CRM for Outlook – Frustration Free Zone

I was recently speaking with some like-minded CRMers in the community and we were discussing what we find to be at the top of the list for help desk inquiries. The overwhelming consensus was CRM for Outlook.

Do you ever find yourself faced with CRM for Outlook just not cooperating? Whether it be that you are having undesirable or unresponsive behaviors, the CRM tab is greyed out, or the CRM tab has vanished. Have no fear, you are not alone, and with a few checks and few clicks, more often than not, one of the following suggestions will be your golden nugget for resolution.

Check the following machine related roadblocks for starters...

ü  Ensure that your CRM for Outlook version matches up with your CRM server version. It could be that you are out of sync.

ü  Could you possibly have add-ins that are not playing nicely with one another? Begin to disable your add-ins one by one and see if CRM for Outlook is positively affected.

ü  Is your Outlook mailbox overloaded? Double-check your mailbox capacity, it may be high time you do a little housekeeping.

ü  Do you have adequate resources on your machine to support all of the applications that you are running? Check your RAM to ensure that you are not pushing the limits of what your machine is capable of.

ü  Depending on your firewall settings, it may be necessary to add your CRM server address to Trusted Sites in Internet Explorer. Along with that, it may be beneficial to clear your browser's cache.

ü  Is your anti-virus software doing too good of a job? It could actually be preventing you from performing actions which are legit!

Has your CRM tab on the ribbon disappeared without a trace?

This is usually easily remedied by navigating to File à Options à Add-Ins à Select GO and tick off the checkboxes for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

And just like that, you have brought your CRM tab back into Outlook. 

CRM ribbon greyed out?

Again, typically a quick fix...Search for the Diagnostics Wizard on your machine and click the Enable button shown on the Advanced Troubleshooting tab.

Let's wrap this up with "Track" and "Set Regarding" and also answer the common question of why "Convert To" is greyed out.

When you select a record from your Inbox in CRM, and click ‘Track’, you are promoting the email to CRM as an activity without an association to a particular record. Depending on the Personal Options you have set, you may also be creating a new Contact or Lead at the very same time.

If I may give my two cents, I would caution against ticking off the box which auto creates new contacts or leads. You may end up with records for the local pizza place, or worse, a record created for one of those "fun emails" that slips through the Spam filter. 

‘Set Regarding’ on the other hand, not only tracks the email, but also associates it to a specific record of your choosing. The association not only relates to the record you have chosen but also rolls up to related parent records. Whether you have chosen ‘Track’, or ‘Set Regarding’, you will now notice that ‘Convert To’ has come to life and you now have the ability to convert the email into a New Opportunity, Lead, or Case.

The next time you find yourself scratching your head over why CRM for Outlook is 'acting up', come back to this post and try out some of the suggestions. You too, may just find that what you initially thought was going to be a major headache is quickly resolved with a few quick checks and clicks. For more information on this feature and other CRM questions that have you up at night, WebSan is here to help!

Stacey Mancuso, CRM Certified Application Specialist , WebSan Solutions Inc. a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence