Simpro Update: Outlook 365 Calendar Sync for field service scheduling

June 14, 2019

The exciting news this week is that you can now sync your Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar with Simpro to add extra efficiency and accuracy to your field service scheduling. The new feature starts rolling out from June 16, along with updates to the Simpro Form Builder.

With over 200 votes, the sync was one of the Top 10 most requested features on the Simpro Customer Ideas Portal. The new Microsoft Outlook 365 calendar sync expands on the existing Outlook email integration to bring greater alignment between Simpro and your broader business systems.

Simpro’s Outlook 365 Calendar Sync is now available

Why does my field service business need the Outlook 365 calendar sync?

Simpro is a comprehensive scheduling and dispatch solution, with mobile apps for communicating with field staff. So why would a field service business need to sync Simpro with an external Outlook calendar?

Not all staff use Simpro. And even Simpro users sometimes prefer to keep a separate Outlook calendar to manage daily activities, personal appointments and leave. This is particularly common with sales teams.

But, this can be a challenge for schedulers when trying to book customer appointments for other staff. The lack of visibility and interaction between Simpro and Outlook calendars can impact on customer service.

They might need to delay making an appointment until they can talk to the staff member. So they can’t give a clear answer to the customer straight away.

There may be a scheduling conflict. And then they need to rearrange the booking with the customer.

Or a staff member might miss an appointment due to it not being updated in their Outlook calendar.

How does the Simpro Outlook 365 Calendar sync work?

Simpro Microsoft Outlook 365 calendar sync for field service scheduling

The new feature will boost efficiency and accuracy of field service scheduling to enhance customer service.

The Simpro Office 365 calendar integration is a real-time 2-way sync.

The sync can be easily set up for any Outlook 365 calendar, regardless of whether the staff hold a Simpro licence. There are no complicated settings to configure either. Enable Outlook sync in your Simpro settings. Click a link in Simpro to send a staff member a verification email. And as soon as they click on the link within that email, the sync takes effect.

From there, your office team can see staff availability and instantly schedule leads, quotes, jobs and activities. As soon as they assign the work in Simpro, it is synced with the Outlook 365 calendar within seconds.

Simpro automatically populates the Outlook calendar entry with key information that staff will need.

For example, a Lead that has been assigned to a sales person will include the date and time of the appointment, the Customer Name, Address, and Lead Description.

Importantly, staff stay in control of their calendar. If they need to update times for appointments created in Simpro, they can do it in Outlook. The schedule changes are automatically updated in the Simpro schedule within seconds.

As staff may be using their Outlook calendar to manage personal or sensitive meetings, they may be concerned about what information is being shared with Simpro. To maintain their privacy, Simpro will only show Outlook-originated calendar items as Busy with no specific details included.

When can I start using the Outlook 365 calendar sync?

As soon as your Simpro system is updated to the latest release, you can start using the Outlook 365 calendar sync in your scheduling workflow.

To find out how to enable the sync, click here to visit the Simpro Help Guide.

Form Builder updates

Simpro’s Form Builder has expanded to allow field service businesses to design templates for increasingly complex forms, such as customer invoices. To save time editing and creating Form Builder templates, the latest update includes a new Search feature for fields.

Improvements and Enhancements

With every release, there are slight improvements in addition to the main features. But they do offer a number of benefits to Simpro users. You can read the outline of all the enhancements made in the dedicated release notes in our Help Guide.

For more information, click here to head over to our release notes for the full breakdown of this update.

With new features being released regularly, make sure you stay up to date with the latest Simpro news by following us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or keep an eye on the blog.