>> I thought I had published this months ago but found it in my drafts so without further ado here are my notes on how to get the Exchange Sync working in a proof of concept environment.
So with Spring 15 Salesforce.com introducted new server side email and calendar sync features. You can read all about it here: http://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/summer15/release-notes/rn_sales_exchange_sync.htm?edition=&impact=
In order to test out the new ‘Exchange Sync (Beta)’ you need the following:
- Office 365 Test Account
- Free for MSDN users or 99$ a year otherwise.
- https://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/office365d
- Create a new domain and email for use to test functionality. It really doesn’t matter what you pick as long as the email you created for Office 365 matches the email used to create the SFDC Developer Site. abc@abc.onmicrosoft.com as an example
- Salesforce.com Developer Sandbox
- Create a free Salesfoce.com Developer Site
- Use your Office 365 email address for your Salesforce.com username
- You can use an existing sandbox as long as you use the same email address. I recommend a new sandbox so that existing customization do not interfere with this new functionality.
Creating the two environments created is the easy part. Now let’s get them talking to each other!
Office 365 Exchange Setup
- One User – When you sign up for a Office 365 ‘DEV’ account/service, it only gives you one user which for this test of functionality is all we need.
- Service Account – In order for the integration to work, it needs a user that has ‘Impersonation’ security permissions. The instructions that Salesforce.com supplies does not work for the current Office 365 instances related to DEV accounts. This could be because of the level of license but regardless, there’s a MUCH easier way that doesn’t require PowerShell scripts.
- Log in to Office 365 and click ‘Admin’ (bottom right grey icon)
- Click the ‘Exchange’ submenu from the ‘Admin’ tree, this will open a new window/tab
- Click ‘permissions’ and ‘admin roles’
- Click ‘add’ plus symbol
- Name it what ever you would like, I choose ‘SFDC’
- Click the ‘add’ plus symbol under ‘Roles’ and select ‘ApplicationImpersonation’
- Click the ‘add’ plus symbol under ‘Members’ and select your lone user or the user you want to make the service account
- Use the following instructions to test your connection: https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=exchange_sync_admin_connectivity_test.htm&language=en_US#exchange_sync_admin_connectivity_test
- Make sure you read all of the steps and check Contacts and the Impersonate Check Box
- Microsoft test Site: https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com
Office 365 Outlook
- Create the Salesforce_Sync folder if it is not automatically create. It will be located under the ‘Other Contacts’
Salesforce.com Developer Sandbox
- Log in and click Setup
- Click ‘Email Connect’
- Click ‘Exchange Sync Setup’
- Click Edit under ‘Enable Exchange Sync’ and Save
- Enter the username (email) and password of the Office 365 account
- ‘Exchange Sync Configuration’ and ‘Exchange Sync Status’ menu items will now appear
- Click ‘Exchange Sync Configuration
- Create a Profile and make sure that it is checked ‘Active’, assign the test user
- Create some test data in both systems. I would recommend appending to the end of events (outlook) and (salesforce) so you know which system created the data as when you start piling on the user cases it can get confusing. Same thing with contact data, use the system as the last name.
Troubleshooting:
- Use the ‘Exchange Sync Status’ page to validate that records or moving across. The default DEV Org I believe has 20 contacts which should come over on the first sync.
- Use the ‘Check Status’ to validate that the user is set up correctly
- Use ‘Unresolved Items’ from the Salesforce.com Home screen to resolve any contacts that come over from outlook without an Account and Events without Contacts
- Make sure you have set your time zones for both systems and retry tests.
Overall the integration seems pretty quick for creating and updating both ways though I’m sure mileage will vary depending on server conditions.