techadv

SugarCRM and MobileCRM

Justin Kuehlthau — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:00 +0000

SearchCRM.com has an interesting article on "Has mobile CRM software on smartphones made laptops for the sales force obsolete?"

The article also shows how Healthscreen Solutions Inc. saved it $78,000 and $18,000 annually:

"Healthscreen saves about $18,000 annually by eliminating laptops. The company also found some significant savings when it moved from Siebel CRM On Demand onto SugarCRM four years ago. Healthscreen runs the mobile version of SugarCRM's 5.1 and estimates the move has saved it $48,000 on licensing, $10,000 on operational staff salary and $20,000 on sales operational efficiencies."

Read the full article here.

Changing the SalesLogix - Latest Account Parameters (or any out-of-the-box Group)

Brett Friell — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:00:00 +0000

You get a handful of Groups out-of-the-box when you purchase SalesLogix - some that may be useful, and some not. If you find that they are almost useful, you can take some initiative and make them useful for your organization by copying the group, and then changing the logic. For instance, let's say you want to change the Latest Accounts group to show Accounts that have been modified in the last 60 days (the default is 30), and that are labeled as Type = ‘Prospect', and you want everyone to see this in place of the original Latest Accounts group.

This is really quite easy... To do this, login to the SalesLogix Client as the Administrator. Right click on the tab for the group when you are in list view, and select ‘Copy'. From there, go to the conditions. You see the original condition of Modified in the last 30 days:

Double click on the condition, and change the ‘30' to ‘60'.

Click ‘Ok'.

Make sure the Account table is selected in the upper left hand side, and on the right, double click on ‘Type'. Change the Operator to ‘Equal to'. Hit the Browse button and choose ‘Prospect' (or any other type(s)).

You will see two groups - Latest Accounts and Copy of Latest Accounts. You will want to change the name of the Copy Group, so double click on that, and change the name under the Properties tab. In our example, I'll name it Latest Accounts - TAI.

In the SalesLogix Architect, go to Manage Plugins, and change the filter by option to Groups and Groups ACO. If you click on Accounts on the left hand side, you will see your new group, and the old Latest Accounts group. Release your new group to Everyone. Click on the old Latest Accounts group, select Release, and remove the Everyone from it (to unrelease it). It should look like this:

Log into the SalesLogix Client as any user who is not the Admin to test it out. You should see your new group, and no sign of the old Latest Accounts group.

News From Sage Insights via Twitter - Mobile & GPS; iPhone Support

Justin Kuehlthau — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:00:00 +0000

michaelwallace: learning about some cool new features in SalesLogix Mobile at the Sage Partner conference in Nashville
about 1 hour ago from mobile web · Reply · View Tweet

aloktyagi: #insights09 - Travis demo Saleslogix Mobility and customize blackberry apps using SLX. Linking GPS info with contact address. Cool stuff
about 2 hours ago from TwitterBerry · Reply · View Tweet

BrentLeary: Motasin Najeeb - SalesLogix will be GPS enabled to include location awareness for iPhones and BlackBerry Storm.{what about ACT?} #insights09
about 3 hours ago from TweetChat · Reply · View Tweet

kgsc: #Insights09 Motassim Najeeb (Sage CTO) states that SalesLogix will use LBS / GPS for iPhone and Storm clients.
about 3 hours ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet

incortech: #insights09 SalesLogix to gain location awareness tools in mobile client.
about 3 hours ago from TwitterBerry · Reply · View Tweet

The Scribe Adapter for Web Services Product Launch Webcast Presentation

Justin Kuehlthau — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Thursday, May 14 @ 11am - 12pm EST

This webcast is open to Scribe customers and the public. It will cover the newly released Web Services Adapter for Scribe Insight and Scribe Insight Enterprise. The webcast will include a feature overview and several demonstrations of the Web Services Adapter enabling integration to Dynamics AX, Microsoft SharePoint and 3rd party commercial web services.

The Scribe presenters for the webcast will be:

Bob Sturim - Vice President, Products

John Gravely - Vice President, Marketing and Product Marketing

Lou Antonucci - Vice President, Sales

Tomas O'Brien - Product Manager

SalesLogix: Using Activity -> Members

Justin Kuehlthau — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

When an Activity is scheduled in SalesLogix it is automatically assigned to the user creating the Activity. This user is the Activity Leader. The Activity Leader then has the option of adding other SalesLogix users to the Activity via the Members Tab:

Activities Members are users in the SalesLogix system. The Activity Leader can only add users they have access to "Add Activities" for in the Calendar Tab of their User Profile in the Administrator:

Once the creating user adds the other users as members of the Activity:

1.            The Activity record is created in the ACTIVITY table.
2.            A record is created in the User_Activity table for the creating user and each member.
3.            A record is created in the UserNotification table for each member.   When each member user logs into SalesLogix they are prompted to confirm or reject the activity.
4.            Depending on if they Confirm or Reject the activity, the USER_ACTIVITY.CONFIRMED field is set to True or False.
5.            The creation user is then notified by a new record in the UserNotification table.

Midwest SalesLogix User Group Meeting in Chicago

Mary Ann Pekara — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Registration is now open for the June 4th Midwest SalesLogix User Group (MSUG) meeting in Chicago. This summer's half day, breakfast included, meeting will take an in-depth look at how to Increase Productivity and Improve Sales in the down economy. We will discuss e-mail marketing from a high level and then delve into a specific e-mail marketing tool that allows you to easily send out mass e-mail blasts, as well as track the results of those e-mails within your SalesLogix system. We will talk about the ever growing Web 2.0 Social Networks, including LinkedIn, and how you can incorporate those tools into your SalesLogix system. The feature presentation of the meeting will discuss How to Increase Sales. We'll take a look at how to improve follow up with sales processes and process orchestration.

I want to Register Now!!

General MSUG Information

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Simple Enhancements Using Workflow - Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Mary Ann Pekara — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Part of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM base package comes with the Windows workflow engine that allows for codeless workflow deployment. What this basically means is that you are able to update your CRM database without ever leaving Outlook. For example, as a user, when I schedule an activity in Outlook, it schedules that activity in my CRM system without me having to actually go into it. Workflow automatically brings all the information into the body of that particular appointment.

The same goes for phone call activities. Workflow pulls all the contact information into the bottom of the phone call activity. When the activity pops up on my mobile phone, I don't even have to dial the phone number because all of the information is already on my screen. Let's say I make my call and have to leave a message. Not only am I able to complete the activity on my phone, but I can then schedule a follow up activity even if my CRM system is unavailable to me. When I type "follow up" in the subject of a new task, a new activity automatically gets set in my CRM system.

Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives me the ability to complete activities, update results from a call or meeting, and schedule new or follow up activities directly into my CRM system from my mobile phone.

Using WinMerge with the Sage SalesLogix Application Architect

Justin Kuehlthau — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows, similar to UltraCompare. You can download it here: http://winmerge.org/

To set it up in the Application Architect open the program and select the Tools -> Set Differencing Tool menu item and fill it out as follows:

Differencing Utility File Path:
C:\program files\winmerge\winmergeu.exe

Command Line Parameters:
/leftpath %File1% /rightpath %File2%

The command line parameters website is:
http://winmerge.org/docs/manual/CommandLine.html

Two other useful parameters might be:

/e enables you to close WinMerge with a single Esc key press. This is useful when you use WinMerge as an external compare application: you can close WinMerge quickly, like a dialog. Without this parameter, you might have to press Esc multiple times to close all its windows.
/wl opens the left side as read-only. Use this when you don't want to change left side items in the compare.

Summer 2009 MSUG

Mary Ann Pekara — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Midwest SalesLogix User Group Meeting - June 4, 2009

"Productivity and Sales Improvement"

This summer's MSUG meeting will focus on cost effective ways to increase sales using your Sage SalesLogix CRM system. The meeting will highlight best practices of e-mail marketing, Web 2.0 Social Networks and how to incorporate them into your CRM, and how to incur better follow up through sales process and process orchestration.

When - Thursday, June 4th, 8:00am-1:00pm

Where - Park Ridge Country Club (636 N. Prospect, Park Ridge, IL 60068)

Who Should Attend - Current and Future SalesLogix Users looking to increase productivity using their current system

Cost - Complimentary

Questions? Contact the MSUG Commissioner

Tentative Agenda:

8:00 - 8:30AM

Registration/Breakfast/Networking

8:30 - 8:45

General Announcements

8:45 - 9:30

E-Mail Marketing w/Swiftpage

9:45 - 10:45

"How to Increase Sales" - Sales Process/Process Orchestration

11:00 - 11:45

Web 2.0 Social Networks and SalesLogix

11:45- 12:15PM

ZoomInfo "Find People and Companies"

12:15 - 1:00

Interactive Discussion

The Microsoft Big Easy Offer!

Mary Ann Pekara — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has an offer that benefits all customers who purchase a combination of Microsoft products. This incentive includes a multitude of products across the Microsoft suite but for example, are you looking to purchase a Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM? In doing so, Microsoft will give you what they call Partner Subsidy Funds. These funds come in the form of a check that Microsoft makes out to the Microsoft Partner of your choice.

We all know that our credit cards don't just slide back into our wallets once the software and/or hardware is purchased, we swipe our cards again for implementation services, and possibly training. Let's face it, there is no point in simply purchasing software and trying to jam it in ourselves. If we're at the point of purchase, we've already invested a great deal of time and money into the project and need to gain the greatest Return on Investment possible. The road to attaining this ROI begins with the selection of a Microsoft Partner who understands our business and what we need the software to do for us.

To take advantage of the Microsoft Big Easy Offer, all you have to do is make a qualifying purchase before June 26, 2009. Your Microsoft Partner can then direct you where to redeem your purchase and Microsoft will send you your Partner Subsidy Check.