Exact Synergy and Microsoft Exchange 2010

Exact Synergy and Microsoft Exchange 2010

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by in Exact Synergy

Exact Synergy Enterprise is already integrated with Microsoft Exchange server for years. Purpose of this integration is to synchronize the Outlook calendar with the calendar in Synergy and to automatically create and maintain Exchange mail accounts and user accounts in active directory based on the persons in Synergy.

As of Synergy product update 244 we will support Exchange 2010. The integration with Exchange 2010 is different from other Exchange platforms:

  • Integration of Outlook calendar with Synergy calendar is improved and will be near real time
  • Creation of mail- and user account is supported (This feature was not supported in 2010)

Technically, the change is even bigger. The Exchange 2010 integration is based on Exchange Web Se rvices, where previous Exchange integration was based on a background job. This has a couple of advantages:

  • Synchronization is near real time
  • Installation becomes easier, because of MSI installation process

Integration of Outlook calendar with Synergy calendar is improved

The synchronization of the calendars is two-way: Appointments created in Synergy will create/update appointments in Outlook and vice versa. The time between creation of an appointment and synchronization is close to near time. This has the big advantage that both the Synergy and Outlook calendar are up to date when an appointment is adjusted, created or deleted. This direct synchronization means that the calendar settings for defining the synchronization range (number of days back and forward) is no longer valid for Exchange 2010 integration. (System/Setup/Calendar settings)

With Exchange 2010 integration we offer the following functionalities:

Synergy –> Outlook

  • When an appointment is deleted in Synergy, it will remove the corresponding appointment in Outlook [NEW]
  • When an appointment request is created in Synergy, it will create an appointment in Outlook.
  • When an appointment request is updated in Synergy, it will update the corresponding appointment in Outlook.

Outlook –> Synergy

  • When a series appointment or an occurrence of a series appointment is deleted in Outlook, it will delete the corresponding appointment request(s) in Synergy. [NEW]
  • When an appointment is created in Outlook, it will create an appointment request in Synergy
  • When an appointment is updated in Outlook, it will update the corresponding appointment request in Synergy.
  • When an appointment is deleted in Outlook, it will delete the corresponding appointment request in Synergy.

Windows services

The integration between Synergy and Exchange is based on Windows Services. The background job used in previous Exchange application is no longer applicable for Exchange 2010 integration. The 2 Windows services can easily be installed via an MSI installation process read.

Creation of mail- and user account is supported

Important to know for customers who are migration to Exchange 2010: The creation of mail account and user account is supported in Exchange 2010 integration (In earlier edition this was not yet supported)

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18 Responses to “Exact Synergy and Microsoft Exchange 2010”

  1. Gert

    30. Jul, 2010

    Nice improvements!

    Does it also work well when changing the resource of a request (remove it from old resource in outlook and add it to the new one)?

    Reply to this comment

  2. Martin Ortgiess

    30. Jul, 2010

    Gert,

    I need to double confirm, but I don’t think this has been adjusted. I have it in my product backlog for Exchange Server 2010.

    Reply to this comment

  3. Barry van der Meij

    02. Aug, 2010

    Great improvements and looks like it will be a lot more reliable then it is now.

    Only thing which really makes me wonder is:

    Creation of mail- and user account is no longer supported
    WHY???

    Does this mean new users have to be keyed in manually in AD and mailboxes will have to be created manually?

    This would be a giant step back since with the current functionality (hrsysmaint) our HR department actually takes care of alle these things and IT is not needed for new employees.

    I hope to get this wrong since we are not really interested in more manual work.

    Reply to this comment

  4. Martin Ortgiess

    02. Aug, 2010

    Barry, in this project our main focus was synchronization of appointment and make that great. Doing this, we did not have the time to investigate creation of Active Directory account and mail boxes. Same for synchronization of public holidays.
    For next product update (245) we plan to work on this. Since the functionality is outside Synergy, we probably can deliver before 245 becomes General Available.

    Reply to this comment

  5. Barry van der Meij

    03. Aug, 2010

    Hi Martin,

    Understand that you have limited resources for building new things BUT customers who use this functionality nowadays want to continue using it and now there exists a gap….. Isn’t that a little bit strange?

    From a developers point of view I can understand but from a customers point of view not at all. I’m justing shouting about it now because I can assure you customers will also do that.

    Regards,
    Barry

    Reply to this comment

  6. Martin Ortgiess

    03. Aug, 2010

    Hi Barry,

    With the big improvements we made for agenda synchronization, we believe to deliver a product that will make a lot of our customers happy.
    We consider creation of mailbox and Active directory account important, and we start working on it as soon as we are ready with product update 244.

    We want to deliver this as a service pack within product update 244.

    Regards, Martin

    Reply to this comment

  7. Dave

    10. Aug, 2010

    We were waiting for these improvements (synchronizing agenda Outlook vs Synergy) for years!

    1.) How will it works with creating appointments for multiple users?

    Synergy -> Outlook
    A multiple appointment in Synergy will be created in Outlook as single appointment?

    Outlook -> Synergy
    A multiple appointment in Outlook will be created in Synergy as single appointment?

    2.) What will be the type of the appointment which will be created in Synergy by the synchronization? We use different types for intern and external appointment.

    3.) Can you adjust the missing information (relation, contact person etc) after the appointment is created in Synergy by the synchronization?

    4.) Is it already possible to add an extra user to a multiple appointment in Synegy which was created before?

    5.) Is there something changed in for return appointments as for example birthdays, monthly meetings etc?

    Reply to this comment

  8. Martin Ortgiess

    17. Aug, 2010

    Hi Dave,

    thanks for your feedback and question.
    Let me first answer the questions I am sure about.

    2. Creating an appointment in Synergy will create a request of the type ‘Appointment’ in Synergy. You can adjust the default task to be created. So, this situation has not been changed.

    3. We did not change this functionality, which means you can not add that information to an appointment in Outlook.

    We do have idea’s to adjust the behavior of point 2 and 3 which will fulfill your needs, but nothing i can promiss yet. If there is more to tell about that, I will let that know via the product blog.

    For your other questions, I need to check with the team. You will have an answer on this soon!

    Reply to this comment

  9. Martin Ortgiess

    19. Aug, 2010

    Hi Dave,

    as promissed, some more answers:
    1. Synergy–> Outlook: Creating a “multiple” request in Synergy will create an appointment for every request created in Synergy. Not sure if this was really answers your question though.
    Outlook–> Synergy: Creating an appointment with multiple recipients, will create a request in Synegry for every person invited. Creating a recurring appointment, will create multiple singe requests in Synergy

    3. The functionality for creating a multiple request in Synergy did not change. this means that after creating a multiple request you cannot add an extra person to it.

    Regards, Martin

    Reply to this comment

  10. Martin Ortgiess

    12. Oct, 2010

    One of the great things in Scrum is the sprint review. Every 2 weeks the team shows what they have done and which is ready. Last Monday one of the features mentioned in the replies was delivered:

    When you change a resource in a request, it will update the calendars in Exchange. it will remove the calendar entry from one person and add it to the calendar of the other person

    This will be available as of product update 245, which currently is still in development

    Reply to this comment

  11. Mark Velthuijsen

    01. Dec, 2010

    Thanks for the nice article,

    Can you tell me if the calendar synchronisation will also work with Microsoft Exchange online (BPOS)? BPOS does allow Web Service calls, so in theory is should work, but can you tell me if this is tested or proven at customer sites?

    Mark

    Reply to this comment

  12. Sanja Djuretic

    02. Dec, 2010

    Hi Mark,

    Exchange-Synergy Calendar Synchronization solution described in this article is designed for Exchange Server 2010 on premise. Basically it is windows service that uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) Managed API 1.0 to connect to the multiple Exchange calendars.
    Our solution might work on Exchange Server 2007 SP1 but that environment is not tested and not supported by Exact.
    Furthermore, our synchronization solution is designed in such a way that it should work for Exchange Online as well with the slight adjustments.
    As you know, BPOS is using Exchange Server 2007, so we haven’t even plan to test our solution in BPOS.
    Exchange Server 2010 will be deployed in Office 365, next version of BPOS.
    Once Office 365 is available, we might test our synchronization solution with Exchange Online. Please note that we still don’t have any specific plans about this kind of integration.

    Kind regards,
    Sanja

    Reply to this comment

  13. Elod

    23. Dec, 2010

    Hi,

    I’m having this issue when trying to install Synergy office Add-ins for Office 2010:

    Failed to log in,
    “the remote server returned an erro: (403) forbidden

    I did not type my credentials incorrectly.
    Any suggestion?

    Reply to this comment

  14. Martin Ortgiess

    24. Dec, 2010

    Hi Elod,

    not sure if you are responding the right blog. This blog is about Exchange 2010. For issues about Office add-in please contact support department. they can help you further with this. i do know Office add-in only runs in 32 bit enviroment. you sure you have 32 bit environment?

    Reply to this comment

  15. Niek Nass

    10. May, 2011

    HI Martin,

    we are looking into Office 365 and are still using synergy version 398 (i believe it’s the ASP version).

    Is there any way (suppported or unsupported by Exact) to get the calendars to sync? E.g. with an on premise exchange 2003 server, a third party tool or a broker server like Orbis?

    Reply to this comment

  16. Martin Ortgiess

    13. May, 2011

    Hi Niek,

    Can you explain a bit more about the situation you want to move too? I understand you run Synergy 398, which is indeed the ASP version.
    You want to have a calendar synchronization, but i don’t know if you want to have this with Office 365 or Exchange 2003. Do you want to migrate to Synergy Enterprise (.net version) or stay at current version?

    reagards, Martin

    Reply to this comment

  17. Niek Nass

    24. Jun, 2011

    HI,

    Yes we use 398 and are migrating from Exchange 2003 on premise to exchange online (as part of Office 365). We use the cdo to sync calender info form synrgy to exchange.

    In exchange online it is not possible to use the cdo anymore. For us it is not possible to upgrade to the .net version in short term.

    What are the possibilities to use 398 with exchange online (office 365).

    With Regards, Niek

    Reply to this comment

  18. Martin Ortgiess

    27. Jun, 2011

    Hi Niek,

    We will not support hosted Exchange in Synergy asp. For Synergy Enterprise the foundation is already there and we expect to support hosted Exchange in version 248.

    Reply to this comment

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