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Track in CRM not connecting e-mails to e-mail address RRS feed

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    Hi all,

     

    I have stumbled on a problem where the e-mails that are set to be tracked in CRM by pressing the "Track in CRM" only appear in the "general" Activities listing. They are not connected to the contact person that is the sender or recipient of the e-mail. If I understand correctly there should be a check up of the e-mail address when the Track in CRM button is pressed and the record should be associated with a contact person or customer that holds that e-mail address.

    Is thera a setting that has to be enabled so that the system will do this check up and create the link?

    Best regards,

    Janne

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 1:10 PM

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    Hi Janne,

    E-mail tracking is a fairly complex feature so I can completely understand the confusion.  There are several scenarios to consider and several settings that come into play.  On the positive side, we expect some level of complexity in order to provide the flexibility and ability to customize the system that we've come to expect from Dynamics CRM.  However, this can also sometimes present challenges.

    I think the key in the excerpt  you've quoted is this;

    "save a copy of each message to Microsoft Dynamics CRM by clicking the Track button. When processing an email message, Microdoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook reviews the list of participants and automatically looks for matching email records.... "

    I believe the system will look at both the e-mail address and subject to try and match the e-mail to a CRM record.  If it doesn't find a matching e-mail in the CRM system then it might not make the match to the related record you expect.  Best Practice is to train users to use the Set Regarding rather than Track in CRM to ensure the e-mail is created and linked to the desired record.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards, Donna


    Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:49 PM

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    When using the Track in CRM button from an open e-mail, the Regarding will not be set.  The user will need to select the Set Regarding button to take that action.  An option with fewer clicks is to select the e-mail from the grid display and select the Set Regarding from the CRM ribbon.  This will ensure both actions are taken; the e-mail is created in CRM and associated with the desired CRM Contact, Account, etc.

    The feature you might be thinking of is related to incoming and outgoing e-mail adn the Options to automatically track e-mails in CRM based on the user's Outlook settings.  In this scenario, CRM will look at the e-mail address and try to match that with records in CRM.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards, Donna

    • Proposed as answer by Jim Glass Jr Wednesday, September 14, 2011 4:33 PM
    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 1:57 PM
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    Actually I think the original question was referring to the fact that normally when you track an email in CRM, it automatically tries to link that Activity with an existing Contact or Account (based on a matching email address), even if you have not selected any of the tracking Options or used the Regarding field.

    I have never seen behaviour where it does not do this.  In fact, I would be curious to know how it is possible to shut this feature off?

    Tuesday, September 20, 2011 8:46 PM
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    If you take an e-mail from your inbox and select Track in CRM not Set Regarding, the e-mail will get created in CRM but the Regarding will show None. 

    I think that is the behavior that the orginal author was asking about but I could be wrong.  That is how I read his request

    "Is thera a setting that has to be enabled so that the system will do this check up and create the link"

    It seemed to me that he is trying to Set The Regarding or 'create the link'. 

    If the user's E-mail settings are not set to Automatically Track the e-mails either from Contacts, Accounts & Leads or Emails in Response to CRM mail or some other setting that automatically tracks the e-mail and Sets the Regarding then users need to take that manual step.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards, Donna


    Tuesday, September 20, 2011 9:26 PM
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    Hi,

     

    You are correct Keithkl, that is exactly what I meant. The problem was that even though I had a contact person record with a certain e-mail the Track in CRM button would not link the e-mails to this record for some reason. The e-mails did get "transfered" to the CRM but would only appear in the All Activities-listing and could not be found when looking for activities through the contact person-record.

    Now I'm a little confused as the feature seems to work correctly at the moment, but when I posted the initial question there was no way the link between the contact person and the e-mail that person had sent could be done without the Set Regading-button.

    Now I have instructed the users to do the Set Regarding-procedure just to be sure that there will not be a situation where there are a e-mails that do show in the general activities listing but not under the person(e-mail address) that is set to be the recipient or sender of the e-mail.

     

    Best Regards,

    Janne

     

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 8:17 AM
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    I think we might be saying the same thing.  You are expecting that when you hit the Track in CRM button that two things will happen; the e-mail will get created in CRM (Tracked) and you will be able to view the E-mail from the related record Contact, Account, Lead, Opportunity....... (Set Regarding)

    It is easier to understand the above if you view it as two actions occurring in CRM, one is to create (Track) the e-mail and one is to 'link' or associate the e-mail with an existing CRM record (Set Regarding).  It is my understanding that if an e-mail is manually tracked (user hits the Track in CRM button but not the Set Regarding) for an e-mail that was not created from CRM and was not previously 'Tracked in CRM', the e-mail will not be 'linked' to a CRM record but will get created in CRM.  Thus you will not be able to find the e-mail when  you look at the Contact, Account or other CRM record. 

    Once an e-mail has been Tracked in CRM and associated or linked to an existing CRM record then subsequent and related e-mails will automatically get linked or related to the same CRM record when only the Track in CRM button is selected.

    With regard to 'resolving' or matching on the e-mail address, it is my understanding that by default, CRM will match againts the e-mail address and the subject field of the e-mail when it trys to associate or link the e-mail with a CRM record.  If you only select the Track in CRM button on a 'brand new' email (one that did not originate in CRM and has never been tracked in CRM) then CRM will create the e-mail but will not link or associate the e-mail to an existing CRM record (Contact, Account, etc.)

    If you want all e-mails from Accounts, Contacts, Leads to get Tracked in CRM then you can select that option under the CRM Options for each user in the E-mail tab.  From Outlook you go to File, CRM, Options and then go to the E-mail tab to find the options available for automatic tracking.

    Regards, Donna

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 9:26 AM
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    Thank you Donna for your for your time and answers!

     

    You see I was a bit confused by the book Step by Step Microsoft Dynamics 2011. On page 113 it says that:

    Quote

    "... save a copy of each message to Microsoft Dynamics CRM by clicking the Track button. When processing an email message, Microdoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook reviews the list of participants and automatically looks for matching email records in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. If it finds matching email addresses, the software appends the email message to the matching records as a completed email activity. This email matching process searches for matching email addresses across those record types that contain email addresses in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, such as contacts, accounts, leads, queues, users and facilities/equipment"

    End Quote

     

    This is what I expected would happen when I/user pressed the Track in CRM button but the emails could not be found when looked at the activities associated to these records (Contacts or Users).

    I was aware of the automatic feature you mention when all mails regarding an account, a contact etc. would get tracked automatically in CRM regardless it beeing of business or personal nature, and it would not be appreciated by the users.

     

    Best regards,

    Janne



    • Edited by Janne Nygård Thursday, September 22, 2011 10:33 AM typo
    Thursday, September 22, 2011 10:27 AM
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    Greetings Janne,

    When you tracked the first email did you check both the "Activities" list and the "Closed Activities" list for the contact you were expecting the item to track to, if the email is very old it might be in the "Closed Activities", also did you check if your filter was set to show stuff older than 30 days?.

    When the email was tracked (I assume you have office 2010) did you see blue text or red text over the contact you were expecting the email to track to?

    If the text is red then that means that the email was not tracked to that person (person not found in the crm system), If the text is blue then the email was tracked to the person, (Clicking the name of the person will open up the contact in crm (if blue), offer you to create one in CRM (if red)).

    Did you check your CRM system to make sure that no other contact or account had the same email address as the person you were expecting the email item to track to, the email might have ended up there.

    Halldór Jóhannsson
    Thursday, September 22, 2011 11:09 AM
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    Hi Janne,

    E-mail tracking is a fairly complex feature so I can completely understand the confusion.  There are several scenarios to consider and several settings that come into play.  On the positive side, we expect some level of complexity in order to provide the flexibility and ability to customize the system that we've come to expect from Dynamics CRM.  However, this can also sometimes present challenges.

    I think the key in the excerpt  you've quoted is this;

    "save a copy of each message to Microsoft Dynamics CRM by clicking the Track button. When processing an email message, Microdoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook reviews the list of participants and automatically looks for matching email records.... "

    I believe the system will look at both the e-mail address and subject to try and match the e-mail to a CRM record.  If it doesn't find a matching e-mail in the CRM system then it might not make the match to the related record you expect.  Best Practice is to train users to use the Set Regarding rather than Track in CRM to ensure the e-mail is created and linked to the desired record.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards, Donna


    Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:49 PM