Outlook Add-in with Salesforce.com? Also, using Levenger and Blackberry

D

dgroesch

Guest
I am a newbie to GTD. Always looking for a more efficient way. I used the Franklin Planner and moleskin in the past. I need your help in determining the right tools for GTD.

I am a sales rep and my company uses salesforce.com. I find myself constantly going between three systems and do not have a single source of truth -- Salesforce.com (has its own 'tasks' and 'calendaring' for customer follow-up); Outlook (email and calendaring with the company); my written notes (from meetings and phone calls, with written action items).

I have used the integration software between Salesfoce.com and Outlook. It works fairly well, but does not move the Account name as it adds tasks to Outlook. I have recently disabled the integration and installed the Outlook Add in for GTD. I am getting used to it, but it seems to only be useful for emails, not written notes, or salesfoce.com.

My question, has anyone used the Add in with the Salesforce integration for Outlook software. It seems like it would get confused with the Add in. I hestitate to re-enable it, fearing it will screw up everything and possibly corrupt information.

Ideally I would like one source of truth to do 'collection', 'action', review. But I don't see how that can happen when working with three different systems. I also have a blackberry that synchs well with Outlook calendaring and email. I don't use blackberry tasks. Too many things to keep track of since already using Outlook calendar and saleforce tasks.

Ideally I want a Tablet PC that integrates to Outlook and salesfoce with GTD software. So as I write during meetings and phone calls it is automatically collected and I can do action items on the fly during meetings. Having to re-write notes for Salesfoce.com activity is such a waste of time.

Any comments about any of the above would be welcome.

Thank you,
Dave
 
M

mydifferentfeet

Registered
They can work together, but I rely on the GTD tool bar

Hi Dave,

I have been in Hi tech sales for 11 years, and used sf.com since 2000. I have been practicing GTD for just under 2 years now. I am very knowledgeable of sf.com, including the admin side, and I would call myself competent, but still learning with regards to GTD.

My experience is that the GTD OL plugin and the sf.com plugin work fine together, but since I find sf.com's calendar and task functionality lacking, I stopped using them very much. I still sync my account related calendar info from OL to sf.com, but that's just so there is a record of the meeting with the client/prospect.

I heavily use the GTD OL toolbar. I have created "Projects" for key clients and prospects where I track the open next actions I have by them. I add "Customer" or "Prospect" to the first part of the project name to distinguish in my OL project view from "Personal", "Family", "Home" and "Business" (general business projects) projects. I don't manage the client and prospect projects to closure the way I do the other ones, because a prospect ultimately become a customer if I'm doing my job. So, I simply change the beginning of project name from prospect to client for any prospect project that becomes a customer project.

Hope this helps.
 
D

dgroesch

Guest
Thanks for the insight. It is good to know that at least one other person has a configuration that is exactly like mine.

I will probably enable the Outlook integration software from Saleforce this weekend to see how it works. I will try to continue to create and use the "tasks" in Salesforce as I talk with prospects and customers and see how they synch up with Outlook and GTD.

I have been using Outlooks 'archive folders' to create folders for every account that is active, and have been storing emails in them for reference. I will try to use incorporte those folders in a similar way that you do.

Do you know if there any limit to the number of Projects or Sub-projects?
 
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