Learn About Email and Calendar Integration Tools

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe the Salesforce email and calendar integration products.
Understand how email and calendar integration products benefit sales teams.
List requirements and other setup considerations.

Salesforce Email and Calendar Integrations

Your sales reps use calendars and email. And they use Salesforce. When you integrate email and calendar tools with Salesforce, your reps can spend less time entering data and switching between applications and more time closing deals.

You can integrate Salesforce with Microsoft or Google email and calendar applications using one or multiple integration products. Create the perfect solution for your business needs by mixing and matching different tools. Bring Salesforce into your email with Outlook or Gmail integration and Inbox, and use Einstein Activity Capture to automate busy work. Let’s take a deeper look at how sales reps can increase productivity with email and calendar integration tools.

Outlook or Gmail Integration

With the Outlook or Gmail integration, reps can work with Salesforce records and get context into what’s happening with the people they sell to without leaving their email or calendar applications. And they can keep teammates up to date by logging email conversations to relevant Salesforce records.

Goal	How the Outlook or Gmail Integration Can Help
Access Salesforce features and content in Outlook or Gmail	Use a side panel to view and work with Salesforce records that match an open email or event. Manually relate emails, events, and contacts to Salesforce records. Create new Salesforce records. Manage Salesforce tasks. Create emails using Salesforce templates. Report on activities.

Einstein Activity Capture

Your reps can keep data in Salesforce and their email and calendar applications up to date without lifting a finger with Einstein Activity Capture. When you connect a Microsoft or Google account to Salesforce, events and contacts are automatically kept in sync between the connected account and Salesforce.

And events and emails are added to the activity timeline of related records. You decide which data types to enable and which direction data flows. Trust is the number-one value at Salesforce, so your data is secure with us. For example, Einstein Activity Capture keeps a lookout for sensitive information in emails and makes sure those emails are marked private.

Goal	How Einstein Activity Capture Can Help
Keep events and contacts in sync between Salesforce and your email application	Automatically sync contacts between Salesforce and users’ connected Microsoft or Google accounts. Automatically sync events between your Salesforce calendar and your Outlook or Google calendar. When contacts and events sync to Salesforce, they become Salesforce records.
See emails and events on related Salesforce records	Emails and events are automatically added to the activity timeline of related Salesforce records.
Surface relevant email insights, and get recommended connections on contacts and leads	Use Einstein Email Insights to see critical sales context alongside relevant emails. For example, reps can see when an email from a customer mentions a competitor and follow up immediately. Use Recommended Connections to see which colleagues have the strongest connection to a prospect.
Aggregate your data to get a summary of your sales activities	Use the Activities dashboard to see a summary of your sales activities. Use Activity Metrics with accounts, contacts, contracts, leads, and opportunities. Activity Metrics fields are available to use on list views, page layouts, reports, triggers, and processes. Create standard reports on synced contacts and events.

Inbox

Turbo-boost your Outlook or Gmail integration so that sales reps can save even more time. Inbox, a productivity-boosting tool that you can add to the Outlook or Gmail integration, surfaces customer insights and reduces the time your team spends on administrative tasks. For example, the Insert Availability feature allows sales reps to easily schedule meetings with prospects. Reps can insert available time slots into email messages straight from their calendars. And if their availability changes, the suggested times in their emails dynamically update, even after they’re sent. Inbox even allows reps to see when customers open an email and if they clicked any links inserted in the email.

Goal	How Inbox Can Help
Be even more productive when you’re composing emails in Outlook or Gmail.	Log emails to custom records. Automate meeting scheduling. Track when emails are opened, and links are clicked. Save and insert text snippets for frequently used phrases. Schedule emails to send later.
Work with Salesforce records and email on your mobile device.	Log emails to Salesforce records and custom objects. Create Salesforce records. Manage Salesforce tasks. Track and schedule emails and automate email composing activities.

If you currently use Salesforce for Outlook or Lightning Sync, now is a great time to consider moving to the next-generation products described in this Quick Look. Salesforce for Outlook is scheduled for retirement in June 2023. And in the Winter ’21 release, Lightning Sync became unavailable to new Salesforce customers.

What You Need to Get Started

As you piece together your integration solution, be aware of licenses, dependencies, and system requirements.

Product	Which Licenses Include It	Other Things You Need
Outlook or Gmail integration	Standard Salesforce license Sales Cloud Service Cloud Lightning Platform	See the Outlook integration system requirements. See the Gmail integration system requirements.
Einstein Activity Capture	Standard Salesforce license (up to 100 users through Einstein Activity Capture Standard) Sales Cloud Einstein Inbox Sales Engagement Sales	See the system requirements.
Inbox	Sales Cloud Service Cloud Lightning Platform Sales Cloud Einstein Inbox Sales Engagement	To set up Inbox in Outlook or Gmail, first set up the Outlook or Gmail integration. See the system requirements.

The High Velocity Sales name is changing to Sales Engagement. The automation features within the product now include customer engagement tracking, chatbots, and sales cadences. The new name captures all the tools to use to automate processes and to engage strategically with leads and customers so that your sales team can focus on selling. Watch for the name change coming soon.

Summary

We’ve covered what you can do with Salesforce email and calendar integrations, the integration products available, and what you need to get started. Now you’re ready to choose an integration that meets your business needs.

Learn About Email and Calendar Integration Tools

Learning Objectives

Salesforce Email and Calendar Integrations

What You Need to Get Started

Summary

Resources