Outlook Sync Question

We are using Outlook Sync with Exchange Server. Am I correct in believing that Outlook has to be up and running, with all synched Outlook accounts set up in Outlook, in order for Outlook Sync to sync all users' accounts? We tried opening CommitCRM on the server and performing a sync but received errors for every account. We are looking for an easy way to sync all users' account every half hour. We don't want to install Outlook on the server (not recommended by Microsoft). Any ideas?

You are correct... The only way to do what you are trying to do is run CommitCRM on a workstation and sync all accounts from that workstation. (that's what I do).

The feature request that this begs is for CommitCRM synchronize the mailbox data using Microsoft's MAPI components as part of their CommitServer process. I think that's already on their list, but I'm not sure how high it is.

+1 vote for a CDO/MAPI interface. The Outlook Sync has been a real problem for so long. I hope it's at the top of Commit's development plans

I tried it 2 years ago and stopped using it within 7 days because of this issue. Better Outlook syncing has been asked for since at least then.

Outlook should be installed on the PC where the syncs run, however, it doesn't have to be up and running for the sync to work.

We know of numerous customers that use it under this configuration and all is working well, the sync runs even without them needing to run Outlook.

However, under some configurations Outlook needs to be running. This is completely external to RangerMSP.
In case it doesn't work without running Outlook first then it probably has to do something with privileges, something that prevents the RangerMSP application from accessing/launching Outlook, maybe an Anti-Virus, Outlook itself, insufficient logged in user privileges, insufficient privileges on the Exchange server for this user profile, etc.

Thanks.
Dina

...Outlook doesn't have to be running, but it does have to be installed. Why can't this just run as I suggested earlier, as part of the CommitCRM Server service, utilizing Microsoft's MAPI components to interface directly with Exchange?

RangerMSP requires Outlook to be installed to sync with it. This is because we use Outlook to access the data.

The data itself can be stored in an Exchange server or using local PST files.
We may change this in the future and offer an server side Exchange sync.

Thanks,
Sheli

+1 another vote for exchange sync. It needs to be running on the CommitCRM server as a service - using an impersonation account, independent of the client workstations.

We also don't use the outlook sync as it is too troublesome.

I hope this is a priority for CommitCRM?

itforce, thank you for adding your vote for this. It's on our list together with numerous other items that have been posted on this forum as well as received directly by email. I can tell that we will be looking at it again after the next version, 5.6, is released, hopefully it'll be released in a few weeks for beta.

Thanks,
Sheli