After recently building a Salesforce Community portal for a leading ADR firm, the next challenge was extending its functionality to better support how case managers (salesforce users) and panelists (outside contractors) manage their calendar events. The firm wanted to keep their existing process: case managers adding panelists to events directly in Outlook. However, they also needed those events to be visible inside Salesforce—on each panelist’s calendar within their specific Salesforce Community user page. Without this integration between Outlook and the Salesforce Community, there could be no alignment on Calendars and schedules.
The Challenge
Salesforce has deprecated Lightning Sync, so a simple Outlook integration wasn’t possible. Panelists also couldn’t connect their own external Outlook accounts, since Community users don’t have that capability. We needed a way to respect the client’s workflow (case managers managing calendars in Outlook) while making those events visible on individual panelist Salesforce Community user pages.
The Solution: Einstein Activity Capture
The answer was Einstein Activity Capture (EAC), Salesforce’s modern solution for email and calendar sync. Salesforce provides 100 free EAC licenses, which meant the firm didn’t need to purchase additional tools.
Here’s how we configured it:
- EAC Setup – Configured to sync Outlook calendar events directly into Salesforce.
- User Connection – Salesforce users only need to connect their Microsoft account (see screen recording).
- Sync Flexibility – The configuration (see screenshot) can be adjusted at any time.
- Matching Emails – To ensure sync, the Salesforce user’s email must match their Microsoft account.
How It Works for Panelists
Although panelists (Community users) cannot connect their external Outlook accounts, the solution still works:
- When a case manager adds panelists to an event in Outlook, that event syncs to their Salesforce Contact record.
- Those events are then displayed in the panelist’s Salesforce Community calendar.
- Panelists also have the option to create their own calendar entries within Salesforce, making it a dual-purpose tool.
The Outcome
This approach allowed the firm to keep its familiar Outlook-first workflow while extending the visibility of events into Salesforce. Case managers continue to manage scheduling as they always have, and panelists gain an integrated view of upcoming hearings, mediations, and events—directly within their Salesforce Community portal.
By combining Einstein Activity Capture with custom calendar display logic, we bridged the gap between Outlook, Salesforce, and Communities, giving ADR professionals a unified, reliable way to manage their time without changing the process for case managers.
