• a user’s personal folders in Outlook or Exchange Server (Inbox, Sent Items, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, etc.) and a set of SQL Server tables from any SQL off-the-shelf or custom-developed system.
• a set of Exchange Server Public Folders and an equivalent set of SQL Server tables.
• a user’s personal folders in Exchange Server (Inbox, Sent Items, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, etc.) and a set of Exchange Server Public Folders, that is typically used as a common shared contact management system or other application.
• multiple Outlook or Exchange Server mailbox folders, where for example sharing of personal contacts amongst users is required.
  

MX-Sync is used in situations where:

• Outlook users want to share the contacts in their Personal Contacts folders with other users.
• Users want their customer base in a SQL CRM or accounting system sychronized to Outlook so that their client contact details are available offline (in Outlook Cached Mode), and/or automatically synchronized to their Windows Mobile, Blackberry or other smart phone/PDA device.
• Outlook users are updating Public Folder information which must be constantly synchronized back to a SQL database, and/or want to use standard Outlook Personal folders (Contacts, Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, etc.) to interact with data that is stored in a SQL Server back-end ERP, accounting or web database system.
• You have a web site SQL database where customers are registering, logging on, etc. that needs to be kept in sync with an Outlook/Exchange Contacts folder that is used for profiling these customers in more detail and e-mailing them information relating to requests logged on the web site.
• You want to keep Outlook Companies and Contacts folders synchronized with a SQL Server-based ERP or accounting system such as Great Plains, so that again the sales and marketing personnel can be made aware of accounting information about their customers directly from within Outlook as well as easily interact with these customers using standard Outlook functionality.

MX-Sync can also be the foundation for a complete CRM system using Outlook without any additional client software or Outlook Add-In installed. Brian Drury, Managing Director of ExchangeWise comments as follows: "MX-Sync is a revolutionary approach to Customer Management, because one can continue to use standard Outlook functionality to manage your customer base while enabling contact- and information sharing amongst your users without installing any additional software on the client machines". This greatly reduces the time and cost associated with implementing and supporting a CRM system because there is no new system to either install or learn. All that is required usually is that users enhance their knowledge of Outlook. Users can continue to manage their contacts, calendar, e-mail and to-do list in Outlook the same way they always have and let MX-Sync seamlessly update the corporate database via the back-end so that the rest of the company is aware of these customer interactions.

Drury goes on to state that MX-Sync can also create a "self-sustaining CRM system". One of the challenges of any CRM system is getting users to keep the system updated, i.e. enter their contacts and activities indicating who they are dealing with. Given that MX-Sync can synchronize and ‘process’ e-mails and appointments on the server side according to a set of ‘rules’ and flags, MX-Sync can ‘populate’ a CRM system automatically by:

• creating contacts from e-mails, using the senders’/recipients’ e-mail address(es), and scanning signatures for phone, mobile numbers, etc.
• creating companies automatically using the senders’/recipients’ mail server domain(s), and linking the contacts to these companies
• linking the e-mails to the contacts, companies and users.
• saving e-mail attachments to a Documents table in the SQL database or a designated series of file system folders, and linking these documents to the relevant contacts, companies and users.
• creating journals/call reports automatically from Outlook appointments which users should be utilizing already.

This process creates a self-populating and self-sustaining, well-structured CRM system, comprising contacts, companies, e-mails, documents and journals, which just needs to be updated as resources allow. But because of the value to the organization of such a centralized information system, users would be quick to see the value and therefore allocate the necessary time to update the system and therefore derive additional benefit from it.

For more information on MX-Sync please visit www.mxsync.com.