Easy Reporting from GoldMine CRM or other Database Systems

One of the challenges facing companies who implement CRM systems or who have in-house designed database systems, is the ability to be able to easily create effective reports without incurring ongoing development costs.

The best applications to help solve this issue is Stonefield Query. In development for over twenty years, the Stonefield Query application comes with a collection of standard reports for your GoldMine CRM system and if you use QuoteWerks there are reports also available.

The beauty of Stonefield's approach is that they have created a dictionary that details the GoldMine database Structure, including table links, (and QuoteWerks), so the end user simply has to choose the fields they want in the report and the design is managed by the application. Advanced users can then modify the layout and add additional calculations if necessary. There is also the facility to create Cross Tab, Label, Chart and dashboard reports. 

In addition to using Stonefield Query with your GoldMine and QuoteWerks, we can also develop a version that will work with other databases. So if you have an in-house developed database system and we can connect using ODBC or other direct methods, we can create a Stonefield Query version that will allow you report against your own system.

Make reporting easier with wizard driven professional looking reports using Stonefield Query.

Mobilise your CRM in 2012 with GoldMine Mobile 9.0

GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0.

Mobile users are able to access their critical customer and contact information, forecasted sales, case details, and daily calendaring activities even while they are disconnected from the office environment. The easy-to-use and easy-to-install mobile application allows mobile agents to continue their customer engagement efforts to help drive better customer relationships and increase customer satisfaction. 

GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0 is compatible with GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.3, and runs on the Apple iOS mobile device platform (iPhone & iPad). 

Features and Functionality:

• Real-time access anywhere - GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0 allows instant, wireless access to mobile users using the widely popular Apple iOS mobile device platform.  
• Rich user interface – GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0 user interface is designed with the look and feel of a native smartphone application. This UI makes the application easier to learn and use by the mobile users and supports standard touchscreen gestures.
• Log contacts and track activities – Attach time-stamped notes of phone conversations, meetings and ideas, as well as view histories and activities for any contact.
• Manage revenue-related activities – Help manage and identify forecasted sales, increase sales productivity and drive additional revenue through available mobile sales functionality.
• Perform service engagements – Provide service technicians and other field service workers with instant access to customer, case and service activities for them to perform their field based problem to resolution processes.
• Manage mobile activities – See all of your calls, meetings, and to-do entries in the activities list available on the mobile device. In real time, update the activity record and associated CRM data so no information is lost and all teams are kept up to date on any activity performed in the field. SMS reminders ensure no activity is missed while you're on the road.

Go Mobile in 2012 - find out the full potential of GoldMine Mobile 9 by contacting us to discuss further.

Download a PDF Brochure for GoldMine Mobile 9 here. 

Jumping into the Cloud!

Jumping into the Cloud!

Guess I have to admit that I am a cautious individual by nature. Given this, and the current predominance of positive views on Cloud Computing, I hope I can be forgiven for only giving reasons for caution here... just negatives, no positives! At worst I would hope to rebalance the discussion a bit!

So my question is: if I was evaluating the option of a cloud based system to manage my client/customer information what risks should I address? Here’s what I came up with:

Connectivity – access to your the system and data is 100% dependent on internet connectivity. In our experience here in Ireland broadband outages do occur with the major suppliers from time to time – there are recent examples in January 2012 and December 2011 affecting 22,000 and 10,000 broadband users respectively: http://pressroom.eircom.net/press_releases/article/eircom_Outage/  http://pressroom.eircom.net/press_releases/article/eircom_Outage_in_Kerry/

It is important to establish what loss of access to data can be tolerated by your organisation, staff and clients.

Depending on where your cloud service is based, and what data services they use, connectivity issues can be global rather than local. The high profile outages of Amazon cloud services last year are  interesting examples, see discussion at:  http://www.webmonkey.com/2011/04/lessons-from-a-cloud-failure-its-not-amazon-its-you/ and http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2011/04/the-aws-outage-the-clouds-shining-moment.html

Data Protection- the Data Protection Commissioner in Ireland requires that you “establish precisely where and how the data you provide to a cloud provider will be handled” (http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?m=&fn=/documents/FAQ. Will you know where your data is stored and where it may be backed up to? Is it visible to cloud supplier personnel - as is the case currently with the popular http://www.dropbox.com/ service see http://www.dropbox.com/privacy#security: "we have a small number of employees who must be able to access user data"?

Data Security – this can be an issue and remains the responsibility of the organisation owning the data. Some useful considerations are raised in the document ‘Cloud Computing Legal Considerations for Data Controllers’ at  http://www.dilloneustace.ie/publications/Regulatory-and-Compliance  and a European perspective at http://www.iiea.com/events/fleischer-hawkes-regulating-for-the-cloud

Data Consent must be explicitly obtained from clients for processing of their data and it may be necessary to provide information on how this data will be processed (see Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 A Guide For Data Controllers at http://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/a_guide_for_data_contollers/696.htm )

Service Continuity - The continuing availability of a cloud based application over the medium to long term can be an issue. There are recent examples of high profile cloud based systems being discontinued at relatively short notice  e.g.  ‘Google Health’ closing down after 3 years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Health or DabbleDB on online database system taken over by Twitter and discontinued: http://blog.dabbledb.com/2011/03/an-important-announcement.html .

Is your data safe in such circumstances and what is involved in moving to a new system? There is a good discussion of such an experience here http://cemerick.com/2011/05/12/recovering-from-and-avoiding-cloud-service-lock-in/  and outline of some of the issues here:   http://blog.alphasoftware.com/2011/04/problem-with-quickbase-caspio-zoho-and.html

Licensing Costs – for Cloud systems this is generally on a subscription by named user basis. Any person that requires use of the system, however intermittently, will usually require a licence and subscription. By comparison GoldMine Premium Edition uses concurrent licensing so you base your license count on the number of simultaneous system users you expect.

Lifetime Costs - While costs are spread over time in the cloud subscription model it is important to compare system lifetime costs, or at least costs over the first five years, to assess relative costs of systems. This is illustrated at  http://www.moreproductive.com/goldmine-vs-cloud-crm-goldmine-wins-in-the-long-run/ . Remember too that costs for installed systems, such as GoldMine Premium Edition, usually include specific customisation to suit your needs, training to ensure you get the best from your system as well as ongoing individualised support services. Unless the required system is relatively simple it is important to recognise that cloud solutions also require services for system setup, training and support.

IT Infrastructure – you still need an IT Infrastructure to access cloud based systems and this needs to be properly secured and maintained.

Payment Policies - It is important to check service discontinuation policies in case of subscription payment delay. Access to data may be blocked and some contracts state that data will be deleted if not accessed for a period of months.

Change Control - cloud based systems may be subject to software changes or functionality without your permission.

As I said from the start this blog is not intended to be an evaluation of the positives and negatives of cloud versus localised systems. However when we take responsibility for our client/customer information, how it is stored and managed, I think being fully aware of the possible risks and issues has got to come first.

Kevin

Managing Quotes for your Company with QuoteWerks

When we are working on sites with GoldMine implementations, it is often the case that we will review the way sales personnel issue quotes to clients. Sometimes this process can be quite structured, but many times it can be the case that individual sales people have found the need to develop their own way of quoting and recording quotes, as no set system or process had been defined to support them.

Over a period of time this will work for the individual and a good sales person will be able to manage their prospects, quotes and sales using a combination of Word and Excel. Difficulties do arise, however, when we look at an organisation that both wants and needs to be able to review, at any stage, what is the level and value of quotes currently issued across all areas within the sales function, and at what stage of completion these quotes are. It is quite normal for weekly meetings to be held to determine this information but this has the potential to delay an action that might result in a quicker completion of some of the active quotes.

The easiest solution is to have a centralised system of recording these quotes and sales activities. The GoldMine application allows for an organisation to monitor sales pipelines across their sales personnel, but on it’s own does not cater for the issue of quotes. One of the best solutions for this is QuoteWerks.

QuoteWerks enables companies to create detailed quotes and proposals with speed and efficiency, and allow powerful reporting tools to assist the quote management function. Whilst it integrates directly with GoldMine using the contact list and creating / updating the sales forecasts, it is not required and is a very powerful stand alone application, which could later be integrated with GoldMine should an effective CRM solution be desired.

The QuoteWerks interface is simple to use and in a very short space of time a company can be managing quotes across all sales personnel in one central system. It also allows for standardised consistent presentations for quotes and proposals, something that the use of Word and Excel often results in being lost. For those still happy using Word for their quote layouts, QuoteWerks also can merge to a Word template and save a PDF version linked back to the Quote giving the best of both worlds.

Please contact us if you would like to get more information about QuoteWerks or to see the application. There are two short videos on our video tips page to show the use of QuoteWerks using standard Product Bundle and Product Configuration Building quotes.

We are happy to be able to announce that there is a special Christmas 2011 discount of 10% on QuoteWerks licenses for all versions until December 16^th.

Please contact us if you want to discuss the special offer. Installation and training can be done at a later stage.

SurveyHelper (©ProUnison Ltd. 2011)

SurveyHelper (©ProUnison Ltd. 2011)

SurveyHelper is a custom application for GoldMine Premium Edition that we developed for a client of ours, to allow them to batch import large volumes of survey data completed by their staff in Excel spreadsheets.

These Excel spreadsheets, contain a list of questions a choice of three answers per question, and the answer selected. All this information needed to be captured on a matching GoldMine record for later reporting and statistical analysis.

We took the original Excel spreadsheet, and created a GoldMine Template from it, so that each Survey file could be merged directly from GoldMine with the correct unique identifier for the GoldMine contact record plus additional fields of information populated automatically in the spreadsheet.

SurveyHelper takes each Excel Survey, validates that all the questions have been answered and that there are no errors in the file.
It then imports all the questions, the choice of answers, and the chosen answer by creating GoldMine Detail Records against the relevant Contact record in GoldMine.

GoldMine displays these survey question Detail Records for each Contact under a custom Survey tab that staff can filter or group on using GoldMine's built in options.

Using Crystal Reports, the surveys can be listed for individual users or graphed and summarised across the entire database for statistical analysis.

If you have data you need your staff to be able to import into GoldMine easily, then please contact us to discuss what possibilities there are for your system.

If you would like to view a short video of SurveyHelper Click Here

Thank you. 

The ProUnison Team.