Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all data?

[Kruno]

I have heard about some half-way solutions, and some expensive solutions like some sw which cost more than 100 USD!

Is there some work-around?

Some software for IPhone which is able to reach BCM folder instead of Outlook default folder.

Or is it possible to change BCM default folder to use Outlook folder and to work with it like it is it's default folder? And then sync it with IPhone?

Thank you.

All the best.

Kruno

 

[Cathy Rhone]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

I'm not aware of any solutions for syncing BCM to iphones. No, you can't change it so the BCM folder is the default. BCM doesn't use Outlook dats store, it uses SQL server to store the contacts. That's why sync utilties are expensive.

 

[scottleslie]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Yes - It is all possible assuming you are using Micosoft Exchange. It may work with POP mail but I did not try this. Here we go:

1) First setup and configure an Exchange Mail Account for Mail and Calendar (No Contacts yet). Test that this works

2) Select Contacts and Go to the Folders Tab in Outlook 2010 and Select "New Folder". Name this something like "Personal".

3) Put all your non BCM contacts in the Personal folder.

4) Now your (Exchange) "Contacts" folder should be empty. If not make sure it is.

5) Go to the File Menu, select Business Contact Manager, then "Business Contact Synchonization"

6) Select "Start Synchonizing" and select your type of folder. I used Exchange.

7) Outlook will ask you for a category to label the BCM contacts. I went with the default "Business".

8) Outlook will now create a copy of all BCM contacts in the "Contacts" folder.

9) The magic here is that all changes to contacts can be made in either folder and will sync to the other. Mode about this soon.

10) On the iPhone, go into Settings, Mail and turn on Contacts. Now when the iPhone syncs automatically, you will have 2 folders, Contacts (BCM) and Personal. They will stay separate. Now when you change a contact it will sync back to Outlook which in turn will sync back to BCM. You will likely also have a folder "Suggested Contacts" which is a new feature in Outlook 2010. I don't use it, but others seem to like it.

11) One thing that doesn't work is adding new BCM contacts. While you can add them on the iPhone, they only make it back to the Contacts folder and not into BCM. Dragging the new contact into BCM doesn't see to work either. Stopping sync or closing Outlook seems to be the workaround.

I also tried CompanionLink/DejaOffice for 2 weeks but was not impressed. It really does not map well to BCM information and you have to use a different set of contact and calendar programs. It alsio requires a WiFi connectin to sync (no cell sync). At the end of the day, I preferred the method above.

You will not get Accounts, Opportunities and Communication History using the above method and get most of a nothing from CompanionLink/DejaOffice in this respect either.

 

[Kathleenbuild08]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Thanks for the useful information! We've been using Outlook for some time now, and are thinking about using BCM mainly for a global contacts list. We have about 30 employees that work out of the office, and need a global way of organizing our contacts. Most use the iphone, and it appears that this will work. Any new or additional information you have would be extremely helpful. I've been given the task of making sure BCM will work for us before we implement it! Yikes!

Thanks much,

Kathleen

 

[alwbass]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Yes - It is all possible assuming you are using Micosoft Exchange. It may work with POP mail but I did not try this. Here we go:

1) First setup and configure an Exchange Mail Account for Mail and Calendar (No Contacts yet). Test that this works

2) Select Contacts and Go to the Folders Tab in Outlook 2010 and Select "New Folder". Name this something like "Personal".

3) Put all your non BCM contacts in the Personal folder.

4) Now your (Exchange) "Contacts" folder should be empty. If not make sure it is.

5) Go to the File Menu, select Business Contact Manager, then "Business Contact Synchonization"

6) Select "Start Synchonizing" and select your type of folder. I used Exchange.

7) Outlook will ask you for a category to label the BCM contacts. I went with the default "Business".

8) Outlook will now create a copy of all BCM contacts in the "Contacts" folder.

9) The magic here is that all changes to contacts can be made in either folder and will sync to the other. Mode about this soon.

10) On the iPhone, go into Settings, Mail and turn on Contacts. Now when the iPhone syncs automatically, you will have 2 folders, Contacts (BCM) and Personal. They will stay separate. Now when you change a contact it will sync back to Outlook which in turn will sync back to BCM. You will likely also have a folder "Suggested Contacts" which is a new feature in Outlook 2010. I don't use it, but others seem to like it.

11) One thing that doesn't work is adding new BCM contacts. While you can add them on the iPhone, they only make it back to the Contacts folder and not into BCM. Dragging the new contact into BCM doesn't see to work either. Stopping sync or closing Outlook seems to be the workaround.

I also tried CompanionLink/DejaOffice for 2 weeks but was not impressed. It really does not map well to BCM information and you have to use a different set of contact and calendar programs. It alsio requires a WiFi connectin to sync (no cell sync). At the end of the day, I preferred the method above.

You will not get Accounts, Opportunities and Communication History using the above method and get most of a nothing from CompanionLink/DejaOffice in this respect either.

[Will this work with Outlook 2007 with BCM? Or do I have to upgrade to Outlook 2010 with BCM?]

 

[alwbass]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Thank you so much for the help. I'm picking up my iPhone today and will get back with you on what I'm able to work out or if further assistance is needed. I will try MS Exchange (cloud) to see if if the procedure outlined in this thread works. Thank you

 

[philjones]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Must I have an exchange mail account?

I am using outlook 2003 and have pop and smtp mail accounts?

I currently only have accounts and business contacts in BCM so my contacts folder is already empty.

Thanks

Phil

1) First setup and configure an Exchange Mail Account for Mail and Calendar (No Contacts yet). Test that this works

2) Select Contacts and Go to the Folders Tab in Outlook 2010 and Select "New Folder". Name this something like "Personal".

3) Put all your non BCM contacts in the Personal folder.

4) Now your (Exchange) "Contacts" folder should be empty. If not make sure it is.

5) Go to the File Menu, select Business Contact Manager, then "Business Contact Synchonization"

6) Select "Start Synchonizing" and select your type of folder. I used Exchange.

7) Outlook will ask you for a category to label the BCM contacts. I went with the default "Business".

8) Outlook will now create a copy of all BCM contacts in the "Contacts" folder.

9) The magic here is that all changes to contacts can be made in either folder and will sync to the other. Mode about this soon.

10) On the iPhone, go into Settings, Mail and turn on Contacts. Now when the iPhone syncs automatically, you will have 2 folders, Contacts (BCM) and Personal. They will stay separate. Now when you change a contact it will sync back to Outlook which in turn will sync back to BCM. You will likely also have a folder "Suggested Contacts" which is a new feature in Outlook 2010. I don't use it, but others seem to like it.

11) One thing that doesn't work is adding new BCM contacts. While you can add them on the iPhone, they only make it back to the Contacts folder and not into BCM. Dragging the new contact into BCM doesn't see to work either. Stopping sync or closing Outlook seems to be the workaround.

I also tried CompanionLink/DejaOffice for 2 weeks but was not impressed. It really does not map well to BCM information and you have to use a different set of contact and calendar programs. It alsio requires a WiFi connectin to sync (no cell sync). At the end of the day, I preferred the method above.

You will not get Accounts, Opportunities and Communication History using the above method and get most of a nothing from CompanionLink/DejaOffice in this respect either.[/QUOTE]

 

[philjones]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Sorry I meant Outlook 2007 of course......Duh..

Phil

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Exchange is helpful because you can use it to sync over the air, without Icloud. Otherwise, no, its not necessary. Configure BCM to sync to Outlook then set up icloude. If all goes well, you'll have two-way sync.

 

[philjones]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Hi Diane,

Thank you for the reply. I've managed to set up icloud but although I've read posts about syncing BCM with outlook I can only find help if you have outlook 2010.

I really need a step by step guide on how to copy/sync records from BCM contacts to outlook contacts in outlook 2007. I can't see how to sync BCM with outlook at all.......

From there I think I can sync to icloud as icloud is showing up now as a folder in my outlook structure which must have happened automatically when I set up icloud which is great but so frustrating not to be able to just copy contacts directly from BCM into my icloud folder which would then sync directly (I hope) with my iphone.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Phil

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

AFAIK, you can't sync BCM 2007 automatically like you can with outlook 2010. I have not tried the CodeTwo icloud sync tool with BCM contacts, but that might work. (1) CodeTwo Sync for iCloud ? seamlessly sync Outlook with iPhone, iPad and other iCloud devices.

 

[philjones]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Hi Diane,

thanks again for the help. I've download the codetwo software. It doesn't seem to sync directly with BCM but I've created 2 sub folders in my outlook contacts folder and dragged across contact details from the folders in BCM which now sync with iclod via codetwo. This is fine as I don't really use any of the other BCM functions anyway so no loss. As time goes by if this is a stable solution I might even delete the contacts in BCM and just continue with the outlook folders.

The problem I'm having though is that outlook now keeps hanging. And I mean 9 times out of ten I'm having to re-boot outlook for it even to see my contacts and respond. I can't even move from contacts to mail without it hanging. Something is very wrong here.

I've had a couple of messages box's come up with microsoft.net framework not responding. out of memory-ADX container pane.windproc

It's crazy. I've got 4gb of ram on this thing with a dual core processor blah, blah.... why the hell can't these companies make things that just work!

Okay rant over. Any suggestions other than throw this thing through the window, which is sounding pretty good to me right now. I can't function like this.......

 

[TinTin]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Hi Diane,

We've recently migrated our in-house Exchange 2010 to Microsoft's Cloud-based Exchange. However, our BCM database continues to reside on a local server.

What suggestions do you have for pushing the BCM database up to the cloud in the future and how does our current or future BCM location affect our ability to do the syncing to our remote devices, like the iPhone?

 

[Forum Admin]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

to the best of my knowledge, bcm db can't be stored on the cloud. They need to be on a local server. Using cloud-based exchange won't affect bcm and syncing BCM with smartphones will remain unchanged.

 

[TinTin]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

to the best of my knowledge, bcm db can't be stored on the cloud. They need to be on a local server. Using cloud-based exchange won't affect bcm and syncing BCM with smartphones will remain unchanged.

But how is it getting the BCM data on the remote device? In the office environment, using Outlook client, one has to select the location of the database which links the Outlook client with the database. With a remote device, like a smartphone, how does it tie into the BCM database?

 

[larry]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Are they using a BCM app on the smartphone? If not, it's copied to Outlook and synced with the rest of the outlook mailbox.

 

[georgepeter]

Re: Is it possible to sync IPhone to BCM Outlook contact, calendars ... all da

Have you ever tried some old version Outlook? it might works.