Will Riva Sync from Exchange 2003 to Entourage, Mac Mail, iCal and Address Book

Question:

In Riva Cloud and Rive On-Premise, is there support for CRM to Exchange 2003 synchronization for Mac Entourage 2004/2008 and Apple Mail, iCal and Address Books apps (on Mac, iPad, iPod, and iPhone)?

• Support for Exchange 2003.
• Differences Syncing to Apple Apps.

Answer:

Apple introduced support for Exchange 2007/2010 for Mac Mail, iCal and Address Book with the release of Mac OS X (Snow Leopard). Support for Exchange 2003 is not included. Entourage 2004 which provides support for Exchange 2003 using WebDav (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Entourage for information). 

If you want to support Exchange to Apple Mail/iCal/Address Book. you must ensure that users are running Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) and upgrade Exchange to 2007 or higher.

Differences Syncing to Apple Apps

Regardless of selection (Entourage 2004 or Mac Mail/iCal/Address Book), there are limitations, because neither of those client solutions supports Exchange categories. Because Riva delivers CRM integration for all Exchange clients, we now support the native Mac apps for email, calendaring, and contacts - Mail, iCal and Address Book, respectively. There is a caveat, however. Snow Leopard and Entourage 2004 do not sync "Categories" in the same way as Outlook, Entourage 2008 (Web Services Edition) for Mac, and Outlook Web Access do. As a result, here is how the synchronization works for Entourage 2004 or Mac Mail/iCal/Address Book:

• Riva does not sync directly to native Apple apps. Riva provides data sync between the CRM and the user's Exchange mailbox. If the Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad) are configured to connect to the user's Exchange mailbox using ActiveSync hosted through the Exchange server/service, the following is supported:

  • CRM to Exchange to Apple Apps - Data created/modified in the CRM will be synced by Riva to the user's Exchange mailbox, which will then sync to native Apple apps using ActiveSync.

  • Apple Apps to Exchange to CRM - Data created/modified in native Apple apps will sync to the user's Exchange mailbox using AcitveSync. Riva will see that as new or modified data that it needs to sync to the CRM.

• Riva will sync data from the CRM to the user's Exchange mailbox automatically. That data will automatically sync to native Apple apps during the next ActiveSync cycle. 

• Riva must be configured to auto-sync address book, calendar, and task items to the CRM. Riva is dependent on assigning an Exchange category to items in the user's mailbox to identify which items are synced to the CRM. Native Apple apps do not understand Exchange categories. Apple categories are not mapped (linked) to Exchange categories, so using Apple categories with the same names as Exchange categories will not work. Riva cannot autosync new or modified contacts, calendar items, and tasks to the CRM unless the Sync all new option is set in the sync policy. If Require Category is set, then the user must assign the Riva category in Outlook before the item syncs to the CRM. See:

  • Sync all new - Riva On Premise.
  • Auto Sync all new - Riva Cloud.

• Auto-sync of Email is supported - Riva SmartConvert, Riva Connect Bar, and Riva AssignTo all work normally from native Apple apps.

Riva On Premise - Sync all new

A Sync all new option has been added to the Riva sync policy for Address Books, Calendars, and Tasks.

When this option is selected, it syncs all new calendar items, tasks, and contacts created on mobile devices, and on Mac (Mail/iCal/Address Book or Entourage 2004). Riva On-Premise examines all new items created and automatically assigns the applicable Exchange category, which then forces the synchronization to the CRM from the Exchange mailbox. This is a global change that applies to all user accounts assigned to the CRM policy and automatically works for all email clients and mobile devices that access Exchange accounts.

For more information, see:

• Riva Sync Policy for Exchange: Address Books – see step 3.
• Riva Sync Policy for Exchange: Calendars – see step 3.
• Riva Sync Policy for Exchange: Tasks – see step 3.

If you are running Windows and Mac desktops and do not want to enable "Sync all new" for Windows users, then create different CRM policies for users based on desktop OS type.

Riva Cloud Customers - Auto-synchronize new items

A comparable option is included in sync policy for Riva Cloud customers. The setting is applies globally for syncing Address Books, Calendar, and Tasks.

For more information, see Riva Cloud sync policy: synchronization category options.

Applies to

• Riva Cloud for Exchange.
• Riva On-Premise for Exchange.