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Outlook Integration (Accelerator)

5/5

Accelerator is the integration between Sage CRM and MS Outlook.  We use Accelerator in almost all our projects.  It has a massive impact on user adoption as it makes using Sage CRM more practical.

Accelerator supports Sage CRM versions 2019 and above and Outlook 2016, 2019 (both 32 and 64 bit) and 365.  Installation Requirements.

Demonstrations of Accelerator can be provided on request and an extensive user guide can be downloaded from the link below.

Important!

Watching the videos below and reviewing our user guide (bottom of this page) will take 1-hour. While 1-hour might seem like a lot, investing this 1-hour to understand Accelerator fully will save each of your users multiple hours each and every month. Companies that use Accelerator have superior systems!

Table of Contents

Key Features & Benefits

Features:

  • View or Create Sage CRM data without leaving Outlook
  • Easily file inbound and outbound emails against the appropriate CRM record 
  • Link Appointments & Tasks in Outlook to Sage CRM
  • Leverage email templates managed in Sage CRM

Benefits:

  • Increases user adoption to your CRM strategy
  • Makes staff faster and more efficient
  • Makes it easier to send out consistent company messages
  • Capture more information: Our experience shows that companies with Accelerator create more than 4x as many companies and people in Sage CRM, simply because it is easier

User Experience

The success of any CRM initiative is heavily dependent on the user experience.  And nothing makes the user experience better than making Sage CRM quick and easy to use from the context of Outlook.  The sections below walk you through the functionality available to the user through the Accelerator interface to Sage CRM.  

Viewing and Creating Records

As we sort through our email, the Accelerator panel will refresh to the correct record.  Once that record is up, we can filter though the CRM data. 

If a record does not exist yet in Sage CRM, we can easily create it. This includes Companies, People, Cases (jobs), or Opportunities – and of course communications. 

Filing inbound Emails

Generally, we manually file emails.  When filing an email, we can decide where we want to file it.  We can change the subject line and if the email has a document attached, we can label the document properly for CRM (example = Signed PO).

Outbound Email

When we send out emails, we can choose to file these against a record in CRM.  We can also pull from our Sage CRM email templates. 

Using templates not only makes it quicker to formulate a response, but also ensure a consistent ‘branded’ response.  These templates can include attachments and merge in data from Sage CRM too.

Tagging Emails

Users can insert references (Tags) in emails to connect the email thread to something specific such as a Customer service issue or an Opportunity. These tags display in the body of the email.

When a outbound email that has a tag is filed, it will file against the proper record. 

When an inbound email comes back with that tag, then the proper record in the Accelerator panel will automatically display.  

Connecting Outlook Calendar Items to Sage CRM records

When using Outlook’s calendaring feature, you can connect an appointment to the correct Sage CRM record.

The communication record will then also display within Sage CRM under the appropriate Person, Company (and Case or Opportunity).  

Accelerator Functions within Sage CRM

Within Sage CRM itself, there are additional features related to Accelerator. 

  • Initiate an email (with a tag)
  • Create a mailmerge document
  • See a graphical representation of communications created via Acccelerator

Mail Merge Overview

We primarily think of Accelerator as a tool for Outlook, but it also has some very practical features we can use for generating MailMerge documents. 

In this video, we will demonstrate merging a document template AND and an email template at the same time.

Accelerator’s Mail Merge feature also allows users to edit documents on the fly – without having to download and then re-upload the edited document. 

This works for Word and PDF documents. Also, when saving your document you can:

  • Re-label the document type
  • Re-label the document name
  • Define the communication Action type (ie letter out or otherwise)
  • Add a description to the document and communication record being created
  • Attach the modified document to an outbound email

Retrieving Emails from CRM

Sage CRM stores critical emails, but sometimes you will want them ‘out’ and made available within Outlook.  

Regardless of what browser you use, Accelerator provides users with the ability to reply, reply all, and forward emails.  This includes email attachments.

So, regardless of when that email was stored in Sage CRM, you can always bring it back easily.

Customization Options

Common customizations to Accelerator include:

  1. Modifying the screen layouts to match your desktop CRM, 
  2. Adding new tabs (aka custom entities)
  3. Ensuring that new cases or opportunities (or leads or whatever) connect to your existing workflows

Fictional Testimonials

About the Publisher

CRM Together is a leading development partner for Sage CRM.  They publish 4 products that we use all the time, including: (1) Accelerator, (2) MobileX, (3) Crystal Manager, and (4) 365 (for client portals).

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FAQs

Using Accelerator means that users collect more data and have a easier time adopting Sage CRM.

Accelerator is sold as an annual subscription. Please contact My CRM Manager or your Sage CRM provider for pricing details.

No, the number of licenses for Accelerator do not need to match up with your total Sage CRM user count. For example, your CRM system might allow for 20 users, but you are ok to get Accelerator for just 10 users.

Accelerator does not support this feature, however, Sage CRM's native 'Advanced Email Management' feature does. 

Yes, this is a common customization (minor).

Calendar items (tasks and appointments) created in the Outlook calendar can sync to Sage CRM. Refer to the section/video above titled 'Connecting Outlook Calendar Items to Sage CRM records'.

Connecting Outlook Calendar Items to Sage CRM records

Yes.

Outlook 2016 or above including 365.

Sage does have a free Outlook Plugin that allows you to file emails. It has a very limited feature set, but more significantly, it is technically prone to support issues and support mysteries. In August of 2018, My CRM Manager changed our policies to no longer support the free plugin. It was too frustrating for us and counterproductive to the success of a client's CRM strategy. Accelerator is far superior, and clients are much better off with it. You are welcome to try Sage's free plugin, but we will not be able to assist you with support issues. If you have any issues, you will need to log a support query directly with the Sage support team.

Yes.

Yes. This new UI for Accelerator does work on a Mac. The Classic version of Accelerator does not.

Yes, demonstrations of Accelerator can be provided on request and you can download a brochure from this link. An extensive user guide can be downloaded from the link below.

Accelerator supports Sage CRM version 2018 and above. 

A full listing of requirements can be found on this page: Requirements - Accelerator (crmtogether.com)

Accelerator User Guide

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