Does Salesforce for Outlook Work on a Mac?

Does Salesforce for Outlook work on a Mac?  The short answer is “no”.  But don’t leave this blog post yet because Mac users have an awesome solution.

What is Salesforce for Outlook?

The Salesforce website explains it best. “Salesforce for Outlook is a Microsoft® Outlook® integration application that you install, syncs contacts, events, and tasks between Outlook and Salesforce. In addition to syncing these items, you can add Outlook emails, attachments, events, and tasks to multiple Salesforce contacts, and view Salesforce records related to the contacts and leads in your emails and events—all directly in Outlook.”

Almost every Salesforce related implementation project has a requirement for us to configure “Salesforce for Outlook“. When users integrate Salesforce and Outlook together the user has the option to interact with Salesforce from their Microsoft Outlook client by utilizing the side panel that gets installed into your Outlook instance.

Why Doesn’t Salesforce for Outlook Work on a Mac?

The reason Salesforce for Outlook does not work on a Mac is because the Microsoft Outlook for Mac currently has no ad-on framework built into it.  This means that it does not allow the installation of Salesforce for Outlook.   So this lack of capability is not due to Salesforce but rather to Microsoft.  So far Microsoft has indicated it does not have plans to make an add-on framework available for the Microsoft Outlook for Mac but hopefully the recent Salesforce and Microsoft partnership will bring Salesforce for Outlook to Mac users.

How Mac Users Can Integrate Salesforce for Outlook

As of the publication of this blog post a mac user cannot utilize the Salesforce for Outlook capability from Salesforce.  But with a third-party app off the Salesforce AppExchanage Mac users would be able to obtain this capability.  In our opinion the best Salesforce for Outlook app for Mac users is the Cirrus Insight for Outlook.  (You can find information about the app too from the Salesforce AppExchange website.)  Cirrus Insight for Outlook is $19/month/user (when paid annually) but it has a free trial associated with.  Don’t wince yet over the cost because the app alone far exceeds the Salesforce for Outlook Connector (which is free with a Salesforce license).  As a matter of fact, many of our clients who use Salesforce for Outlook on PCs end up switching to Cirrus Insight for Outlook because they want the capabilities that their Mac-using colleagues have.

Features of Cirrus Insight for Outlook

• Save emails to Salesforce
• See customer snapshots
• Track email opens and links
• Sync your calendar with Salesforce
• Send emails later and set follow-up reminders
• Main merge with Salesforce templates
• Save attachments to Salesforce
• Create leads and contacts in Salesforce
• Edit Salesforce records from your inbox
• Create opportunities in Salesforce from Outlook
• Salesforce template integration
• Log calls into Salesforce from Outlook
• Create and edit Salesforce cases
• Create and edit custom Salesforce objects
• Add files from Outlook to Salesforce Files
• Connect to other third-party apps that are in your Sales Stack.

Cirrus Insight for Outlook Disclaimers

• Cirrus Insight for Outlook supports Outlook 2010 and 2013 on the PC.
• Cirrus Insight for Office 365 supports Outlook for Mac.
• Cirrus also has a solution that integrates with Gmail.

Also published on Medium.