Sync Sugar and Your iPad/iPhone Contacts and Calendar with Omni

Thursday, February 10, 8:30am PT/ 11:30am ET

This webcast will overview the importance of having bi-directional synchronization between your CRM system and your critical devices such as your iPhone and iPad. With real time synchronization, sales agents will never miss a beat - driving higher productivity and sales results. Join SugarCRM and Omni for this informative webinar.

Who Should Attend: Salespeople, executives and IT administrators looking to synch SugarCRM data to their mobile devices including iPhones and iPads.

Register now

Mastering the Leap from Spreadsheets to CRM

Monday, February 14, 4pm PST
Tuesday, February 15, 11am Australia EDT

Join us to hear how Mastersoft made the successful leap from spreadsheets into a full service CRM with the help of Loaded Technologies and SugarCRM.

Who Should Attend: Sales and Marketing professionals responsible for maximising their sales & marketing efforts. Sales managers who need to improve their pipeline.

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Inbound Marketing with HubSpot & SugarCRM

Wednesday, February 16, 10am PT/ 1pm ET

Improve your inbound lead flow with HubSpot and create better alignment between your sales & marketing teams with SugarCRM.

Who Should Attend: Marketing professionals and business owners interested in transforming their website into a marketing machine.

Register now

Different Approaches to Training an Enterprise on a new CRM system

At Technology Advisors, we have a lot of experience with all aspects of implementing CRM systems.  We’ve been around and doing this for over 10 years now.  Time and time again, we find one aspect of an implementation that is often overlooked: training.  So much focus is often placed on the requirements, design, and development (and rightfully so), that training can often be an afterthought for an organization.  This is very dangerous.  I mean, think about it, you are making a huge investment in your CRM system; however, if your users can’t use it, how will it ever be successful?

There are several different options to consider when developing a training plan for a large organization. These options can also work for a small organization. The training plan needs to be more structured and organized as the number of users increases:

Administrative Training:

All of the CRM packages we offer have complex features that, while not everyone in the organization needs to understand, at least a few definitely should.  We offer administrative training on every system.  It’s good to have someone from your organization take this early on in the implementation planning to ensure they understand these more complex features.

Train the Trainer vs. Use TAI Personnel:

While we would love to train all of your organization’s users, and know that we would do an excellent job at it, we realize that sometimes it makes more sense to have your own staff train the rest of your staff.  In this scenario, we recommend that we train your trainers on the ins and outs of a day in the life of your end users, while also teaching how they might best communicate CRM concepts.  This is best to do after much of the system development has been completed, so the trainers can really focus on any custom or unique functions of your CRM system to see how it works.

Via the Web vs. In Person:

We strongly believe that training users in person makes a much bigger impact on the way they learn because you can actually see if people are underderstanding. Of course, it’s much more difficult to do this via the web, and, as a user, it’s very easy to zone out and not pay attention when you are on a GoToMeeting session.  With that said, web training sessions make a lot of sense for mobile salesforces, and can make a great impact on anyone getting familiar with CRM.  In reality, both methods should be incorporated in any successful learning plan.

Staged Learning Plan vs. A Few Large Classes

A common misconception with regards to training is that you will be able to throw all of your users with varying degrees of computer/CRM/technical knowledge into a room for one full day and that they will walk out understanding CRM completely – that they’ll be 100% productive with their new found skills on day 2.  This cannot be further from the truth.  A good learning plan, whether fully executed by you, us, or you and us will be staged out with the various components/options listed above.  This may be through a series of web training sessions focused on basic skills, followed up by onsite classes for specific groups of users a week or two later.  There should always be resources for continual learning in the future, as well. 

Feel free to contact us at TAI, and we’ll be more than happy to discuss a training approach that makes sense to you and your organization.

Is there a way to set the Opportunity defaults for all users in SalesLogix?  A client recently wanted to change the default estimated close date for new opportunities in SalesLogix to 1 month from 2 months.  The Tools -> Manage -> Opportunity Defaults menu item was disabled for all users, so they needed a way to update everyone at the same time.

The options in the image above are stored in the UserOptions table.  Unfortunately, if a user has never opened this window, they will not have any entries in the UserOptions table for these options.  As such, we need to update the default option that is used when the user does not have the option defined in the UserOptions table.

To update, run the following two SQL statements through the Administrator.
In the Administrator open then Tools Menu -> Execute SQL…
Run these two SQL statements one at a time making sure to check “Execute statements on the Host Database”
update useroptions set OPTIONVALUE = '1' where name = 'txtEstimatedClose'
update USEROPTIONDEF set DEFVALUE = '1' where name = 'txtEstimatedClose'


The first statement will update the option for users that have the option defined in the useroptions table.  Most users probably do not have the option defined because they do not have access to the menu item.  The second statement will update the default option that is used when the user does not have the option defined.

As always, you should have some understanding of what the SQL is doing before running it and always test the statements to make sure they are updating the correct number of rows.

Video games have it right. They start you out learning some basic skills and expand on those slowly based upon your accomplishments. In other words you can't kill the monster until you can hop from rock to rock. You don't learn how to hop from rock to rock until you can use a sword. 

I watch kids learn how to master the game by a series of small steps in days and weeks until they are experts.  This should be our model for CRM adoption.

Consider some facts:

•            Adults retain two hours of an eight hour training class

•           Most companies try to roll out all features in their initial rollout to save money

•           Forty percent of CRM projects fail because of lack of user adoption

Maybe the answer is that we should slow down our rollout plans and follow the video game model.

The implication of this approach might not be transparent for existing implementations, it means that a new CRM implementation has no additional features than before. New users to CRM should expect a "less is more" approach to deployment with multiple phases being deployed only after the predecessor phase was successfully completed. In video game terms, you have completed the level. 

Because CRM is not an individual sport we need to evaluate the entire team to determine success before we move to the next phase.  This requires us to develop a testing / adoption process that evaluates a crm team before rollout of the next set of features, or in video game terms, proceed to the next level.

Taming, or killing the crm monster is about achieving enough skill slowly to get to the next level.  If you do that enough times you can win the game. < >< ><-->

This example shows how to create a dll file that will augment security in SalesLogix by wrapping around the existing security of Saleslogix.  This modifies sql statements as they come through the SalesLogix Provider.  So you have: If this table is in the join, add to the where clause.  In the example below, a user is only allowed to see contacts where they are set as the Contact’s Account Manager (Contact.AccountManagerID Field).

 

1. Open up visual studio and create a new project.
   1. File -> New Project - Visual Basic -> Class library.
2. Add a project reference to "SLXDBEngine 1.0 type library."
   1. Right Click the Project in the Solution Explorer -> Add Reference -> COM Tab -> "SLXDBEngine 1.0 type library."
3. Add new item to project -> class named VBSecurityBroker.vb  (Case sensitive)
   1. Right Click the Project in the Solution Explorer -> Add -> New Item -> Class
   2. In Class, select all and paste code snippet over current text.  See below for Code Snippet.
4. Add new Class called VBQuerySecurity.vb
   1. Right Click the Project in the Solution Explorer -> Add -> New Item -> Class
   2. In Class, select all and paste code snippet over current text.  See below for Code Snippet.
   3. Insert your custom code into the VBQuerySecurity.vb code where it says "'''YOUR SECURITY CODE GOES HERE"
5. Delete class1
6. Save all and build.
   1. Look for build succeeded in the lower left corner.
7. View files in My DocumentsVS2005Projects...Debug.  We are worried about  ProjectName.dll and ProjectName.pdb.
   1. Copy both files into C:Program FilesSaleslogix
8. Create a new .udl file to connect to your target SalesLogix database.
   1. Right click on the desktop and create a new text file.
   2. Rename the text file Saleslogix.udl.  (Or any name you would like to use.)
   3. Double click the file and fill in the information, making sure to use the SalesLogix OLE DB Provider.
   4. Copy udl file to C:Program FilesSaleslogix.
9. Create or edit an existing .xml file.
   1. The class file .xml file code is below.
   2. Update the xml code to match your Project Name and a new SalesLogix ID.
   3. Copy xml file to C:Program FilesSaleslogix.
10. Copy Interop.SLXDBEngineLib.dll, PluginWrapper.dll, and SLXPluginBuilder.exe to C:Program FilesSaleslogix.
    1. I found these files in the Sage SalesLogix class files.  They can also be found our built with the files in the SalesLogix DVD's SDK Examples folder.
11. Open cmd prompt.
    1. cd C:Program FilesSaleslogix
    2. Run: "slxPluginBuilder.exe -n SLXDemo.dll"
       1. Creates wrapper for the dll, "DLLName.tlb"
    1. Run: "slxproviderplugin.exe -m SLXDemo.xml --udl new.udl"
       1. Inserts the value into db and sets it up to run when security is needed.
       2. Case sensitive
       3. This information is stored in the SLXOLEDBPLUGIN table.
          1. Can set SLXOLEDBPLUGIN.ENABLED to false if we want to turn off security plugin.
       1. The plugin(dll) security information is stored in the SLXOLEDBPLUGINDATA table.
12. Log in and see if changes took effect.

 

vbSecurityBroker Code Snippet:
Imports System

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Imports SLXDBEngineLib

Imports System.Diagnostics

 

_

Public Class VbSecurityBroker : Implements ISLXSecurityBroker

    Dim m_securityInit As SLXSECURITYINIT

 

    Public Function GetSecurityObject(ByVal pSQLQuery As SLXDBEngineLib.SLXSQLQuery) _

            As ISLXQuerySecurity Implements ISLXSecurityBroker.GetSecurityObject

        If pSQLQuery.SQLType = SLXDBEngineLib.SLXSQLTYPE.SQLTYPE_SELECT Then

            Dim result As ISLXQuerySecurity = New VbQuerySecurity(m_securityInit, pSQLQuery)

            Return result

        Else

            Return Nothing

        End If

    End Function

 

    Public Sub Initialize(ByRef pSecurityInit As SLXDBEngineLib.SLXSECURITYINIT) _

        Implements SLXDBEngineLib.ISLXSecurityBroker.Initialize

        m_securityInit = pSecurityInit

    End Sub

 

    Public Sub Uninitialize() Implements SLXDBEngineLib.ISLXSecurityBroker.Uninitialize

 

    End Sub

End Class

 

vbQuerySecurity.vb Code Snippet:

Imports System

Imports System.Collections.Generic

Imports System.Text

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Imports SLXDBEngineLib

Imports System.Diagnostics

 

Public Class VbQuerySecurity : Implements ISLXQuerySecurity

    Dim m_sqlQuery As SLXSQLQuery

    Dim m_securityInit As SLXSECURITYINIT

 

    Public Sub New(ByVal securityInit As SLXSECURITYINIT, ByVal sqlQuery As SLXSQLQuery)

        m_securityInit = securityInit

        m_sqlQuery = sqlQuery

    End Sub

 

    Public Function Secure() As QRYSECRESULT Implements ISLXQuerySecurity.Secure

        Dim res As QRYSECRESULT = QRYSECRESULT.QRYSEC_OK

        Dim cond As String

        Dim qSelect As SLXSelect = CType(m_sqlQuery, SLXSelect)

        If qSelect Is Nothing Then Return res

 

        For Each stmt As SelectStmt In qSelect.SelectStmts

            For Each join As SQLJoin In stmt.SQLFrom.SQLJoins

     '''YOUR SECURITY CODE GOES HERE

     '''EXAMPLE:

     '''If join.Name = "CONTACT" Then

          '''cond = String.Format("{0}.ACCOUNTMANAGERID = '{1}'", join.Alias, '''m_securityInit.SLXUserID)

          '''stmt.SQLWhere.AddConditionFromString(cond, '''SLXSQL_CONDITIONAL.SQLCONDITION_AND)

     End If

            Next

        Next

        Return res

    End Function

End Class

 

VBSLXSecurity.xml: (Put <> tags around the first line)

?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?

 

 

 

Entrepreneur.com has an article up on 5 Simple Ways to Show Customers You Care:

1. Share Your Knowledge
2. Ask, Listen, Respond, Adapt
3. Reward Customers
4. Hold a Customer Appreciation Event
5. Do Good

It's a great article and I recommend you check out. Here is my take on how you can apply these points to your own business.

1. Sharing Your Knowledge.  Social CRM is here.  As has always been the case, with it you can manage your e-mail newsletters.  You can now also manage your incoming and outgoing Social CRM communications with applications such as Twitter or Facebook.

2. Ask, Listen, Respond, Adapt.  Without a CRM application, how will you be able to keep track of all of your correspondence with your customers.  Newer CRM packages have the ability to integrate with all forms of communications.  Fax, Email, Snail Mail, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc.

3. Reward Customers.  With the proper CRM application you can track Campaigns where you use Coupons, Gifts, Events, Targeted Mailers, Phone Calls, Social Media, etc.

4. Hold a Customer Appreciation Event.  Customer Appreciate Events or User Groups are a great way to keep your name in a customers mind.  With CRM you are able to invite your customers or potential customers to the events, track registrations and report on attendance and survey results.

5. Do Good.  Doing good is a great thing, but how will your customers know about it if you aren't able to track and effectively communicate your "good."

Using newer CRM products goes far beyond just a giant electronic Rolodex of names and phone numbers.  With a properly setup CRM application and trained user base, you should be able to manage your complete customer experience from prospect to repeat business.  And then some.

Technology Advisors has scheduled a couple of SalesLogix Administrator classes in Chicago during the last two weeks of April.  The one taking place April 21-24 (Tuesday through Friday) is for SalesLogix v7.2, and the one scheduled April 28-May1 (also Tuesday through Friday) is for SalesLogix v7.5.

These SalesLogix classes are based off of Sage's Certified Course Curriculum, which offer plenty of hands-on exercises and step-by-step instructions.   The manuals that attendees take home with them after the class can be very helpful resources later on when they are trying to implement Speedsearch, or set up Outlook Integration, etc...  All this information is driven home by our Certified Trainers' ability to break it down and really tell you what works and what doesn't.

The list of topics included in these trainings include:

• An in-depth look at the Administrator applicatio
• Security
• Speedsearch
• Teams
• Outlook Integration
• Synchronization and Remote Users
• Contact and Sales Processes
• Lots more...

The only difference between the v7.2 and v7.5 course, is that the v7.5 course focuses more on the SalesLogix Web Client; giving you more information on publishing the client, and using the Disconnected Web Client.  This is in addition to everything listed above.

If you are interested, or want more information, give us a call at (847) 655-3428.  If you reference the blog, we'll throw in a 10% discount on the course of your choice.  You can find the scheduled courses here.

The Administrator classes do not often contain more than 3 people, so you will really get some good attention, and be able to ask all the questions you would like.  Alternatively, if you can't get out of the office, or your company does not want to spend the money to put you on a plane, and in a hotel, check out our options for Remote Training.