new email to selected contact/lead

Document - Compose a new email with the selected document attached

Reply / Reply All / Forward - This function is available to emails which have been archived in SugarCRM:

Email - Reply / Reply All / Forward the selected archived email. If the email has been archived by the same user and the same Outlook profile or Exchange account, the original


email will be open in Outlook based on the requested action: reply to sender, reply all to all recipients and forward to a blank recipient list.

Related Emails - This function is available to the following modules:

Account – Show all Outlook emails related to the selected account

Opportunity – Show all Outlook emails related to the selected opportunity

Case– Show all Outlook emails related to the selected case

Contact / Lead– Show all Outlook emails related to the selected contact / lead

Sync Now - This function is available to all modules and triggers the same “Sync Now” function as in Outlook.


14. Implicit FrontEnd Taskbar Application

Upon installing Implicit FrontEnd on your desktop, you’ll notice that an icon is added to your Windows taskbar

Fig. 63 – Taskbar Application

The taskbar application is responsible for the following:

1. Run the initial synchronization in the background, including providing notification and status

messages during the synchronization.

2. Queuing up emails and documents in order to upload them to SugarCRM.

3. Checking for new software updates

Queuing up emails and documents for uploading to SugarCRM is necessary in order to support offline

mode (see section 12). At any time, you can view the upload queue to see the messages and files being

uploaded, suspend and resume the upload process as well as re-order the queue if necessary.

Fig. 64 – Upload Queue


15. Offline Mode

Most of Implicit FrontEnd functionality is available in offline mode. You have full access to all items that

have been synchronized to Outlook. You can create new items or modify existing items. You can also

archive email messages and documents. All your changes will be queued by Implicit FrontEnd and

automatically synced with SugarCRM when you re-connect to the Internet.

The only exceptions which do not work in offline mode are those functions that require real-time access

to the server:

Find and sync contact / lead

Create contact / account

Create lead

Automatically sync contacts / leads upon archiving emails

Search for non-synced items on SugarCRM

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