Living in Outlook and being productive with CRM
Let's face it a large amount of your time and your associates is still spent in Outlook. Wouldn't it be helpful if you could turn this unstructured email information into defined tasks, opportunities, accounts, new contacts, and more? Likewise, you have some new information from the email such as a mobile phone number or contact's title.
Wouldn't it be sweet if you can easily take that information and update the contact directly and quickly - without opening up and finding the contact in your CRM? These actions and much more has been possible using the free Infor CRM Xbar.
Getting started
Starting with Welcome
Using the 
Welcome main menu icon you have access to several Infor Xbar system wide options:
Global Search is used to define what main tables/entities are searched. By default, a global search is for accounts, leads and contacts.
To perform a global search, enter the text you are looking for and press the magnifying glass icon to show the results: Click on a found item's arrow to show more details or double click on the name to show the full view in Xbar.
To easily move back a step, use the back arrow icon in the top bar: 
Click the person icon to go to the primary account contact card.
Search Accounts is a powerful way to find that specific company or organization in your Infor CRM.
The first prompt allows the selection of Account (Name), Address, City, State or Country. The second prompt asks for the matching condition: (Contains / Equals / Starts with / Ends with). The third prompt is the text you are looking for. Additional conditions can be added or removed. Note the example below shows an account 'contains' search plus an additional condition for a specific state abbreviation.
Search Contacts is used when looking for a person inside Infor CRM. The first prompt allows the selection of several contact fields: Name (last, first), Account (name), Account manager, address, city, state and/or country.
The second prompt asks for the matching condition: (Contains / Equals / Starts with / Ends with). The third prompt is the text you are looking for. Additional conditions can be added or removed. The following image shows a search for contact full name containing 'Julie' with an address in the state of MI (Michigan).
What's New will display a listing of changes with ability to click the record for direct editing. This list may be long with the older items at the top, so be aware of possible scrolling to bottom for the most current..
Settings takes you to the Infor CRM Connector options: 
-> What/when to sync, How the Send to CRM/History works, Address book settings, etc.
Help is very extensive. Spending some time here will increase your productivity using the Infor CRM Xbar.
Help sections include:
Getting Around with use of the icons/menus:
Finding Records Fast - as explained above.
Work the Way You Want To- about setting the configuration options. Note: the needed conditions for your Opportunity or Ticket groups to show up property.
Getting Work Done
Member cards show a snapshot of what is important for you to know about each Member - the information you need right now. Each Member card has an avatar. A number superimposed onto the avatar indicates duplicate uses of the email address. Click the number to see the members using that email address.
Totems are the images on the Member card. When a totem is blue, click to jump to additional information about this Member
Ask Icon appears as four black squares 
on the top right of the Member card. Click to:
- Add or update Contacts and Leads
- Update Accounts
- Create new Activities, such as meetings, phone calls, to-dos and add notes.
- Add Tickets
- Add Opportunities
Note: If the Member is not already in Infor CRM database, the options will be new Contact or Lead
Drag and Drop
- Create a New Contact or a New Lead using the email signature: Drag an email signature from an email to a non-linked member card.
- Update Contact information using the email signature: Drag an email signature from Microsoft Outlook and drop it onto Xbar and select Update Contact.
- A screen opens comparing the contact's existing information with new information from the email signature. Only those fields where information is different display. After accepting the changes, you can return to the Edit view to make further modifications.
- Using the company name, a lookup searches for an existing account and associates the Contact to that Account. If no matching Account is found, a New Account screen opens prepopulated with information from the email signature.
- Drag and drop an email to the Opportunity List view. A prompt asks whether to attach the email as a note or as an attachment.
- Select and drag the text content to the Member view. Select the Ask icon and then select New Ticket. The text content is saved to the Ticket Problem section
Add Attachments: Drag and drop to the Xbar Summary View Attachments Widgets. You can drag and drop email and attachments from Microsoft Outlook, as well as records from your desktop.
Additional Resources:
Getting started with Xbar - working inside Outlook
Effective Uses of Xbar to Eliminate CRM User Frustrations
12 Tips to be More Productive - Living in Outlook and using Xbar
What's new with Infor CRM, mobile and Xbar for 2017
Mistakes to correct before installing Xbar
Topics: Outlook Integration Saleslogix Xbar for Outlook Infor CRM Infor CRM Xbar