Getting started with ModernSync

Setting up takes a few minutes. Nothing is written to the mailboxes until you have seen a test run and switched synchronisation on yourselves.

Before you start

• A Microsoft 365 organisation with Exchange Online mailboxes.
• A Global Administrator, who approves the app once on behalf of the organisation.
• A group with the people who should become contacts, and a group with the people who should receive them. It can be the same group.

1. Approve the app

Open the portal and sign in with your Microsoft account. Under Sign up your organisation, click Approve ModernSync. Microsoft’s consent page lists the four permissions the app asks for, and a Global Administrator accepts them. You then return to the portal, which shows the approval as done.

2. Sign up

Enter the organisation’s name, country and VAT number. Write the VAT number with the country code, for example DK12345678. Danish businesses use DK and the CVR number. Operations contact is filled in with your sign-in email. Consider changing it to a shared address such as it@, because it is told when a run fails and before the trial ends. Accept the terms and the data processing agreement, and click Sign up.

Your organisation is active straight away, and the trial or subscription starts when you sign up. During the trial there is a limit on how many mailboxes receive contacts. The portal shows the limit when you sign up. A subscription has no limit.

3. Create a rule

Go to Rules and click Add rule. Choose the group whose members become contacts, choose the recipient group, and click Save rule. The article on rules covers exception groups and shared contact folders.

4. Make a test run

On Overview, click Test run. The result shows how many contacts go into how many mailboxes, and how many are new, changed and removed. Mailboxes lists who will receive contacts. A test run writes nothing.

If you have used another tool for the same job, tick Adopt existing contacts under Settings before you continue. ModernSync then takes over the existing contacts that match an employee by email address and have no notes, private numbers or other personal details, so the phones do not get duplicates. If a contact has notes, private numbers, a birthday or several email addresses, it is the employee’s own and is not changed. The employee may then have two contacts for the same colleague. You confirm the choice when you turn it on. The test run shows how many it will take over. If you turn it on later, ModernSync swaps its own contacts for the contacts the employees saved themselves, so there is one contact per colleague. The swap counts towards the delete guard.

5. Switch synchronisation on

Once the test run went well, Overview shows Switch synchronisation on. The confirmation repeats the numbers from the test run. Click Switch on, and the first real run starts straight away.

When the contacts appear on the phones

When the run has finished, the contacts are in the mailboxes. They appear on the phones within a few minutes, provided the phone syncs contacts from the work account. In a large organisation the run itself can take several minutes.

After that, ModernSync runs every night. New colleagues, changed numbers and leavers follow automatically. You can follow each run under Runs.