Siebel CRM Desktop for Microsoft Outlook Administration Guide > How Siebel CRM Desktop Handles Siebel CRM Data > How Siebel CRM Desktop Handles Activities >

Overview of How Siebel CRM Desktop Handles Activities

In Siebel CRM, an activity is a work item that the user must track or display as an interaction. The following items are examples of activities:

• A To do item
• An email sent to a contact
• A calendar appointment that includes a contact

Siebel CRM can display an activity in the Activities screen or in the Calendar in the client of a Siebel Business Application, such as the Mobile Web Client. The Display In field of the Activities list determines where CRM Desktop displays an activity in Outlook. This field includes the following values:

• Calendar and Activities
• To Do and Activities
• Activities only
• Communication and Activities

The Type field specifies the type of activity. It can contain a wide range of possible values. For example:

• Calendar Appointment
• Field Repair
• Email-Outbound
• Research

Siebel CRM Desktop uses one of the following custom Siebel CRM activity objects to support an activity in Outlook:

• Calendar item. This item is a meeting or calendar appointment.
• task. This item is a To Do. For example:
  • Book a flight
  • Review new proposal
• Other item. This item is a record of communication. For example:
  • Correspondence was sent
  • Demonstration was given

Siebel CRM Desktop does not map a Siebel CRM activity to a single native object in Outlook. Instead, it synchronizes an activity from the Siebel Server to the client as a custom activity record rather than as the Outlook task or calendar item. After synchronization, CRM Desktop does the following:

• Creates the Outlook calendar item that matches the calendar item from Siebel CRM
• Creates the Outlook task that matches the task from Siebel CRM

If the activity is a Siebel CRM activity, then CRM Desktop creates a shared calendar appointment in Outlook.

Outlook does not synchronize directly between native Outlook items and records on the Siebel Server, so CRM Desktop uses the Siebel CRM activity as an intermediary between a native Outlook item that resides in the user mailbox and a Siebel CRM activity that resides on the Siebel Server. If the user creates a shared Outlook calendar appointment, email, or task, then CRM Desktop creates another item in Outlook that represents the Siebel CRM activity record in addition to the shared native Outlook item.

To support this configuration, CRM Desktop uses an activity object as a proxy to synchronize all activities, regardless of type. It does the following:

• Parses each activity when it downloads this activity into calendar, email, orother Outlook objects. For example, it parses a calendar item into the Outlook Calendar.
• If the user modifies a native Outlook item, then CRM Desktop modifies a hidden activity object that contains the information that the object requires, such as a description, start time, relations to other objects, and so on. CRM Desktop synchronizes this hidden object. It does not synchronize the native Outlook item. CRM Desktop uses this same configuration for a native Outlook item that the user creates.