Microsoft has just published a new post on its Office blog to announce the next step in collaboration between the company and Salesforce, with the latter’s Lightning add-in coming to Outlook.
Specifically, the add-in will allow salespeople to search, view and update Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) entries associated with email contacts from Outlook, syncing contacts and calendar events from Outlook to CRM, and adding and creating permanent shortcuts for custom sales apps directly into Outlook.
The add-in will be available for Salesforce and Outlook customers worldwide, on Outlook on Windows, Mac, and the web; mobile support is “coming soon”. Compatible versions of Outlook and Exchange include Outlook 2013 for Windows, Outlook 2016 for Windows and Mac, and Outlook on the web as part of the Office 365 package. A Salesforce subscription is of course also needed. If you have all of the requirements, the add-in can be easily found and installed from ‘Manage Add-ins’ on the ribbon, or in the Store in newer versions of Outlook on desktop.
Given that email and CRM are the two most essential tools to the modern sales operation, but somehow often disconnected, the new Lightning add-in should be a boon to any sales rep, helping them to save valuable time and effort on administrative tasks.
