Getting started using Microsoft Outlook® integration
Power Broker offers integration capabilities to allow a user to generate an email from the Customer/Policy screen, as well as save the email in the Abeyance directory for future viewing.
NOTE: This integration does NOT work for Outlook Express. You would need to have Microsoft Office Outlook.
Initial Power Broker Setup:
From the main Power Broker desktop, click on Utilities, Define Your Company Information, Software Directories. Ensure that you have a value in the Outlook option for storage.
After a period of time, the Outlook folder will grow as more emails are loaded into this folder. If you’re a smaller office of less than 10 users, then it will take years and years to fill up. If you’re an office greater than 10 users, someone’s responsibility would be to check the folder size. Should you find that the folder \BRO\OUTLOOK is reaching a size of 1Gig, then you may want to return to the Software Directories page, and switch your Outlook folder to 2. You would then send an email to techsupport@power-broker.com requesting a new OUTLOOK3 to be added as an enhancement.
Initial User Setup:
These next few steps will need to be done for every user that plans to use this integration. If you are sitting at Jack’s desk, you will need to log into Power Broker as Jack. If you are sitting at Jill’s desk, you will need to log into Power Broker as Jill . The reason for this is everyone’s Microsoft Office software is not installed in the exact same location.
If you are on a Terminal Server network, Microsoft Office IS located in the same location, and you WILL be able to sit at the one connection and log in as each user, following the next set of instructions.
Start by clicking on Tables, User Preferences
Choose the Internet Email Software, as well as Browse to your OUTLOOK.EXE file
Section A – Creating and Saving a New Email – Sample Workflow:
The first thing you need to ensure is that there is a valid email address on the customer screen. This email address will pull into the email message.
From the left hand menu, click on ‘MS Outlook’.
An email will open that will automatically copy the email address from the customer screen into the ‘TO’ spot of your email. Continue by typing in a ‘Subject’ line and the body of your email.
Once you choose ‘Send’, the email will close and be placed into your Outbox.
If your email has a large file attachment, or should your email software NOT do an automatic ‘Send and Receive’, Power Broker will wait until your email has left the Outbox. Once it has, click on ‘Proceed’ to continue to save your email.
Microsoft Office Outlook will display a security warning. Should you plan on doing multiple emails in the next 15 minutes or so, click on the drop down menu, and select a longer time for this message to NOT launch. Otherwise, just click ‘YES’.
The integration will bring you into a ‘NOTES’ window. Complete the Done box with a ‘Y or N’ and then click ‘Save Note’. Note that Launch Using will default to ‘O’ for Outlook and Abeyance / Notes Type Code will default to ‘8’ – do not change either of these fields or you will lose your link to the email message.
To review your email, click on the abeyance section
Section B – Saving an Existing Email from Outlook
Select any email in Outlook that you wish to save back to the customer abeyance.
In the bottom Windows toolbar, bring Power Broker to the front, and then Search for the customer you wish to save the Outlook email to. Click on ‘Notes’ button.
When the Notes window opens, complete any of the empty fields that you wish to fill in, and then click on the Outlook button at the top right of the Notes screen as shown in this picture.
Power Broker automatically saves a copy of the email to your Outlook folder defined in Utilities, Define Your Company Information, Software Directories, Outlook (1 or 2) folder.
Microsoft Office Outlook will display a warning message.
Click ‘YES’ and then click on ‘Save Note’.
Now that your email has been saved, open your abeyance screen, click on the abeyance line provided, and click ‘View/Edit’.
An email will open, with an attachment. Double click on this email attachment and your email will open. When you go to close your email, it will ask you to SAVE. Click ‘NO’.
