Introducing Outlook Customer Manager

[Welly Lee]

Outlook Customer Manager, a new Office 365 service, helps small businesses track and grow their customer relationships right within Outlook. It gives a complete view of interactions with each business contact, helps track tasks and deals in progress, and surfaces timely reminders—all next to your inbox. Outlook Customer Manager will be available at no extra cost to Office 365 Business Premium subscribers – beginning with those in First Release program and continuing worldwide in the coming months. It is turned on by default allowing users to access it in one-click from the home tab in Outlook 2016 for Windows, and includes a mobile app. Learn more at Outlook Customer Manager relationships made easy for small businesses

[#2]

There is only mention of IOS and windows options for the Outlook Customer Manager, were is the  version for Mac OS version ?

[#3]

We are planning to support Outlook web (OWA) in the near future for Outlook Mac users. I encourage you to post the feedback suggestion on user voice at https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/407082 for a native Outlook Mac OS support.

[#4]

We would REALLY like this feature in our Office 365 E3 tenant.  Please help to make it available sooner rather than later. :)

[#5]

Eric, would you initiate user voice request at https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/407082 so others can also vote on this request?

Thanks again for everyone's great responses.

[#6]

@Welly Lee Some questions. All contacts are stored in the "regular" Outlook contacts? Can we use a central/managed contacts "database". And is it possible to use Customer Manager data? Like use an API or something like that. For example, when I create a new deal, I want to pull of some action to create a supporting SharePoint (online) site.

And is it possible to customize Customer Manager? For example can I change "Deals" in "Licences"?

Thanks, Mike

[#7]

@Mike Jansen, the contacts are stored as Outlook Contact with special flag. Hence, you can use the existing EXO contact API. As far as the other customization you mentioned, unfortunately, we do not have extensibility support yet. 

[#8]

Hi! I'm a little confused. I have an Office 365 Business Premium license, "first release" option is activated and assigned to my users but OCM is not showing up in Outlook tabs. I really like this option and I really need it ASAP. Could someone help me?

[#9]

@Marian Stancu, the feature is being rolled out to Business Premium on first release and we estimated to complete the roll out after the new year. Your teanant may not get its turned to be upgraded with this feature.

[#10]

Almost 2 months since this was announced! Any word on the progress of this rollout? Seems really slow

[#11]

@Jimmy Powers - thanks for the follow up. Yes, the roll out has been slower due to the holiday. We hope to pick up this week and catch up to complete the roll out to Business Premium on First Release in the next few weeks

[#12]

OK, thank you!

[#13]

We were using BCM and then had to switch over to CRM which does not really work for us.  We are using Enterprise E3 and my understanding is that the Outlook Customer Manager only works on the Office 365 Business Premium right now but will for Enterprise E3 in the near future.  From the looks of it the Outlook Customer Manager would be a better fit for us.  I have done beta testing for Microsoft and previously had ben a MSDN developer.  Also I developed major CRM systems for several banks in the past.  Is there a way to connect with the beta development team for E3 and become part of the beta program?  David A Billings, President CEO GVP Global Corp

[#14]

HI there, Really need to install this, we have all requirements and i check every day but do not have this update. When will it be pushed to me? Is there please a manual download place i can upgrade at? Thanks NW

[#15]

Ned, are you in First Release? (To check, go to O365 Admin, Settings > Organization profile > Release preferences.
If so, you should have OCM by this week. Otherwise, it may take a few more weeks before we complete rolling out to standard release users.

[#16]

David, unfortunately at this time OCM is offered only to Business Premium subscribers.

[#17]

Where are the instructions on how to use Outlook Customer Manager. I have installed it, but don't know how to use it.

[#18]

How did you install it?

[#19]

You can refer to the following blog post to get started: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/bg-p/Outlook

[#20]

Outlook Customer Manager will be automatically installed -- no manual installation steps needed.

[#21]

Any update when it wil be available in E3?

[#22]

At this time we do not have timeline for making OCM available for E3. I would encourage you to vote for the request at OCM user voice http://aka.ms/ocmfeedback -- this will help us prioritize the work.

[#23]

I'm still waiting for OCM, does it just magically show up at some random time/day?

[#24]

If you have Office 365 Business Premium subscription AND opted in for First Release but still not seeing "Customer Manager" button on your outlook, please contact Office Support.

[#25]

Sepnt 30min on the phone with Office Support. They where no help, said I would just have to wait until the button shows up on the tool bar. This is still extremely frustrating ----

[#26]

I apologize for the difficulty -- I will contact you and follow up directly to make sure we resolve this issue asap

[#27]

Hi Welly, I have an Office 365 Business Premium subscription AND opted in for First Release but still no sign off Customer Manager as of 02/02/2017 (reading pane set to right/bottom). Is it possible to force installation? 

Thanks 

[#28]

OCM is installed automatically - can't force reinstallation. I will contact you separately to get the info we need to investigate

[#29]

Hi,

Does the whole company need to be on First Release? Or will the individual user that I have set to F.R. get it anyway?

/Stefan

[#30]

Hi, can you also contact me please. Have spent some time with Office support, since I had a desktop that reported normal channel and my laptop which is showing first release with the same user id that has been first release for months. A reinstall got my desktop to show the correct channel but still no Customer manager.

[#31]

I'm an Office 365 Business Premium subscriber and set to first relese.  After repleatedly checking for updates, I still do not have OCM.

[#32]

I'm on Office 365 business premium first release, and have been trying to obtain the customer manager since November....still nothing. I have call Microsoft support on x4 different occasion, and still nothing. please help. 

[#33]

Did anyone contact you?

---

@Andy Collinson wrote:

Hi, can you also contact me please. Have spent some time with Office support, since I had a desktop that reported normal channel and my laptop which is showing first release with the same user id that has been first release for months. A reinstall got my desktop to show the correct channel but still no Customer manager.

---

[#34]

Yes Welly did but not heard anything more since I responded as yet.

[#35]

This still hasn't been made available to us.  We have been first release for everything yet still can't access it.

[#36]

The issue with Andy's account was resolved Feb 12

[#37]

please refer to http://aka.ms/ocmblog for articles on how to get stated

[#38]

As of today (2/21/17) our organization still does not have access to OCM. We joined First Release. Only 2 people (myself and the CEO) are on the First Release. Does everyone in the organization need to be on First Release in order to gain access to OCM?

[#39]

It needs to be entire organisation. Once I did this it appeared about 24hrs later. So turn on entire org option, dont just add everyone since that would not work.

It seems an odd way to do it since it removes the option to test before rollout.

[#40]

Hello

I've the premium account, already did all steps mentioned, but still no OCManager on outlook... can you help me figure out what is wrong?

[#41]

Pedro got access to OCM this morning after outlook update.

[#42]

Here it is, March 21.  We purchased premium weeks ago specifically for OCM, all set to first release.  Still no OCM - What in the world must we do to get this pushed to our software?

[#43]

HI Dwayne,

OCM is only rolled out to tenant who selected for first release see https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Customer-Manager/Outlook-Customer-Manager-availabilit...

If you are on First Release but still do not see OCM, please contact Office support.

Welly

[#44]

I do not have access to this new program.  I contactef support but still nothing.

[#45]

I do not have access to this new program.  I contacted support but still nothing.

[#46]

Malcom, please send me  a private message with your O365 account information and I will verify.

[#47]

Hi Wally,

Does this work on Mac OS X? We would like to use Outlook Customer Manager but many staff use Outlook for Mac. If it does not work on Mac, does this work on Office online? So the mac users could use the website. Or is it only for Outlook on Windows?

Thank you,

Nicki

[#48]

Hi Nicki, Outlook Customer Manager is currently available on Outlook on Windows. I would ask you to submit request to https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/407082-outlook-customer-manager/suggestions/17106724-outlook-ma... and https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/407082-outlook-customer-manager/suggestions/17129071-make-outlo...

[#49]

Hi,

OCM is greyed out and keeps giving me a error 

No clue of whats wrong

[#50]

Hi, any progress for iPhone and other native apps for OCM? Is rollout progress completed to all tenants in all countries?