Store and manage contact information

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Managing contacts is one of the most important parts of the sales process. To be able to communicate effectively, sales professionals need to have an efficient way to manage information about existing customers and new prospects. By using the Microsoft Office System, you can use Outlook to manage contacts on your computer, and you can use SharePoint Services to manage contacts on an intranet or extranet site.

In this article, you learn how to:

• Link contacts from a SharePoint Services site to Outlook.
• Update contacts on a SharePoint Services site.
• Copy contacts from a SharePoint Services site to your personal Contacts folder in Outlook.
• Remove linked SharePoint Services site contacts from Outlook.

Linking contacts from your SharePoint Services site to Outlook

You can link contacts easily from your SharePoint Services site to Outlook so that you can use them to create and send e-mail messages.
To link contacts

1. On the SharePoint Services site, use your browser to open the contact list that you want to use with Outlook.
2. Click Link to Outlook.
3. When you are prompted to add the contacts to Outlook, click Yes. The contact list from your SharePoint Services site opens in Outlook automatically.

Updating contacts on your SharePoint Services site

You can link and display contact lists from SharePoint Services in Outlook 2003. However, you must use your browser to update your contact list directly on the SharePoint Services site. In Outlook, each linked contact contains a uniform resource locator (URL) that you can use to open the original contact record on the SharePoint Services site and to update the contact information.
To update contacts on your SharePoint Services site

1. In Outlook, open the contact that is linked to the SharePoint Services site.
2. On the General tab, click the URL to open the original contact on the SharePoint Services site in your browser.

3. Use the browser to modify the original contact.

When you select the Outlook folder that is linked to the contact list on your SharePoint Services site, Outlook refreshes the contents of the folder. Outlook also automatically refreshes the linked folder every 20 minutes. To refresh the linked folder immediately, right-click the linked folder in the Navigation Pane, and then click Refresh.
 Note    SharePoint Services folders are not included in synchronization groups, and these folders are not available by using the Define Send/Receive Groups command that you reach through the Tools menu in Outlook. For more information about send and receive groups in Outlook, click "About send and receive groups" in the See Also section of this article.

Copying contacts to your personal Contacts folder

By copying contacts from your SharePoint Services site to your personal Contacts folder in Outlook, you can view them even when you cannot connect to the SharePoint Services site.
To copy contacts to your personal Contacts folder
 Note   If no SharePoint Services folder appears in the Navigation Pane in Outlook, follow the steps outlined above in the "Linking contacts from your SharePoint Services site to Outlook" section.

1. In the Navigation Pane, expand Contacts, and then click Other Contacts.
2. Click the SharePoint Services folder that you want to use.
3. In the linked contact list, select the contacts that you want to copy.
4. Drag the selected items to your Contacts folder.

Removing a linked contact list from Outlook

To remove a linked SharePoint Services contact list from Outlook:

1. In the Navigation Pane, expand Contacts, and then click Other Contacts.
2. Right-click the SharePoint Services folder that you want to remove, and then click Remove from Other Contacts.

Share contacts throughout your organization

By using Outlook and your organization's SharePoint Services site, you can store, manage, and share contacts across your team, department, or enterprise. As a sales professional, you now have an easily managed source of information about existing customers and new prospects.