3 Reasons iCloud Can Lose Your Business Sales

1. It’s free

2. It breaks

3. It is unreliable

iCloud should not be used for business contact and calendar synching PERIOD.

As an Outlook Expert, I always say this in my blogs…I get calls about broken 3rd party apps all the time and iCloud is the biggest problem child. Even though I have helped many people successfully configure it and fix it…I may be calling it on this last call.

Story….

I had a client last week and I felt so bad for this fella, his iCloud broke and he missed a very important meeting that caused him to lose a big sale. Basically his iPhone and Outlook iCloud synch broke. iPhone offers iCloud for synching, but if it breaks, it can cause a lot of chaos in Outlook.

Then I realized, that I shouldn’t feel so bad that his company doesn’t pay for a good synchronizing calendar program for him. Our first appointment was for 45 minutes of me fixing his iCloud. Then we scheduled another appointment for me to rework his Outlook to have iCloud be default so when he accepted appointments in his Outlook, it went on the iCloud. But my test for his rework failed and within a half hour of testing, I realized that how he managed his email and phone (via POP) that his calendar system would not work as a default in Outlook via iCloud. I know this may sound confusing, but trust me….what I do for work is like surgery sometimes.

I have to be delicate and backup everything, then do testing, talk to the client, insure the decisions will work for them and their life. And the answer was no. So we went full circle on this, I had to get his Outlook back to how it was before I helped him because he just couldn’t learn change. And yes, I billed him for 1.25 hours of time to go full circle. I really wish businesses would understand that their employees now have multiple devices and should not be responsible for managing 3rd party apps for their calendaring.

What happens when iCloud breaks

• Calendaring will not synch (probably)
• Could cause new calendars to appear in Outlook (work, home, etc…I have seen up to 10 before!)
• Contacts will bring in multiple contact folders that don’t make sense (again, I have seen up to 10!)
• When you do a first synch with iCloud, your Outlook contacts can get hijacked and ruined because of how iCloud changes the data. Your notes in all the contacts may be lost.
• iCloud doesn’t really tell you to back up your contacts in Outlook before synching (big mistake!!!)
• If you accept appointments in Outlook and the synch is broke for iPhone, then you are not seeing matching data

I think I could go on here, but the point of my blogs is to prevent, detect and warn people of what can happen when using 3rd party apps.

iCloud = bad for business. Move to Microsoft Exchange. I can help you migrate your information and help you and your company set up all of your devices so it works perfectly. Just how Outlook wants it.

Schedule an appointment today to talk about moving your company to Exchange and use my online scheduler below for a no cost consultation.

And btw…if you take your iPhone to the Apple store, those “geniuses” do not know Outlook at all. It’s a competing product line, so save yourself time.