crm-now Journal

CRM’s print functions

Matthias — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:27:25 +0000

Your Browser has a printing function with preview which works for any website. Since CRM version 5.2.1.6 you may use this to make a special print of your CRM data which does not include the CRM menues.

Special report about accounts not contacted since…

Alexander — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:50:14 +0000

There is a new functionality in your CRM since version 5.2.1.25 that allows you to create a report about accounts which includes a special filter. That filter enables you to select a date specifying the last desired activity of an account.

The report will list every account that has not been contacted since the specified date or not contacted at all.

To create such a report you have to select Accounts as the primary module. You will find a new entry in the filter tab named “last Activity” (very last of filter options belonging to Accounts). Select “less than” and the desired date and you are ready to go.

Should you add Calendar as a secondary module you will be able to get information about the latest activity done, should there be one.

Change CRM user’s name

Matthias — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:44:35 +0000

You cannot change a user’s name directly. But you follow this procedure:

create a new user with the desired new user name
delete the old user
during deletion you will be ask for the new owner of the data of the old user, select the new user you just created

All data will get transferred to the new user automatically.

Word template usage

frank — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:04:16 +0000

You may use the Settings -> Text Template menu to store MS Word documents as templates for serial letters. These templates must have the .doc format and can get created by using the Office Plugin extension available at the CRM’s Help menu. This extension links Word and the CRM and provides the CRM fields to Word to be included as merge fields.

If you do not want to use the Office Plugin because it is not compatible to your Word version or to inconvenient you may edit templates directly. For this you need to understand Word’s concept of merge fields as it is used for serial letters. For the most common fields such as addresses you may download a sample document Word Tempate Sample for the use with CRM’s Contacts or Leads. If you need other fields please contact crm-now.

new Outlook Plugin version available

Matthias — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:48:54 +0000

Somtimes it is not required to include attachments if you send emails from Outlook to the CRM. This is for instance the case if the attachment is very large or if you have it already as a document listed in the CRM. With the new version you may decide whether you include attachments.

The Plugin v1.510.001.014 is available at downloads in your CRM help menue.

Changing the picklist order for search function

Matthias — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:47:40 +0000

The order of the picklist entries in the search menu for modules (list view) is based on the order of columns in the list view. The headline of the first column is the first entry in the picklist, etc.

If you want, for instance, that your picklist always shows the Account Name as the first choice, change the order in your list view and put the Account Name into the fist column.

new iPhone / iPod / iPad interface

Matthias — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:58:54 +0000

Your CRM system may get connected to an iPhone / iPad. With this new interface you may

view and edit most of the CRM data
automatic alerts for tasks, potentials and tickets
offline operation and synchronization
business card scan

If you are interested in this extension please contact crm-now for further information.

Remove duplicates before data import

frank — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:30:16 +0000

Before any import of inventory data is considered, it is recommended to review the data. According to experiences data tend to become inaccurate over time. It is much more effective to correct data errors before import than later in the CRM.

Excel has been proven to be a good tool for such a checkup. Most important the following should get validated:

Does every column have the expected content?
Are all data have the expected format (see manual)?
Are the data complete? For instance, for a contact import you should have a salutation column, an assigned to column, and a column for the content of every pick list
Are there any duplicates?

Please consult the manual for further hints.

For a duplicate removal you may find a lot of information on the Internet as well as free and commercial downloads for Excel extensions. The following has attract our attention:

Excel 2003: Delete duplicate rows from a list in Excel

Excel 2007: Remove Duplicates in Excel 2007

Transfer requests from web pages to the CRM

frank — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:45:58 +0000

If you have your own web site with a contact form you may transfer the content as Lead to your CRM. For the transmission you may take advantage of the Webservice functions. The following example shows how a webform for the transmission of name, email and description can look like:

<html>
 <body>
   <form method="POST" action="https://yoururl/modules/Webforms/post.php">
	<input type="hidden" value="Leads" name="moduleName" />
	<table>
	 <tr>
	   <td><label>Familynamelabel>td>
	   <td><input type="text" name="lastname" value="" />td>

         tr>
	 <tr>

	<tr>
	  <td><label>Emailtd>
	  <td><input type="text" name="email" value="" />td>
	tr>
	<tr >
	  <td><label>Message:label>td>
	  <td><textarea cols="30" rows="5" name="description" value="" >textarea>td>

	tr>
   <table>
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
 form>
<body>

Please contact crm-now for more information.

E-Mail Tracking

Matthias — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:33:26 +0000

When you send an email from your CRM system an automatic function is included which allows you to see whether and how often the receiver has accessed this mail. This information is displayed in a contacts or leads detail view at the email listing in the ‘Access Count’ column.

This function works only if the receivers email client allows the download of images.