Yesterday I’ve been doing some research including installation and testing features of various SugarCRM to Outlook synchronization with the following requirements and conditions.
Our team uses Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 32 and 64bit. Our SugarCRM is based on the latest SugarCRM CE (now at 6.2)
We wanted a synchronization add-ins for outlook to be able to automatically synchronize contact, emails, task and calendars with SugarCRM.
1. SugarCRM themselves offered this as called Email Integration: Plug-In for Microsoft Outlook. In a nutshell, this can do the job. But, this feature is offered to any other editions except the Sugar Communication Edition.
2. Opacus Solutions from UK was also another attempt. The add-ins is called “ Opacus SugarCRM Outlook Plugin”. They offer 2 version, Lite and Pro. In our case, with Outlook2010 and our needs, a pro version and the price tag is USD$20 / year would be the solution. I tested and tried it out and it works absolutely perfect. The only issue I might have is that the support, a lot of issues were left without any replies in their forum page.
3. Outlander offers Syncs Outlook with SugarCRM. Doesn’t really have the features we need, also the product (released) hasn’t been updated for 3 years? Gave it a try but sort of gave up as the functions given were very limited.
4. SugarArchiver by JellyBeanSoftware offered the features we wanted. Synchronizing was just an easy one-click button, which you can also configure what to sync and when to sync. For a onetime payment of AUD$30 this seems like a good deal. Also check their forums and noticed that they software is constantly developing e.g. enhancement requested are even deployed in their next release. However, can’t seem to find their local address in Brisbane in case anyone would like to drop them a bottle of wine.
Try them out and see what works for you! Comments for other add-ins are also welcome.
