Riva CRM Integration - Documentation and Knowledge Base

Prevent Duplicates If Combining Riva & 3rd-Party Email Plug-ins

Article ID: 108
Last updated: 27 Mar, 2017
WARNING: Before testing Riva Cloud or Riva On-Premise on user accounts, it is required that you disable any email client plug-in or other CRM data sync process for those users. Failure to do so will create duplicate entries — possibly hundreds of duplicate contacts, leads, appointments, tasks, etc. in your CRM and email systems.

We recommend reviewing this article and contacting the Riva Success Team to confirm your strategy.

In this Knowledge Base article, the term "plug-in" applies to any email client plug-in including Outlook, IBM Notes, mobile, and browser plug-ins that have synced data between your CRM and email systems.

Contents:

Co-Existence Between Riva and Email Client Plug-Ins

Before enabling a Riva Cloud or Riva On-Premise sync policy for a user, you should disable email client and browser plug-ins for that user. After a Riva sync policy is configured and enabled, using a plug-in to sync the same data types as those being synced by Riva will cause duplicates.

Always back up your data before you start testing with real accounts!

Nevertheless, for specific CRMs and specific plug-ins, you can configure Riva to replace the sync functionality of the plug-in and provide 100% co-existence with Riva's server-side sync!

Some companies may choose to allow users to continue using the email client plug-ins because they provide specific functionality not yet available with Riva or Riva Insight. In those cases, as long as the plug-ins are used only to modify or create objects that are not being synced by Riva, those features can continue to be used at the same time as Riva. As long as plug-ins are not used to manage or create the same data types (contacts, appointments, or tasks) on the same email account, Riva can co-exist with email client plug-ins.

Another example of email client plug-in and Riva Server co-existence would be if you want to continue using the plug-in to sync contacts and/or appointments and tasks for a user or a set of users. In that case, you would ensure that those users are not members of a Riva policy that syncs contacts and/or appointments and tasks. Those users, however, could still take advantage of Riva SmartConvert, AssignTo, and Riva ConnectBar to sync their opportunities, quotes, cases, and track emails to contacts, opportunities, cases, and quotes. To do this, you would make them members of a Riva policy that syncs only those functions.

Preparing Email Account Information Before the First Sync

Various versions of email client plug-ins have a different functionality for different CRMs. The following recommendations assume that when an entry is deleted from the email client, that information is not deleted from the CRM. Please test extensively before rolling out Riva with multiple accounts on your production systems.

Initializing Riva applies the sync policy options that you have configured and begins to sync data from your CRM to your email system. Riva is not designed to detect which of your users' existing contacts, appointments, or tasks were previously synced by email plug-ins or manually created to match those in the CRM. Before you choose to sync contacts, appointments, and tasks, it is important to remember that many of your users most likely already have email entries that "reflect" existing CRM data in their accounts — whether these entries were created by an email client plug-in or entered manually by the user. If contact, appointment, or task entries already exist in both the email system and the CRM, then unless Riva duplicate prevention is enabled and configured, new entries will be created by Riva in your email accounts, thereby causing duplicate entries.

Prevent duplicate contacts and leads

If you choose to use Riva to sync CRM contacts to the email system, your objective is to have your CRM be the authoritative source for corporate contacts and for contacts to be transparently synced by Riva.

Before Riva initializes a new account, ensure that the following is done for every user to be synced by Riva.

To prevent duplicate contacts and leads for the end users:

  1. For each user, disable the plug-in sync process.

    Otherwise, the contacts and leads may be deleted from the CRM when they are deleted in the email system.

  2. If the users used a plug-in to sync contacts or have manually added corporate contacts to the contact list, ensure that every user does one of the following:

    • Remove these contacts from the email client, or

    • Move the contacts and leads to a new contact list, or

    • Assign a category to these contacts and calendar events to make them easy to sort and identify.

    Otherwise, duplicate contacts will be created.

After all the users have taken the steps to prevent duplicate contacts and leads, then during Riva's sync initialization, the existing CRM contacts and leads are re-synced to the user contact lists and will continue to be automatically updated without user intervention.

Tip: To assign a category in the easiest way:

  1. Display the contacts and leads in list view, and sort them by category.

    Note: Every contact and lead that has been synced with a plug-in has a category assigned to it.

  2. Delete (or move to a separate contact list) any contact that shows the category that was assigned by the plug-in.

  3. Recommended: Assign a new category (something like "Personal") to the remaining contacts in the contact list.

    This will facilitate sorting the remaining contacts based on the category. If a few contacts end up being duplicated, it will be easy to know which duplicate contacts to delete from the contact list (the duplicate contacts whose category is set to "Personal").

The few minutes the end users spend preparing the contact and lead lists for integration are well worth their time and the email system administrator's time.

Prevent duplicate appointments and tasks

The preparations in an email client to prevent duplicate appointments and tasks are basically the same as for preventing duplicate contacts and leads.

If you choose to use Riva to sync CRM appointments and tasks, your objective is to have your CRM be the authoritative source for appointments and tasks to be transparently synced by Riva.

Before syncing calendar events, ensure that the following is done for every user to be synced by Riva.

To prevent duplicate appointments and tasks for the end users:

  1. For each user, disable the plug-in sync process.

    Otherwise, the appointments and tasks may be deleted from the CRM when they are deleted in the email system.

  2. If the users used a plug-in to sync appointments or tasks or have manually added appointments or tasks to their email clients, ensure that every user does one of the following:

    • Delete those appointments and tasks that are linked to the CRM, or

    • Move them to a sub-calendar, or

    • Assign a category to these calendar events and tasks to make them easy to sort and identify.

    Otherwise, duplicate appointments and tasks will be created.

After all the users have taken the steps to prevent duplicate appointments and tasks, then when Riva does its first initialization, the existing CRM appointments and tasks are re-synced to the user email accounts and will continue to be automatically updated without user intervention.

Tip: To assign a category in the easiest way:

  1. Display the calendar items and tasks in list view, and sort them by category.

    Note: Every appointment and task that has been synced by a plug-in has a category assigned to it.

  2. Delete (or move to a sub-calendar) any event that shows the category that was assigned by the plug-in.

  3. Recommended: Assign a new category (something like "Personal") to the remaining events in your calendar.

    This will facilitate sorting the remaining calendar events based on the category. If a few appointments or tasks end up being duplicated, it will be easy to know which duplicate events to delete from your calendar (the duplicate events whose category is set to "Personal").

The few minutes the end users spend preparing calendar events and tasks for integration are well worth their time and the email system administrator's time.

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Article ID: 108
Last updated: 27 Mar, 2017
Revision: 18
Views: 15315
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