CRM - To cloud or not to cloud?

Is a cloud based CRM system right for your company?

It's hard to see a future of install disks and elaborate IT infrastructures in small to mid sized businesses. We want smaller, thinner, lighter and more mobile. Many laptops no longer have a removable disk drive. We download everything. Apple's last two operating systems were only available on line as downloads. We live in a world of apps. Instead of desktops and servers we have SmartPhones and tablets.

So with that info under our hats, what does the future of Customer Relationship Management software look like? Will you host your own data on your server, on your network? Or will you just log on to the internet and get your work done? There are pros and cons for each approach. I'll give you my view after nearly 20 years in the contact management and CRM business. Then we'd welcome your thoughts or input. 

Pros and Cons - Premise Based
The selection of premise based CRM is getting smaller. Today there are only a handful of solid choices. ACT! is the granddaddy of them all, but over the years it has had issues and today is mostly suitable for small non-demanding installations. GoldMine has a 20 year history and has evolved into a very full featured product that provides a myriad of features for the small to midsized network. Maximizer continues to evolve and has become a hybrid solution. SugarCRM, Sage and MS CRM also offer hybrid solutions.

Pros: 
Data - You know where your data is. If your internet connection goes down you are still in business. If the internet went down, you'd still have your valuable info.
Capabilities and features - In the case of GoldMine, there are many features that on line systems don't offer without significant extra fees; customization, duplicate checking/merge purge, complex imports, global replacement of data, advanced reporting options, etc. 
Use of existing IT infrastructure - If you have a developed network, the premise based solution can make sense.
Cost - Premise based gives you a relatively fixed cost. You pay for the software and then typically pay a low annual update and maintenance fee. 

Cons:
Start up costs - Initial cost of software, installation and possible IT hardware investments can be high.
Software headaches - Windows updates, software compatibility issues, etc. can waste time and money and slow down the organization waiting for a fix. 

Pros and Cons - Cloud Based
Pros:
Fast start up - Typically you can be up and running immediately following admin setup.
Mobility and flexibility - Cloud based systems are usually accessible from any mobile device or browser. Just log in.
No ongoing IT requirements
Lower startup cost

Cons:
Never ending cost - For as long as you use the cloud based service you will have a monthly charge per user, whether they log in to the system or not.
Service costs - Can be high to manipulate your data or customize beyond the built in admin functions. This varies by system but we have heard some amazing numbers for seemingly "simple" customizations or support requests.
Speed - Your response time is directly related to the speed of your internet connection.
Features - Most cloud based systems offer a package of features to start; reports, dashboards, modules and basic storage levels, but may add significant up charges to add features needed to complete your system. These per user fees can really add up over time.  

Basic cost comparison for a 10 user system - GoldMine vs. $50 /user/ month system Excludes customizations, consulting and training. We will make the assumption that these costs would be required either way and would be similar.
1st year cost
GoldMine Software (New seats) - $695 x 10=$6950    Annual Update and Maint - $1390 
     Installation and setup - est. $1000    Total = $9340 or $934 per user
Cloud based - 10 users x $50 per month X 12 months = $6000 or $600 per user 

2nd year cost 
GoldMine Annual Update and Maint - $1390 or $139 per user
Cloud based - 10 users x $50 per month X 12 months = $6000 or $600 per user

2 Year Cost
GoldMine       $10,730 or $1,073 per user
Cloud based   $12,000 or $1,200 per user

Important keys to success or failure whichever way you go....We've learned over the years that more CRM programs fail than succeed. (Disappointing and expensive). Why?
Basically because it's not just about buying, or subscribing to CRM software. It's what you do with the software you buy. 
You have to have a plan. Who MUST use it? How will they use it? What will they track and enter? How and what will you measure with reports? What are the short, medium and long term goals? Will management lead this program or will they feel that it's for everyone else? Will you invest in ongoing training and coaching for at least 6 months?

Hopefully this info will help you in your decision making. To talk about your situation and get a guided tour of a CRM system that fits your needs,  CLICK here or call us at 847-382-4500 or visit our website.

NEW GoldMine 9.2 adds social network links and more

GoldMine Premium Edition 9.2.0 (build 59) is now gold and available to customers that are current on maintenance. The release includes several fixes and updates but the big news is the inclusion of Social Network links in the GM+View tab. What does that mean to you? 
When you look up a contact, whether it's a new lead or an old client, you get a much deeper insight into their info. 

• LinkedIn gives you a look from the business side with info on career, education, recent comments on other networks and many times a picture. You may also get a list of other folks at the client that may have impact in the decision. 

• Twitter gives a look at what the client is talking about to the twitter community. 

• The Google views, give an instant search on company or personal news as well as mapping.

• The Facebook links are valuable for B2C companies that want a look at the personal side of their prospective clients. 

Many companies are still trying to figure out what to do with the "Social Network", but a good place to start is with LinkedIn and Google. GoldMine 9.2 has made it easy to take a look. Tech.Sell is available to help our clients with the upgrade including setting up the Social Links. 847-382-4500

GoldMine 9.2 showing Linked in connection screen in the GM+View

Key enhancements in GMPE 9.2 include: 

• GoldMine Plus for Microsoft Outlook
now supports the use of a GoldMine database with a secondary contact set. 

• GoldMine Premium Edition now supports Microsoft SQL Server 2012. 

• The edit screens for scheduled and completed activities now include a button that that enables the user to see Notes displayed in a larger, resizable window. 

• LinkedIn Contact Search
 – Shows the linked in profile for each GoldMine contact’s connections with one click access to quickly see their profile and their connections so you can contact a colleague or  friend for insight and assistance in establishing the relationship. You can also request a prospect to connect – a great way to introduce yourself and create a warm lead.

• Use Twitter In GoldMine 
 – see a contact’s latest tweets and retweet to others – all within GoldMine. Twitter

• Facebook 
 – Quick access search for a GoldMine contact on Facebook and then link their individual or company page .

• Google News Search
 – Before you call a prospect or customer quickly see the latest news on the company to always be prepared with the latest news for the company.

• Google Mapping
 – Are you going to visit a customer?  Quickly access a Google map for directions and by the way,  you can do this real time on your  iPhone or iPad  using the add-on product of GoldMine Mobile.

Riva Syncs Exchange with most CRMs Painlessly

Rick Mignano

I am pretty convinced that the # 1 time waster in technology is the need to sync all of our techno stuff. You know our SmartPhones, iThis and iThat, crackberries and computers. 

Well after years of searching for a painless and foolproof solution, we have found RIva CRM integration. Riva syncs contacts, calendars and tasks on the back end (Exchange) with most CRM systems. The end result is you set it up once and the users just have their stuff synced. Period.  The following is the key info from the Riva Website. If you'd like more info or a demo please give me a call at 847-382-4500 or email me at sales@techsell.net.  Or visit our website 

Looking for a more reliable CRM sync solution?

Riva delivers reliable, server-to-server integration for Microsoft Exchange and all the leading CRM systems. Riva supports, GoldMine, salesforce.com, Oracle CRM On Demand, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and NAV, NetSuite, SugarCRM, SalesLogix, SageCRM, and others. Join the thousands of CRM users – from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies – who sell more, sync more and save more time with Riva.

Sync contacts and leads

Sync contacts and leads seamlessly between Exchange and your CRM. Filter contacts by ownership, visibility or a custom filter. Set a maximum number of contacts that can be synced. Create a new CRM contact list or sync the default contact list. Keep personal and business contacts separate. Set a special color code for contacts and leads. Support for bi-directional and uni-directional contact synchronization. Customize Riva to let CRM users manually choose which contacts they want to sync.

Sync calendar and tasks

Sync calendar events and tasks reliably between Exchange and your CRM. Support for meetings, appointments, phone calls, tasks, full-day and multi-day events, and private appointments. Automatically sync all new calendar appointments or manually choose which calendar events get synced by setting an Exchange category. Sync recurring appointments. Bi-directional or uni-directional sync. Enable or disable reminder synchronization. Customize Riva to sync special meeting types and more.

Sync emails

Sync received and sent emails in Exchange to your CRM by simply copying them to a "Create New Email" folder. No manual matching against contacts or contacts is required. In addition, use Riva to archive emails against CRM opportunities, cases, quotes and projects* directly from Outlook or your mobile device. Automate email archiving for all sent items. Riva will take care of the account and contact matching – and automatically create accounts and contacts that aren't yet available in the CRM. Email archiving is incredibly simple with Riva.

Sync opps, cases, quotes

Sync CRM opportunities, cases, quotes and projects* to Exchange. Riva creates a folder for each of these items. And they're synced across as HTML emails. Sales reps, for example, can see their open opportunities directly in Outlook or on their mobile device and filter by amount, probability, close date, account name, deal stage and other opportunity fields. Likewise for support cases and projects. Click "smart links" in the Riva ConnectBar in each email to automatically open the opportunity or case without any manual searching.

Sync custom fields

Would you like to sync some custom fields in Exchange or your CRM? Or perhaps some custom objects? Our professional services can review your custom sync requirements and customize Riva to fit your needs. Our enterprise customers, in particular, often need us to customize Riva to sync custom fields, custom objects or to adapt to their custom workflow.

Sync CRM to mobile devices

View and manage your CRM contacts, calendar, tasks, opportunities and more from your iPad, iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphone and tablet – in online and offline modes. Riva syncs CRM systems to Exchange and, because your mobile devices are connected to your Exchange mailbox, it means the information automatically syncs down. No additional mobile apps required.

For an excellent selection of videos on syncing or setting up Riva with most CRM systems, click here!

Google Nexus 7 First Impressions from an Apple guy

It was a stretch for me to buy an Android device after being an iPad user since day one. Since all our other computers are Macs that might also be a bit of an anti-android slant. However, I always like new technology and the reviews on the Nexus 7 have been glowing so I put down my $250 for a 16 GB model and waited for the UPS truck to show up. 
Delivery was quick, 2 business days. The unit was nicely packaged with an Apple like classiness to it. Even the same cool clear plastic wrap on the unit itself. 

I turned it on and bumbled and fumbled my way around but began to figure out the Android way of things. Here are my pro and cons on day one. 
Likes: 
Really like the size. 7 Inches is very easy to hold. I would definitely like to see a 7 inch iPad. 
The screen is very good. Equal to the ipad 2 at least but things are smaller and can be a bit harder to read. 
Flexible layout - you can drag anything around and also intermingle your app icons. Nice use of widgets. See the shot above. 
GMail integration - Since it's a Google device it's not surprising that all your Google related info shows up automatically. 

Voice recognition and Google now- A VERY cool feature is Google Now.  You don't just talk to it like Siri, it actually keeps track of where you are and tells you things like traffic conditions etc. This video does a nice job of explaining. 

One thing that isn't mentioned is that since this is a Wifi only device, unless your at home or Starbucks Google isn't going to know where you are at all. Oh well!? 

Android file transfer - There is a nice little application that you load on the mac, plug in your Nexus and it shows the file system so it's a cinch to to copy your pictures, music files etc. to the Nexus. 

Android Music Manager - Let's you upload as many as 20,000 songs to the cloud and then access them from any device. 
10 tips for the nexus 7 owner
Good article with some nice tips.

Unlikes/Cons - 

App issues!  Though the advertising builds a comfort level by stating over 600,000 apps, there is a noticeable absence of many of my favorites. Several apps crashed on launching, including Sugar Mobile. This could be because of the new highly touted Jelly Bean Android 4.1 operating system. Still it's not a comfort to an ipad user where things rarely crash. In some cases text was overlapping other text. In CNBC real time some of the features were absent, like market futures.

No built in screen rotation- Amazing! But good news there's an app for that. It's $3.00 and it's called Ultimate rotation control. 

Bottom line: After almost a day, the jury is still out. I'll be looking for some app updates in the next couple of weeks so I can use my must have apps. If that doesn't improve it could find it's way to eBay. Of course any announcement of a 7 inch iPad could mean an end to the Nexus 7. 

GoldMine 9.2 Sneak Peek

FrontRange Solutions is starting to give a "sneak peek" of the GoldMine 9.2, an upcoming release. 9.2 was released on August 13. See later post. 

The biggie is incorporating Social media into GM.
Here is an example of adding the GM+View ot automatically look up Linked in info for the selected contact. Clicking on the link would open up the subject page and leet you view/copy key recent info.

Here is a shot of the GM+ VIew with the automatic lookup of LinkedIn info. 

Here are the basics...
Social media integrations to look for: 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• FaceBook
• Google

Social Media Use Cases

• Communicate via social media
• View and update contact info
• Connect/add/follow from within GoldMine
• Find shared contacts in LinkedIn

Not Social be useful:

• Keep in touch with company news
• Maps/Directions

Need more info? Call us at 847-382-4500

New product features in Nimble

New Product Features

Nimble has some new product features that are under beta right now! Check your Nimble account today to see if you've been selected to preview these features before we release it to the world!

Nimble Integrates With foursquare!

Introducing foursquare integration with Nimble! In addition to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, you can now add foursquare profiles to your contacts to see their check-ins and mayorships! Click here to learn more!

Automatic Social Profile Mapping!

More automation in Nimble, less manual work for you! In addition to Nimble's existing social profile finder, Nimble will automaticallyappend Facebook and LinkedIn profiles if it is confident in the match. Nimble takes the guess work out for you so you can focus on building and nurturing those business relationships. Click here to learn more!

Schedule Your Posts!

There's no need to fret over sending too many posts at the same time or your posts for an event. Schedule your posts, then sit back and enjoy that glass of cold lemonade. Click here to learn how to schedule posts.

Rich Text Editing For Composing Emails!

Create an email in Nimble today and you'll see that you can now bold, italicize, underline, or use bullet points!

 

Log a Note!

Easily and quickly log notes under your contact's activity history so you can keep track of what's been said and done! Click here to learn more!

12 Things to Love About Nimble Social CRM

Nimble delivers a new approach to managing your contacts, relationships, communication and time.

Hovering over any of the 
social network icons takes 
you  to your contact's profile, 
giving you an instant update of 
their background and recent posts. 

1. A new approach to CRM that includes the social stream, that means you see what your customer looks like and know all about info they post.
2. It's easy to use... no really. It kind of thinks for you.
3. Nimble sends you a daily announcement of birthdays, job moves, and your calendar every morning!
4. No software to install or maintain no hardware requirements
5. Very low cost of entry or no cost for single users!
6. Right click an email and create a task or event linked to the contact.
7. Nimble automatically imports and updates all your connections from FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, Google+, CSV files and more.
8. Nimble automatically searches Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter for matching profiles for every contact
9. Nimble makes it easy to email or tweet your contacts, friends and associates.
10. Nimble automatically builds a history and stores all your communications and completed activities with each contacts' information.
11. Nimble creates Company and Contact records and connects people to companies automatically.  
12. Works with PC, Mac, iPads and virtually all browsers. 

For more info on Nimble visit our website www.techsell.net/nimble

If you'd like to forgoe the visit to our website just click here and get started with Nimble!

Google Nexus 7 Review -Remote Value for the Road Warrior?

More sales folks are looking for a lightweight mobile device that can do it all. 
Google has introduced a good looking new entry in the tablet market. It's highly rated even versus the ipad yet a 16 GB version costs half the price of a base iPad 3. 


Lightweight, slim and powerful, check out the Google Nexus 7. It runs Google Jelly Bean OS and that is getting some rave reviews even from MacLife

For a starting price of $199 you can pick up this slick 7" android based device with 8 GB of storage. Add $50 more to double the storage to 16 GB. 
For half the price and half the weight of the ipad this looks like a great way to access your on line CRM, e-mail and of course all the fun stuff.
Here is a good closer look and comparison to the $199 Kindle Fire from Amazon. See it If you don't want to watch it, the bottom line is that the Nexus crushes the Fire. 

Compare iPad 3 to Nexus 7 here>>

Learn more or order from Google here
For an update on actually having the Google Nexus 7 in my hands check out this post. 

To learn more about taking your CRM on the road with a tablet or smartphone, visit us at www.techsell.net or call us at 847-382-4500. 
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SugarCRM delivers great remote options
Everything you ever wanted to know about remote access for GoldMine.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Remote Access for GoldMIne

With nearly 2 million GoldMine users, and more and more wanting to access their data from anywhere, we get lot's of questions about remote access.


Can I access it on my laptop, on my Mac, on my smartphone? And of course can I use my iPad? Well with the right additions to your GoldMine CE or Premium systems all of the requests can be met with WMobile, GoldMine Mobile, or iGoldMine!

Option 1 is WMobile. WMobile comes with two interfaces; WMobile Phone (for Smartphones with a browser - basically all of them) WMobile Desktop for an in browser experience that looks very similar to the GoldMine Premium desktop. 

New WMobile Desktop 3.0 running on a Mac. You are looking at the preview window on the right. Great stuff!

Without installing any software users access everything in GoldMine including, customer info, calendar, opportunities email and now teh Customer service CASES module.

It's important to note that WMobile is a live connection to your database. All updates on the remote are immediately on the office network and vice versa. Schedule field calls or new leads for the remotes. There is no more syncing!! Now schedule and complete service calls with the Cases module. 

For access from your iPhone or other SmartPhone, use WMobile Phone. A special streamlined menu makes everything easy, including getting directions to your next stop. 

WMobile phone menu includes all GoldMine functions

WMobile Contact record single clicks to get anything done. 

For more mobile coolness, you can click a phone number and dial , click an email to send, even click and address to get direction. 

WMobile is $295 one time for both phone and desktop interfaces. There is also a nominal maintenance fee which covers upgrades and support questions.

Recently GoldMine has introduced their own mobile APP for the iPhone and ipad. 

GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0 is a mobile CRM application that allows mobile users to access their critical customer and contact information, forecasted sales, case details, and daily calendaring activities 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 that help drive better customer relationships and increase customer satisfaction.

Find out more about GoldMine Mobile Edition by downloading the GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0 product brochure.

Features and Functionality of GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.0

• 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

  

  Actual screen shot from my iPhone

   
  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.

Minimum System Requirements

• GoldMine® Premium Edition 9.0.3

IGoldMine provides access to GoldMine CE or PE and up to 18 other programs from any PC or Mac and now even the iPad with a new App.

Logging into iGoldmine using Windows Server Security brings up a Program Manager window.

Users can select any programs set up as shown above. The programs run in a window on their desktop all their features. Here is GoldMine Premium on a Mac Desktop. 

Goldmine PE accessed via Igoldmine on a MAC

Users can print to their local printer, use the clipboard to copy and paste and even save files locally or on the server.
Here is a shot of the actual iPad app for iGoldMine.

Ipad app. Note the A on the top of screen which brings up the keypad.
Holding finger on screen allows user to drape or scroll. 

iGoldMine has a one time price of $295 per concurrent user plus annual maintenance and upgrade fee. 5 packs are $995.00 plus maint. 

Learn more about WMobile or IGoldMine at our website. Or shoot me an email and we can chat or let you take a personal look.