Notifying in a correct and safe way

• On an appointment where the groupware flag is set for an external attendee, the system always pres­ents the synchronization query after saving synchronization-relevant changes, even if the synchroni­zation status is set to "always synchronize". This avoids uncontrolled synchronization in the background.
  The query refers to the notification of external contacts. In case of doubt, the user can decide for "Do not synchronize", and, e.g., correct the appointment note afterwards.
• Appointment synchronization is automatically stopped when changes have been made to the appointment by the visit report wizard (caching the report, closing the appointment), meaning that anything that is post-processed in the notes field will no longer be automatically synchronized. If in doubt, decide for "Do not synchronize" and, for example, correct the appointment note afterwards.

Just with Microsoft Outlook, the synchronization mode is requested when modifying and saving a CRM appointment. On the Additional data tab, the agent can select 

• “Ask always”,
• “Synchronize and send”, or
• “Do not synchronize”.

If the agent chooses Synchronize and notify, Exchange immediately after saving (synchronizing) sends a notification to all attendees with a set Groupware flag . The query can be suppressed by the user (Save definition for this activity). The currently selected synchronization mode (Groupware synchronization) is saved in the appointment. It can be managed in the Additional data tab.

• The groupware flag is automatically set at internal contacts, but can be deactivated. Deactivating it will then send an appointment cancellation to internal attendees.
• The groupware flag can be activated for external attendees. If set, a confirmation prompt is pre­sented indicating that external contacts will be automatically notified from now on after applying changes to the appoint­ment. However, no synchronization takes place at this point.
• Once activated, the flag cannot be deactivated for external attendees because this would cause a possibly unwanted appointment cancellation to be sent. If an external attendee should not receive any information about the appointment, then they must be deleted from the attendee list!
• You can control the notification of external attendees after appointment changes via the Synchronize and send option, or select Do not synchronize.
• After Do not synchronize, you can send an email with an attached iCalendar notification (Confirmation to External function) to external contacts to inform them about the appointment or to confirm the appointment.

• When exporting appointments to the Groupware, additional information can be output before the clos­ing body tag. The additional information is useful for notifying internal attendees, but should be removed for appointments that you synchronize to external attendees.

The list contains the following information:

• <name>, <position>, <role in (main project)> if available, <phone number>. The list is generated only as plain text and not as HTML markup.
• The detailed presentation can be switched off (or configured) via the variable PSA_SYN_ACT_­CLI_INF_FLD if the position or role information should not be communicated (if, for example, the information classified as inter­nal or not, badly or incorrectly maintained in the system, or for privacy reasons).
• For admins: The variable PSA_SYN_ACT_CLI_INF_FLD defines the order of the fields that are dis­played if they contain data and if PSA_SYN_ACT_BDY_DAT allows contact data to be exported.
  The following are possible: ORG_POS (position in the company), PRO_ROL (project role), TEL (phone number).

The variable PSA_SYN_ACT_BDY_DAT can be used to control which data is automatically inserted and synchronized in the appointment note at all. The allowed valueas are:

• NONE: do not output any data
• PRO: Main project
• AGN: Responsible
• CLI: Participant
• DSC: Description
• OPR: Case status

The default is NONE, meaning that no internal information is sent together with the appointment invitation in the standard.

By means of the Confirmation to external attendees function, external attendees can be informed or invited by email if automatic synchronization is disabled. The email is stored as a follow-up activity in the appoint­ment. It receives an automatically created iCalendar notification (invite.ics) as an attachment. The recipient can drop the notifi­cation onto the calendar, where it generates an appointment entry (the functionality depends on the email client used).

a) Internal attendees receive notifications only if either appointment master data (location, time, remark, …) are modified, or if attendees are added to or removed from the attendee list afterwards.

b) If an appointment is delegated, the connector deletes the appointment and its previously responsible person in the Groupware, and synchronizes the appointment with its new responsible.

In addition, the statuses “deviating from the standard”, Synchronize and send and Do not synchronize, are visualized by a warning icon in the status bar of the appointment (at the top right of the title bar). The icon is refreshed immediately after changes have been made. It draws the attention, e.g., after a longer appoint­ment preparation phase in which the agent has "Only saved", to the fact that the appointment still needs to be synchronized or distributed. By clicking the warning icon, you can set the synchroniza­tion mode to Synchronize and notify.