MetaDesign Solutions
MetaDesign SolutionsSeamless CRM integration within outlook for enhanced sales productivity
Overview
MetaDesign Solutions collaborated with Atex to create a Microsoft Outlook Add-in for their AdSales CRM, part of the Adbase Suite. This add-in enabled seamless integration between Outlook and AdSales by offering features like email syncing, task assignment, and bi-directional event synchronization. By enhancing the user experience for sales and support personnel, the add-in significantly improved their workflow, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring smooth CRM management within their familiar Outlook environment.
about the client
Atex, a prominent name in media technology, provides a range of solutions focused on content management, advertising, and cloud-based services. Their product offerings are designed to cater to media companies’ evolving digital needs, from small-scale operations to major publications. Atex is known for its comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) that supports multi-channel content creation and distribution, along with their advertising management solutions. These solutions streamline operations across digital and print channels for newspapers, magazines, and other publishing houses.
One of Atex’s key offerings, the Adbase Suite, includes the AdSales CRM, which allows companies to manage advertising sales efficiently. Although Atex has since been divided, with NewsCycleSolutions now owning the Adbase product, the project was undertaken while the AdSales product was under Atex. The CRM solution within AdSales is critical for managing customer relationships, automating ad bookings, and improving overall advertising workflows.
Industry Domain
Professional Services and Education
Service Category (Service-line)
Outllok Add-in / Office Add-in Development / Digital Product Development
Technologies Used
C#
VSTO Add-in SDK
Microsoft Office SDK
Challenges
Diverse Customer Authentication: Each AdSales user had a unique web URL for CRM access, which meant the authentication process needed to handle variable input efficiently.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: The add-in had to work seamlessly on both Windows and Mac versions of Outlook, which involved ensuring compatibility across different environments.
Bi-Directional Event Syncing: Ensuring accurate and real-time bi-directional synchronization of events between Outlook and AdSales presented challenges in handling data conflicts and keeping both systems updated.
Streamlined Email Integration: Converting emails into tasks and syncing them with the appropriate AdSales contacts required a smooth workflow that avoided unnecessary steps for users.
Optimizing User Workflow: The goal was to minimize the need for sales and support personnel to manually transfer data between Outlook and AdSales, thus improving their efficiency.
Solution Scope and Services
MetaDesign Solutions developed a VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) Add-in using C#.Net to integrate Microsoft Outlook with Atex’s AdSales CRM. The add-in allowed users to authenticate via their unique AdSales URLs, simplifying access to their CRM data directly from Outlook. With email syncing, users could convert important communications into actionable tasks, linking them directly to their CRM contact persons without leaving the email platform. The event-syncing feature provided bi-directional updates between Outlook and AdSales, ensuring all meetings and appointments remained in sync across platforms.
The scope of this project included ensuring full compatibility across both Windows and Mac desktop versions of Outlook. Given the hybrid work environments many media companies operate within, this cross-platform functionality ensured that users could access the add-in regardless of their preferred operating system.
Cross-Platform Outlook Integration
The development of the Outlook add-in included compatibility for both Windows and Mac versions. This allowed users on different platforms to access the same CRM functionality, ensuring a consistent experience across devices. This decision reduced onboarding friction and improved adoption rates among diverse teams.
Efficient CRM Workflow Automation
The syncing of emails as tasks and bi-directional event management ensured that users no longer had to switch between Outlook and AdSales. This reduced manual entry and prevented data loss, as every interaction within Outlook was synced with the CRM in real time, boosting operational efficiency.
Leveraging Microsoft’s VSTO SDK for Office Integration
Utilizing Microsoft’s VSTO SDK allowed MetaDesign Solutions to seamlessly integrate the add-in within Outlook’s native environment. This approach ensured the add-in ran smoothly within the Office ecosystem, providing users with an intuitive, hassle-free experience while accessing CRM features.
Results
The Microsoft Outlook Add-in developed for Atex’s AdSales CRM significantly enhanced the workflow for their sales and support teams. By allowing seamless email and event syncing, as well as task management directly within Outlook, the add-in reduced the need for manual data entry, saving time and improving productivity. The cross-platform solution provided consistent functionality for both Windows and Mac users, ensuring that the entire team could benefit from the integration. The project successfully addressed the business challenge of improving CRM accessibility, helping Atex’s clients streamline their advertising workflows.