Create a Sync Policy For Exchange: Riva Cloud

Before you begin

• If you are using Corporate account: prepare the service account that Riva will use to connect to your email environment
  • Follow this link to review the options for Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, Office 365 and Hosted Exchange.
• Confirm CRM and email connections are already created

Create the sync policy

1. Log in to https://www.rivacloud.com.
2. On the Get Started page, select Configure your synchronization policy.

Configure the sync policy

1. Configure the Historic CRM Item Filtering.
2. Configure the Weekday Sync Frequency.
3. Determine Which Data to Sync.
   • Category
   • Module Selection
     • Address Book Modules,
     • Calendaring Modules, and/or
     • Folder-Based Modules.
4. Configure the Email SmartConvert Options. (Standard and Premium only.)
5. Configure the Email Assign To Options. (Premium only.)
6. Configure the Email Sent Items and Email Inbox Options. (Premium only.)
7. Enable the Sync Policy.

Step 1: Configure the Historic CRM Item Filtering

Location: General tab

Policy status

• Ensure Enable Policy is cleared (not selected).
• Keep the policy disabled until the full configuration is complete.

Historic CRM Item Filtering

• Sync Start Date: select the calendar button to the right of Sync Start Date to choose how far into the past Riva checks the CRM for active items (contacts, calendar items, tasks, opportunities, etc.) during the initial synchronization. 

• Riva Cloud creates a copy of CRM contacts, open calendar items, and incomplete tasks that were created or modified on or after the selected sync start date.

• During initialization, no information syncs from the email system to the CRM.

Note: For trial licenses, you are limited to a sync start date of 15 days into the past. After purchasing Riva, update the sync start date as far back as necessary.

Error Email Notifications

• Enter one or more administrator email addresses.
• These addresses receive notifications whenever a user has five concurrent sync errors.

Step 2: Configure the Weekday Sync Frequency

Location: Schedule tab

Sync frequency

• Modify the sync intervals for "peak" and "off-peak" hours.
• Available options differ depending on the subscription level: Lite, Standard, or Premium.

Tip: If your hosted email or CRM services charge for data throughput or limit API calls, you may want to increase the sync intervals to reduce the number of times a full sync is scheduled.

Notes:

• Blackout times are designed to prevent wasting resource usage during non-working hours.
• All sync policies created in Riva Cloud 2017.5 or higher are configured by default to detect every individual user's time zone setting in the CRM. That individual setting is used to determine the peak, off-peak, and blackout times for that individual's sync. To request the change for existing sync policies, contact the Riva Success Team.

Step 3: Determine Which Data to Sync

Location: Configuration tab

Configure:

• Category
• Module Selection 

Category

Category Name

• Create the parent mailbox folder for email sync; see SmartConvert. After saving the policy, the Category Name cannot be changed.

The Category Name is used to identify items that originate from the CRM and/or need to be synchronized from the email system to the CRM. 

In the email system:

• Contacts are added to the default contact list and assigned the CRM category name, for example, Company CRM.
• Leads are added as contacts with the category Company CRM Leads.
• Appointments, phone calls, and tasks are added to the calendar and assigned the appropriate category and color.

Category Color

• can be selected from the drop-down list and is assigned to the Riva-generated categories in the Exchange Master Category List in the Outlook client.

Create separate contact folder

• Used to indicate if you want Riva to create a subfolder in your personal address book. 
• If selected:
  • A contact folder that uses the Category Name is created, for example, "Company CRM". 
  • This will be the only folder that Riva uses to synchronize contacts and leads. 
• If cleared:
  • Riva syncs contacts and leads to the default Exchange Contacts folder.

As a best practice, we recommend selecting this option.

Auto-synchronize new contact, calendar, and task items

• Control when Riva syncs new items to the CRM:
• If Auto-synchronize new items and Create separate contact folder are both selected:
  • New contacts created in the Company CRM contacts folder are auto-synced to the CRM.
  • Contacts created in My Contacts are not synced.
• If Auto-synchronize new items is selected and Create Separate Contact Folder is cleared (not selected):
  • New contacts created in My Contacts are auto-synced to the CRM.
• If Auto-synchronize new items is cleared: 
  • Riva does not auto-sync the new contacts, tasks, or calendar items to the CRM unless the user manually assigns the Company CRM category to the new contacts, tasks, or calendar items (or assigns the Company CRM Lead category to new contacts to sync them to the CRM as leads).

Module Selection

General guidelines

• Under the headings Address Book Modules, Calendaring Modules, and Folder-Based Modules, you will select the modules that you want to enable data sync.

How items are synced

• Security Filter: Address books (contacts and leads) and advanced modules such as opportunities and cases can be filtered:
  • Must be owner: (Default.) 
    • Uses ownership or assignment of the item. 
    • Only contacts the user owns or that are assigned to the user in the CRM are synced to the user’s email system address book, even if the user can see the contact in the CRM.
  • All visible: 
    • Uses the CRM's security rules. 
    • If the user can see an item in the CRM, the item is synced to the user's mailbox if the modification date is after the Sync Start Date. 
    • If the user can modify the item in the CRM, a change to the item in the user's mailbox syncs back to the CRM.
• Sync Direction: Can be set to one-way sync from the CRM to the user's mailbox for contacts, leads, calendar items, and tasks.

• Historic Items Filter Date: Only the CRM items that have been created or modified on or after the historic items filter data are synced. (See Step 1.)

Module-specific options

Some options are specific to some modules. For more information, select the following links:

• Address Book modules.
• Calendaring modules.
• Folder-based modules.

Address Book Modules

Advanced Options:

Note: Advanced options are only available when the Contacts module is selected.

• Replace contact's website field in the mailbox with a link to view the record in CRM 

  • If selected, Riva-synced CRM contacts include a view link. 
  • The link replaces whatever was previously in the Website field.

  

• Limit the number of records synced to mailbox

  • If selected, the value can be set. 
  • Limits the total number of Riva-synced CRM contacts created in the user’s mailbox address book.
  • The most current record, based on last saved date/time, is copied.
  • If the maximum is reached, older Riva-synced CRM contacts are removed so newer CRM contacts can sync.
  • Use this option to prevent mobile devices from locking up due to an excessive number of contacts being synced.

Calendaring Modules

Advanced Options:

Note: Advanced options are only available when the Appointments module is selected.

• Append attendee contact info details to appointment body (Default: [Cleared].) 

  • If selected, Riva appends a list of the CRM attendees' contact information (email address and associated account) to the body of the appointment in the email system.
• Synchronize meeting reminders (Default: Selected.)
  • For more information, see Disable alarm and reminder synchronization.
• Synchronize recurring appointments from mailbox to CRM (Default: [Selected].) 
  • See: Synchronize Exchange recurring appointments. 
  • This option enables "sync series" so that each recurring appointment in the series is created in the CRM as a separate appointment.
• Synchronize appointments tagged as 'Private' in the mailbox: (Default: [Selected].)
  • If selected, Riva syncs these appointments to the CRM, but their contents are not visible to other users.
  • If cleared, these appointments are not synced at all to the CRM.

Folder-Based Modules

The options selected here dictate which modules sync, depending on the other settings you select on the Email AssignTo tab

Best Practices:

• Do not select data that you do not want to sync to your user's mailbox.
• Do not select modules that are not enabled in the CRM for the users.
• You can change any of the module selection settings at a later date.
• If you clear the check box of an advanced module (opportunities, cases, etc.), folders related to that item type are removed from the user's mailbox.

Step 4: Configure the Email SmartConvert Options

Applies to 

• Standard and Premium subscriptions only.

Location: Email SmartConvert tab

Email SmartConvert

• Enable and configure the ability to create new CRM items. 
• By moving or copying an email item to a corresponding "- Create New" drop folder, a user makes SmartConvert do the following:
  • Create an opportunity, case, project, or quote, by using the source email as the subject and content of the new CRM object.
  • Use the email domain name to check if the account exists for each email addressee in the email.
  • Use the email address to check if the contact exists for each email addressee in the email.

To turn this feature on, select Enable SmartConvert.

Processing Rules

• Riva first reads the addressees in the header of the email. 
• For each addressee, Riva attempts to find a matching CRM user (referred to as the "system user" in the Riva logs), contact, and/or lead in the CRM. 
• Syncing or tracking the email into the CRM means creating a copy of the email in the CRM. 
• The tracking is handled in accordance with the contact and account/organization (and email item handling) option settings. 

Options

• Must match or create at least one Contact or Lead (Default: [Selected].)
  • [Selected]: Riva must find at least one email addressee in the CRM as a contact or lead, or it must create a contact or lead if no matches are discovered by Riva in the CRM.
• Automatically synchronize emails based on conversation (Default: [Cleared].)
  • See: Conversation Follow: Syncing Conversations to Your CRM
  • This option enables Conversation Follow so that, after an email is manually synced, follow-up emails in the same Office 365 or Exchange conversation are automatically tracked to the same CRM item or items. 
• Match against recipients listed in CC and BCC fields: (Default: [Selected].) 
  • [Selected]: When Riva examines the addressees of an email, it includes all CC and BCC email addresses. Emails copied to the CRM are linked to those contacts.
• If no Contact is matched, match against Leads: (Default: [Cleared].) 
  • When Riva attempts to match email addresses against contacts and cannot find a matching contact, Riva attempts to match against CRM leads.
• Delete item upon successful processing, instead of returning to folder: (Default: [Cleared].)
  • [Cleared]: After creating the email in the CRM, Riva moves the email item from the "- Create New" or AssignTo drop folder to the Inbox and categorizes that email item as Processing Complete.
  • [Selected]: After creating the email in the CRM, Riva deletes the email item from the "- Create New" or AssignTo drop folder. Those deleted email items are purged from the user's mailbox and cannot be recovered.
• Enable Attachments Synchronization: (Default: [Cleared].)
  • [Cleared]: Riva does not sync email attachments to the CRM.
  • [Selected]: Riva syncs email attachments to the CRM while respecting any CRM attachment uploading restrictions (for example, file size or file type) that are in place. 
    • For attachment uploading restrictions, see your CRM documentation.) 
    • Note: Riva does not guarantee the sync of every email attachment if this option is not checked. Users should be careful to comply with the regulatory provisions of SEC, FINRA, HIPAA, and other email retention laws and regulations. Riva is not certified as an email archiving solution that meets the standards required by email retention laws or regulations. Corporate use of certified email archiving services or products is recommended in addition to Riva.

• Email Attachments: Append attachment summary to email body: (Available only if Enable Attachments Synchronization is selected. Default: [Cleared].

  

  • If selected, this option includes a list of email attachments in the body of the synced email in the CRM. The user can cross-reference to the source email from their mailbox to look for the original attachment

Creation Filter

• Enable contact, lead, and account creation: (Default: [Selected].) 
  • If cleared, SmartConvert is prevented from creating accounts or contacts if a match for the email addresses cannot be found in the CRM contacts. In this case, the item is not created in the CRM. This requires the user to create the account and contact the CRM manually.
• When creating a new Contact, if no Account is matched, create a new Account: (Default: [Selected].)
• Optional domain filter
  • In the list box, add domain names for which you do not want Riva to automatically create contacts and/or accounts in the CRM, for example, @gmail.com. 
  • This prevents the creation of accounts and contacts for any domains included in the filter. We recommend adding domain names of common generic online email services like Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Live.com (Hotmail), and your own company email domain. 
  • This does not prevent Riva from archiving emails to these accounts based on the specific user email address.
• Additional creation filters exist. See Preventing Riva from creating unwanted accounts and contacts in the CRM.

Step 5: Configure the Email Assign To Options

Applies to

• Premium subscriptions only.

Email AssignTo

• Enables you to archive emails to "other" items like cases, opportunities, projects, or quotes.
• The feature creates individual "Assign To" drop folders for the most current CRM objects (cases, opportunities, projects, and quotes), depending on the modules that you enabled on the Configuration tab. (See Step 3.) Folder creation and Folder Creation Options manage those "drop folders".

To turn this feature on, select the Enable AssignTo check box.

Folder Creation Options

• Maximum number of tracked items (Maximum allowed: 99 folders): Defines the maximum number of drop folders created.
  • If there are more current items than what is configured as the maximum (for example, you have 31 open cases but have set this value to 30), the oldest drop folder is removed from the user's mailbox and replaced with the newest or newest revised drop folder. 
  • This has no effect on the actual item in the CRM. 
  • An item's age is determined by the item's last modified (saved) date.
• Maximum age of tracked items (Maximum allowed: 99 days): Defines the maximum age that an item can reach before Riva removes the drop folder from your email client.  
  • Even if you have not reached the maximum number of allowed drop folders, a drop folder is removed when it reaches the maximum age. 
  • Set this value to equal the average span for your sales cycle. For example, if your sales cycle is normally 45 days, set this value to 45. 
  • A drop folder can be re-added by opening the corresponding item in your CRM and saving it. That action modifies the last modified date for the item and restarts the age tracking for it. 
  • An item's age is determined by the item's last modified (saved) date.
     

Folder Sort Options

• You can list drop folders of the same type by date modified or alphabetically.
   

Step 6: Configure the Email Sent Items and Email Inbox Options

Applies to

• Premium subscriptions only.

The Email Sent Items and Email Inbox tabs are for automatic email sync. 

• Both tabs have the exact same options but respectively affect your Sent Items or Inbox folder separately. 
• If you select this feature on either or both tabs, users do not have to manually move or copy email from respectively the Sent Items and/or Inbox folder to a "- Create New Email" folder to archive the email to the CRM.

To enable the feature, select the Enable Email Sent Items and/or Enable Email Inbox check box. The email processing and contact creation filters appear when the check box is selected.

By default, Email Sent Items and Email Inbox are configured to archive only sent or inbox email items that can be matched to an existing CRM contact. This prevents archiving unwanted emails and creating contacts in an uncontrolled manner.

Options

• Only detect items with required category: (Default: [Selected].) 
  • This requires that you assign the Riva-created category to any email items that you want to sync.
  • If you are thinking of clearing this check box, which would enable automatic sync, contact the Riva Success team.
• Must match or create at least one Contact or Lead: (Default: [Selected].) 
  • If selected, Riva must find at least one email addressee in the CRM as a Contact or Lead, or it must create a Contact or Lead if no matches are discovered by Riva in the CRM.
• Match against recipients listed in CC and BCC fields: (Default: [Selected].) 
  • If selected, when Riva examines the addressees of an email, it includes all CC and BCC email addresses. Emails copied to the CRM are linked to those contacts.
• If no Contact is matched, match against Leads: (Default: [Cleared].) 
  • If this option is selected, when Riva attempts to match email addresses against contacts and cannot find a matching contact, Riva attempts to match against CRM leads.

Creation Filter

• Enable contact, lead, and account creation: (Default: [Cleared].)
  • [Cleared]: SmartConvert is prevented from creating accounts or contacts if a match for the email addressees cannot be found in the CRM contacts. In this case, the item is not created in the CRM. This requires the user to create the account and contact in the CRM manually.
  • [Selected]: SmartConvert can create accounts or contacts if a match for the email addresses cannot be found in the CRM contacts. A list box appears.

• If the recipient is not matched, create Lead instead of Contact: (Available only if Enable contact, lead, and account creation is selected. Default: [Cleared].) 

  

  • If no CRM contact or lead is matched for an email addressee, Riva creates a lead instead of a contact. 
  • [Selected]: When creating a new Contact, if no Account is matched, create new Account option does not work.
• Optional domain filter
  • In the list box, add domain names for which you do not want Riva to automatically create contacts and/or accounts in the CRM, for example, @gmail.com. 
  • This prevents the creation of accounts and contacts for any domains included in the filter. We recommend adding domain names of common generic online email services like Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Live.com (Hotmail), and your own company email domain. 
  • This does not prevent Riva from archiving emails to these accounts based on the specific user email address.

Step 7: Enable the Sync Policy

Before you enable the policy, we recommend reviewing all of the settings and options for all the tabs. Some settings cannot be changed after the policy has been enabled.

To enable the policy:

1. On the General tab, select the Enable Policy check box, and select Save.

   

   The browser refreshes and shows that your policy has been enabled.

   

2. Wait for up to four hours for the initial synchronization to occur between your CRM and your user's mailbox.
3. To view the sync history, select View Logs.