The GigaOm network of blogs and technology enthusiasts use CompanionLink for Google. Recently, they blogged about our product and why they decided to use ours.
Thanks GigaOm team and Meryl Evans for the review!
Welcome to the new world of free mobile sync, courtesy of Google. Google has released a free over-the-air (OTA) sync service for phones. This rivals existing Exchange/BlackBerry Enterprise configurations that are expensive for companies to buy and maintain. Now, all you need to do is sync ACT! data with Google, and you’re done. Google will handle the rest. The great part is that this can work for one user or scale to an entire organization.
How it works:
CompanionLink can sync ACT! data to a user’s Google account. Once this data is in the Google account, Google’s new sync service will automatically sync the data to the user’s phone, over-the-air.
Data is synchronized to the native address book and calendar application on the phone. This guarantees that all the alarms, reminders, and basic features like Caller ID work great with your ACT! data.
Also, this sync process works two-ways. So if the user were to change data on their phone, the data would sync back to their Google account and back to the ACT! database using CompanionLink.
Wait, what’s the catch?
There is none, unless you think setting up a free Google account is a catch. But, it’s hard to argue with something that’s free. And it’s hard to argue when you look at the other option: setting up Exchange and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (if your clients are syncing with BlackBerry devices).
What phones work with Google’s sync service?
Google covers over 75% of the smartphone market, including iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Google Android, and Palm Pre devices.
What CompanionLink products do I need?
For a single-user license, you can use CompanionLink Express or Professional. If you have a site with multiple users, DoubleLook Enterprise is the best solution. It will run on one PC and sync data for all your users (also known as a server-side solution).
How do I get started?
1. Make sure you have a Google account set up.
2. Make sure you have a CompanionLink product that will sync with Google. Configure it to sync the PIM (i.e., ACT!) with the user’s Google account.
3. Visit m.google.com/sync from the user’s phone to configure the free OTA mobile sync with the Google account.
MyPhone: they host your data on the web and sync contacts, calendar and photos with Windows Mobile devices. This is a free service offered by Microsoft.
MobileMe: they host your data on the web and sync mail, contacts, calendar and photos with iPhone devices. This is a paid service, currently $99/year.
Google Sync (Beta): syncs Google contacts and calendar (hosted on the web) with iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. This is a free service offered by Google.
We’re excited at the introduction of these services! It gives users a reliable and affordable way to sync to their phones, over-the-air.
So do you still need CompanionLink with the introduction of the services mentioned above? The answer is Yes.
For example, if you’re using ACT!, Lotus Notes, Outlook BCM, Palm Desktop, GroupWise or any other PIM/CRM that’s not supported by the cloud services above, you’ll need CompanionLink to sync this data. The cloud services can’t access your data.
While our software can sync directly to your phone and bypass the need for the cloud services above, we’re also looking for ways to work with Microsoft, Apple and Google’s sync services. This will allow you to use CompanionLink to get data from your PIM/CRM to the services above, and then rely on their push-sync to get that data to your phones.
This is what we’re working on:
PIM/CRM <> CompanionLink <> Cloud services (above) <> your phone
Stay tuned to this blog for the lastest developments and a timetable for when we’ll support these mobile sync services. In the mean time, if you need to sync your PIM/CRM data with your phones, just use CompanionLink’s direct sync.
This week, Google launched their free over-the-air sync service with iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. They already offered this for BlackBerry devices.
Google Sync (Beta) allows you to wirelessly sync Google contacts and calendar events with iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.
CompanionLink fits this puzzle by allowing Outlook, Lotus Notes and other PIM users to sync their desktop data with their Google accounts. Once this data is in their Google accounts, it’s automatically pushed to their phones using Google Sync (Beta).
So essentially, with one license of CompanionLink for Google (runs you $29.95), you can have a complete two-way wireless sync solution between Outlook, Google, and your phones.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NzQsyN2Jw]