Does Salesforce work with Outlook?
If you’re already a Salesforce customer, the idea of integrating with familiar tools like Outlook is a no-brainer. At its heart, Salesforce integration with Outlook means your sales and service teams can manage their tasks, emails, and contacts in one place. However, recent changes to Salesforce’s email and calendar integration have left clients wondering what’s next. Below, we’ll answer those questions and give you the lowdown for Salesforce and Outlook users.
What is Salesforce Integration?
Salesforce integration is the process of connecting Salesforce to other applications to share data and streamline business processes. In this case, Salesforce integration with Outlook means users can manage their Salesforce data—leads, opportunities, contacts and events—directly from within their Outlook environment. So sales teams don’t have to toggle between two separate applications to do everyday tasks.
When integrated, Outlook users can create records in Salesforce from their inbox, track emails against existing Salesforce records, sync their calendars and contacts and automatically capture relevant data. Reduces manual data entry, increases productivity and makes sure all information is recorded in Salesforce.
Does Salesforce work with Outlook?
Yes, Salesforce has a full integration with Outlook through the “Outlook Integration” feature. This lets your teams access Salesforce data while using Outlook, without leaving their inbox. Salesforce for Outlook, the old tool, is being sunsetted but has been replaced by a more modern and flexible integration.
Salesforce’s Outlook Integration connects Outlook 2013, 2016, 2019 and Outlook on the web with Salesforce and is compatible with Microsoft Exchange Online. Users can link emails to Salesforce records, manage appointments and stay on top of their tasks all within the Outlook interface.
What Is Replacing Salesforce For Outlook?
While Salesforce for Outlook was a long-standing solution, Salesforce has been phasing out this tool in favor of a more modern and feature-rich option called the Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture. This new solution combines the convenience of the Outlook interface with automation tools.
Einstein Activity Capture is an AI-driven tool that syncs emails and calendar events from Outlook to Salesforce. It captures emails and events in real-time and links them to relevant Salesforce records. Over time this auto-capture feeds Einstein Analytics, Salesforce’s AI engine so businesses can make better decisions based on sales activity insights.
Is Salesforce Outlook Integration being retired?
Salesforce for Outlook is the one being retired, full support ends December 2024. This retirement only affects the old Salesforce for Outlook add-in which was designed for older versions of Outlook and Salesforce Classic. For customers using the latest version of Salesforce and modern email tools the recommended approach going forward is to use the new Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture.
For more information on the differences between platforms, customers can read this helpful breakdown from Salesforce.
Note the new Outlook Integration is not being retired. In fact it’s being supported and improved by Salesforce to meet the evolving needs of businesses. Salesforce suggests this solution will be more integrated and forward thinking, more flexible, automated and AI driven than the old Salesforce for Outlook tool.
Why switch to Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture
If you’re still using Salesforce for Outlook, now’s the time to move to the new Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture (EAC). Here’s why:
- Better User Experience: With the new integration users have a more intuitive interface that works within Outlook, no more toggling between applications for everyday tasks.
- Automation with AI: Einstein Activity Capture automates most of the data syncing, so sales activity data is recorded in real-time. No more missed information and less manual entry, saves time.
- Advanced Analytics: Einstein’s AI provides insights from email and calendar activity so sales teams can make better decisions and prioritize leads.
- Future Proof: The new Outlook Integration is compatible with the latest versions of Salesforce and Outlook so you’ll get ongoing support and updates from Salesforce.
- What is EAC: Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) is an AI-driven tool that automatically syncs emails and calendar events from Outlook to Salesforce. EAC runs behind the scenes, capturing data in real-time, providing automation and AI-driven insights, unlike the standard Outlook Integration tool.
Getting Ahead Of The Curve With Advanced Cloud Solutions
Salesforce for Outlook is being retired but Salesforce has released an alternative solution to keep your teams connected. The new Outlook Integration and Einstein Activity Capture has the same core functionality but more automation and analytics. As a Salesforce Partner, we recommend that our clients using the old tool start planning their migration to the new integration. This will keep your workflows uninterrupted and give your teams modern tools to be more productive and make better decisions. If you have questions about this process or need help with your Salesforce integration, Advanced Cloud Solutions is here to guide you.