Outlook-ZohoCRM-PDA solution

Outlook-ZohoCRM-PDA solution

I am a new to Zoho CRM but find it more attractive than Salesforce.com, which my research shows to have poor integration with Outlook and Zoho seems to have very nice customisation features. After seeing how well Plaxo does with Outlook integration, I was hoping Zoho would have come up with a robust integration add-on as well.

So I am trying to make it that I can work in either CRM or Outlook through synchronization, and I can synch my PDA with Outlook using ActiveSync. Here's my results so far, and I welcome suggestions how to get to a viable solution.

1. ZohoCRM to Outlook Synch isn't solid (for me) and very slow.

- The initial load of approx 1000 contacts took a long time, but I expected something like that given the size. In both contacts and calendar synchs, I got the occasional failure message for a contact/appointment, but there's no details on what failed. Acknowledging it occurred seemed to allow the process to resume.

- My subsequent synchs of contacts (even if there are no differences) took forever and hung. I got further by logging out and back in at the Outlook addon, but now I'm 60 minutes into the process and the bulk of the time is for Zoho to check duplicate contacts in Zoho... sounds like something is broken there and I'll be surprised if it finishes.

2. I can't find a way to segregate my personal contacts from business contacts in the Zoho upload, while still preserving both contact types on my PDA. This is a 1-2 punch I've discovered based on limitations of both Zoho CRM and ActiveSync

- I can't see how to exclude contacts from the Zoho synch process. There is a private checkbox on Outlook contacts that other CRM packages use to ignore what to synch with the CRM application.

- Outlook can't ActiveSync with folders other than the base Contacts folder, so I can't split my contacts into two separate folders in Outlook

3. While this synchronization is going on, you're locked out of Outlook.
This wouldn't be a big problem if it was fast... but it's not. I thought maybe it's a technical requirement, but Plaxo does just fine doing background synchronization.

So right now I like Zoho CRM for it's CRM capabilities, but the weak link between Zoho CRM and their Outlook add-on is a deal-breaker for my situation.

I am using Outlook 2007 with pst files (no Exchange Server) and ActiveSync 4.5.0

Any suggestions?