ExchangeLink & Google Hosted Mail

[dennissekulic]

If someone can provide me with more information on this it would be most appreciated....

My company is looking to have Google host our email in the near future and I am trying to figure out how it might affect ExchangeLink in that our mail wont be like a traditional mail server.

Now I know Google has a .dll that tricks BES servers to think that it is interacting with an exchange to push data back and forth without problem.  Will the same type of .dll be needed for ExchangeLink work the same way or will we have to wait for a newer version of the service to be released?

Any thoughts

[ghyde]

Exchange Link directly interacts with Exchange objects (Calendar, Contacts and Tasks) within a user's Exchange Mailbox.  If you are planning on cutting Exchange Server out of the picture then Exchange Link will not work.  Sage SalesLogix currently does not have any products that work with Google Mail.  Whatever choice your company makes for synchronizing mail information, I would highly recommend testing thoroughly.

[dennissekulic]

Thanks Garrett for the quick response.

Since SalesLogix currently does not have any products that work with Google Mail, is there any externally hosted email services to does?

If not, I would suggest that this be made a request in the IdeaLogix as a feature request as I would suspect that as companies continue to grow, there might be an ever growing need for mail synchronization between SalesLogix and an externally hosted mail service.

Thats my take on it anyways...

[ghyde · Accepted solution]

Current versions of SalesLogix work with Outlook directly via Intellisync and Advanced Outlook Integration or Exchange Server via Exchange Link.  We also have support for Lotus Notes via Intellisync.  Please feel free to add this and any other feature requests to IdeaLogix.

[RJLedger]

Due to certain "issues" w/MAPI, it is not possible to use ExchangeLink with a hosted ExchangeLink implementation. With the release of Exchange 2010, and a design change/enhancement, it could be possible (if the hosted Exchange is 2010).

AFAIK there are no 3rd party solutions for using SalesLogix w/Hosted Exchange.

If you use Outlook as your email client you CAN use the SalesLogix Intellisync approach.

I have made a post to IdeaLogix to deal w/the Exchange 2010 new capability:

http://community.sagesaleslogix.com/t5/IdeaLogix/Modify-ExchangeLink-so-that-we-can-use-it-with-host... 

Go over and give it a vote(kudo) if you like ;-) 

[dennissekulic]

Hey RJ,

I already gave it a Kudo this morning so no worries there

At present we are just in the planning stages of a possible shift to get Google to host our email so I am trying to give my IT department all the information they need to come up with a business plan.  Seeing as how we have already paid for ExchangeLink in 07, I would think it would be ill advised to make this shift if it means we lose functionality.

The insanity of trying to have users adopt more and more functionality only to have company strategy shift direction and end up losing that functionality is really frustrating.  And most folks wonder why user adoption is such a pain in the butt to increase over time.....