How can you live out of your CRM system if your business planning and project management is still done on the conference room whiteboard?

One of our clients wanted to move their entire business process into their SugarCRM system. This included time tracking of employee hours/wages and project scheduling. The company is in the construction industry and has several active work sites to manage. Each week they map out what workers are assigned to each job site and would outline this on a large whiteboard in their office.

The company also coordinates what equipment and machinery goes to each job site. The machinery is hundreds of thousands of dollars and the company only has a set number of machines available. Accurately assigning out these machines and delivering them to the sites is extremely critical to staying on budget and on time.

The Issue:
The problem with the project schedule existing solely on a tangible whiteboard was that it was only visible to those that came by the office. As a result, some of the workers and project managers were limited to knowing details of the projects they were assigned to. Also, they may be misinformed if a change was made on the whiteboard mid-week.

Additionally, there were multiple projects going on at once and it was difficult to manage each piece of equipment. There was no way to prevent human error and double booking equipment and workers on different job sites was an issue the company needed to address.

The Solution:
Epicom customized our client’s SugarCRM system and added a whiteboard feature. By designing the whiteboard module to have a drag and drop interface, the new module imitates the functionality of a traditional whiteboard.

The whiteboard module enables users to create an unlimited number of whiteboards for various purposes. For example the company has a whiteboard for assigning equipment to each job site and a whiteboard for assigning workers to each job site.

How it Works:
When creating a new white board, the user is asked to choose which module to pull data from. For the company’s equipment whiteboard, they are creating a whiteboard that relates its equipment catalog with its project list (job sites).

Each whiteboard column represents a project. A user can add the necessary equipment to that project. When a specific piece of equipment is placed onto a project, it cannot be added to another. A user can drag and drop it onto other projects or work sites as needed or they can return it to the equipment catalog.

The workers whiteboard is very similar to the equipment whiteboard, except that it relates to the employees and crews module. The company sometimes groups workers together into crews and then assigns an entire crew out to a work site. The image below shows a whiteboard with individual workers assigned to various job sites.

Once a person is added to a job site, they cannot be booked on another one. Additionally, they are noted as not available when viewing the crew they were related to. If that crew were to be assigned to a job site, the project manager would know which workers were not available and could see which site they were assigned to. All of this information relates to each other. For example, when viewing a worker’s record or a piece of equipment in the catalog, you can see what job sites the worker or equipment has been to.

End Result:
The company is now able to accurately schedule workers and equipment for each job site. Because this information is now being managed in the CRM system, the historical data can be reported on. Trends and usage of equipment can be monitored and the company can now make better predictions when ordering new machines.

Additionally, the project schedule can be viewed from anyone, anywhere. The drag and drop interface of the whiteboard makes it easy for project managers to update the schedule from an iPad when out at job sites.

For more information on the whiteboard customization for SugarCRM, contact info@epicom.com.

Epicom recently went through the process of updating our legal language for professional services and hosting. I wasn’t directly involved, but I know that it was a large project. Each contract and quote for products and services has to include some kind of legal language. This is the case for most companies and when an exception occurs for certain products, it can get a little messy.

The Business Issue:
One of our clients needed to modify the Quotes module in SugarCRM to include product-specific legal language. They also needed the ability to adjust this on a quote-by-quote basis. The goal was to make adding new legal language as simple as adding a product from the product catalog. The company did not want its sales reps manually updating the legal language themselves.

The Solution:
Step One: Epicom created a separate module called “Legal Language”.The company’s attorneys can update and add legal language through this module. Quotes or contracts created before the legal is modified won’t be changed. Only new quotes and contracts will have the new legal language associated with them.

Step Two: After creating a catalog of legal language, Epicom built a section for users to add this language directly to quotes. A sales rep can sort through the language catalog and select the pre written legal language such as Master Services Agreements, Payment Terms, etc. This legal language is applied to the entire quote and bundled inside the quote PDF as additional pages.

Step Three: In some cases, our customer needed to add exceptions to the legal language on certain products. Epicom created sections where legal language could be added underneath a product line item.

The to add a line of legal language, the user simply adds a comment row under the product. Instead of the sales rep writing their own comment, there is now an arrow to select from a list of items in the legal language module.

Once added in, the legal language will display on the quote under the related product. Additionally, when legal language placed under a product, it relates to that product. So when creating another quote that includes that same product, the CRM will remember to tag the legal language to it.

The End Result:
Our client now has a better process for updating the legal language for contracts and quotes. The attorneys only have to update one document in one single location. Also, the sales reps never have to manually alter this language for certain exceptions to products. The attorneys can write the exception and add it to the language catalog.

For more information about adding legal language to documents created inside SugarCRM, email info@epicom.com.

It’s finally 2012 and most companies are finalizing plans for the rest of the year. Before the new year gets too far ahead of you, take a second to do a CRM check-up. Below are the TOP FIVE things to ask yourself now, so that you can focus on your business the rest of the year.

1. Has your CRM system’s storage space reached its limit? – This can cause your CRM system to run slow. Your system may also be on too small of a server for the number of active users you have. Click here to see the recommended number of users per server size.
2. Is your CRM system being backed up daily? – Off-site backup is highly recommended to prevent loss of data. Epicom includes off-site backup in all of our hosting packages. However, we do stress the importance of hosting to our customers and do everything we can to provide a safe environment for their data and Sugar instance. Therefore, if clients choose to host their own SugarCRM instance in-house, or with another provider, Epicom will still provide off-site backup for only $100 per month.
3. Do you have a support package in place? – This gives you priority response time from engineers regarding system issues or general support questions. Contact sales@epicom.com to set-up your support package.
4. Are you going to need a license renewal this year? – Find out how to get discounts on multi-year agreements. Contact your Epicom account representative or sales@epicom.com to find out when your SugarCRM license expires and to lock-in our multi-year discounted rate.
5. Have all of your users been trained on using the CRM system? – We have free training videos online and offer training classes from beginner to advanced.

If you have any questions about the status or health of your CRM system contact us at info@epicom.com.

Best of luck in the new year!!

One of Epicom’s customers needed a way to do a mass import and an advanced filter of leads. The customer receives thousands of emails a day to a designated email address in Gmail. They are a call center and receive leads from several different companies that send them contacts that didn’t immediately purchase something and need to be followed-up on.

The emails come through as an attachment in a .CSV spreadsheet file. Each of these spreadsheets are different because they come from different companies and have a different number of leads, different column names, and different data.

Sometimes the call center received emails that said “Do not touch” in the attachment’s file name. Those contacts were people that were originally sent to the call center, but for some reason (maybe they placed an order in the short time from sending the email) they shouldn’t be called by the call center. These then would need to be suppressed or taken out of the CRM system and marked “do not touch”.

The task of sorting through thousands of complex leads was too cumbersome to be left as a manual process. Epicom’s customer needed this to be automated to reduce human error and excessive overhead.

The Solution:

Epicom automated the batch file importing of each .CSV file attachment and made the filter process easy to manage.

Once the file is automatically imported into Sugar, the file is stored on the server. There are several batch definitions that determine what to do with the file. For example, the contacts in the file may need to be suppressed or the duplicates may need to be deleted.

There are several checks that occur next with the data:

1. Campaign Check: The system looks for a specific campaign to tag the leads to. This information is inside the .CSV file. There may be similar names that are with the same campaign. These are defined then truncated.
2. Duplicate Check: The system checks for duplicate leads based on the lead’s phone number to avoid being imported twice. It also checks to see if the lead is already in the CRM system from a different import.
3. Scrubbing: The client can define the column number they want scrubbed inside the .CSV file. For example, the disposition field (details about the lead) may read, “ordered” or “prank or obscene call”. Scrubbing this data takes those leads out so bad leads aren’t imported.
4. Field Mapping: Maps the .CSV column header names to field names in SugarCRM.
5. Store Additional Data: This saves additional information or excess data about a lead. This is stored in a separate module and only shows when viewing the individual lead. Some leads may have more information about them and those fields may not be necessary for others. This eliminates having a ton of blank fields for some leads.
6. Batch File Results: The lead data is placed into a module so that it can be easily reported on. For example: the number of leads, duplicates, leads entered into system after scrubbing, and leads per campaign can all be reported on.
7. Vici Log: This logs any errors that occur when importing so they can easily be addressed.

This processes eliminated the manual importing of thousands of leads for the call center. It also structured the filtering process so that leads could be reported on and analysed. With the new batch importing system in place, the call center has entered over 120,000 leads into SugarCRM within weeks of deploying Epicom’s solution.

For more information on the batch importing system or other call center solutions, contact info@epicom.com.

We’ve completed dozens of customer projects including CRM customizations, integrations, and product development over the past year. Here are some of the most rewarding, challenging, and fun projects of the year:

Tommy Wiebell
1. Appointment Scheduler - Companies can search stores by zipcode and hours open to schedule in-store appointments for customers. The user can specify the search radius and only the available appointment slots and stores will display.

2. Master Dashlet - System administrators can use the dashlet manager to control normal users’ dashlet pages. This is beneficial for setting up new user accounts to jump start them in the CRM system. It is also useful for managers that want to standardize and push out important dashlets and information to company employees.

Danny Mulvihill

3. Whiteboard Module – Users can drag and drop employees to add to projects with the same ease as working on your conference room whiteboard. The user interface makes it easy to assign users to a project. Also, it is a better visual representation of all existing projects and the employees or contractors that are working on them.

4. Time-Tracking Solution - The time tracking solution is an advanced timesheet system in Sugar. Managers can log employee hours and salary, measure efficiency based on work done, budget a project, and manage overtime costs.

5. Quick Entry Module – This module was built to enable our customer to import data into multiple modules from one screen. When the customer received a donation, they would enter the donation amount, the company making the donation, the individual making the donation, and the ad specifications based on the amount donated. Traditionally this would all be done in several different modules, but can now be done from one screen and each individual module is automatically updated with the data.

Eric Wikman

6. Twilio Integrations – Epicom built several voice and SMS integrations with SugarCRM using Twilio, a cloud communications platform.

• The Universal Click-to-Call product gives users the ability to click any phone number stored in their SugarCRM system and call that number automatically using the Twilio service to complete the call.
• The outbound and inbound SMS text messaging features allow users to send and receive text messages using the CRM system.
• Conference bridging and phone number recognition for automatic access to password-protected conference calls. Contacts can call into a conference bridge and if the CRM system recognizes the phone number, it will allow them into the call and announce them. Users can also schedule a call and at the time of the meeting, all of the phone numbers will be dialed and bridged together once answered. Users no longer have to call into a conference. The conference will call them.

Anthony Watson

7. History Search Bar - One of Epicom’s customers needed the ability to search through the History subpanel within Accounts. The History subpanel includes all calls, meetings, notes, tasks, and emails associated with a particular Account. The customer needed the ability to more directly search on these activities within a particular Account so that all results were relevant and less time was spent filtering through search results. Epicom built a search feature into the History subpanel and added a search bar at the top of the subpanel.

James McGirr

8. EchoSign Integration – The plugin Epicom built enables users to send documents out for electronic signature from their SugarCRM system. Users can monitor the status of the document to know if the contract has been sent, viewed, or signed. Once the document is electronically signed, the PDF is automatically uploaded into SugarCRM.

9. Batch Lead Importing – This customization was done for a call center who received thousands of leads a day to a designated email address. The emails that came in had attachements with several contacts and various column names included. When an email comes in, the attachement is automatically pushed through to SugarCRM and to a specific location on the client’s server. Field mapping, campaign tagging, duplicate checks, scrubbing of unqualified leads, and matching with existing records all occur once the attachement is imported. This was previously a manual process and is now automatically imported and done through the CRM system. There have already been over 110,000 leads entered and the project was only recently completed. The end result provides reports on how many leads were originally entered, what campaign they were tagged as, how many duplicates, and how many final leads there were after scrubbing the data.

Greg Bueno

10. Google Maps Integration – With this integration, users can plot addresses for Leads, Accounts, and Contacts on one map. They can then route directions between specified points on the map. When hovering over plotted points in the map, additional detail is revealed such as the Lead name, phone number, industry type, and sales volume.

For more information about what our Engineers have been working on this past year, contact info@epicom.com.

The Solution:
Epicom built a module in SugarCRM called “All Activites”. This module holds all activities (emails, notes, tasks, meetings, and calls) that exist in the database from every user.

Because the Activities Module stores everything in one place, Sugar can now generate a detailed report from the data.

Generating All Activity Reports:
Once the new module is in place, an option for the All Activities Module will now exist when creating a report.

Users can now choose all or some activites to report on. Also, there are a variety of perameters/filters to choose from such as time frame, users and teams, related modules, and status.

The end result displays multiple activities associated with a user depending on the filters you select. The report below shows all of the users that have created a meeting, task, or note this month.

When hovering over a color block in the chart, additional details will show. For example, in the chart above, the number of notes is displayed as well as the percentage that number represents from all of the user’s activites created.

For more information about reporting on all activities in SugarCRM, email info@epicom.com.

When a company first implements SugarCRM, default dashlet pages are displayed for each user. Dashlet pages are the subtabs underneath the home page in SugarCRM. These dashlets are a quick view into several components of Sugar right from the home screen. Users can setup dashlets to display any number of reports, new leads, open tasks, and so much more.

It may take some time for a new user to get their own dashlets set up. One of our customers needed to ramp-up new Sugar users as quickly as possible. They wanted to to manage user dashlets from the admin account and add dashlet pages to certain users. For example, the customer may want to have sales reports and new lead stats show up for each new sales rep. By setting up relevant and meaningful dashlets, a new user can more easily and quickly make use of the CRM system.

Epicom built a dashlet manager into the administration panel in SugarCRM. The user friendly interface makes it easy for admins to manage all user dashlet pages in just three steps.

Step One: Set up dashlet pages on the home screen of the admin account. The admin can create a page and set up an endless amount of dashlets on that page. The example below shows the Tracker page on the admin’s account. The dashlets shown on this page will be the same dashlets a user sees if this page is selected for their account.

Step Two: Access the custom dashlet manager in the admin panel to add/update users’ dashlet pages.

The dashlet manager has a list of all users and a list of all the dashlet pages on the admin’s account.

Step Three: Select dashlet pages to add to certain users. The admin first selects a user and the desired pages to be push over to that account. When the admin clicks the “select” button, the dashlet pages are instantly added to the appropriate users’ home screen. A list of admin pages that have been pushed over to a user’s account will show underneath the user’s name in the dashlet manager (as seen in the image above).

The users are then able to edit these dashlets or create their own without altering the admin’s dashlets. The end result gives new Sugar users a number of meaningful dashlets to build onto instead of starting with Sugar’s default pages.

For more information about the custom dashlet manager, email info@epicom.com.

One of Epicom’s customers wanted to use Google Maps in their SugarCRM system to plot out all of the leads that are within a certain radius of an existing client. The company often traveled to visit their clients and wanted to visit certain leads that may be along the way. The company has several home bases and also needed to plot driving directions from each location.

Step 1: Leverage existing integration with Google Maps.
Epicom leveraged the JJWDesign Google Maps plugin from SugarForge. You specify the centerpoint (destination) for an Account, Lead, Contact, or anything with an address field. You then can specify the radius for your search. With this integration, you can plot both accounts and leads on the same map. This enabled Epicom to later build on the driving directions functionality.

Step 2: Import widget to show addresses from multiple modules on the same map.
The JJWDesign Google Maps plugin displays multiple plot points for different modules. Epicom’s customer specifically needed to plot Accounts and Leads at the same time and this plugin achieved that request.

Step 3: Optimize the plugin to display directions and additional data.
Epicom made some code level modifications to expand the functionality of the plugin. The JJWDesign plugin generates longitude and latitude codes behind the scenes that allow you to create custom markers to plot additional locations on the map.

Epicom used these markers as the starting point when building out the functionality to plot directions. We added a drop down field to show multiple custom markers. This allows you to choose which marker to plot and get directions for.

Epicom also customized the data shown in the bubble when clicking on a point in the map. Google Maps typically shows the phone number and name of the business when hovering over a point, but Epicom added in the sales volume of that company and the SIC code/Industry type. This data is pulled from fields in the record associated with that address in SugarCRM.

Our customer can now map out the leads that are located closest to clients and get directions from any one of the company’s home bases. Additionally, they can better target and visit the bigger opportunities first based on the sales volume shown when hovering over a point in the map.

For more information about Epicom’s Google Maps customization, contact us at info@epicom.com.

To relate a project to a case, Epicom clicked the “Select” button in the subpanel of that case.

After clicking “Select”, a pop-up window appeared where we could then search and filter through all of the project records in the CRM system. This was very time consuming because there were hundreds of projects associated with all of our clients. In the pop-up window, Sugar has default filters such as “Name”, “Project Type”, and “Project Status”. Because SugarCRM has the ability to filter any field in the Case record, Epicom was able to add a filter for “Account Name”.

Now when you click the “Select” Project button, the search results only show a list of projects associated with the same account as the case. This has greatly reduced the time it takes to find the appropriate project to relate the case to. This filter can also be applied to any “Select” button in Sugar, such as in the Documents, Contacts, and Leads, subpanels.

For more information about filtering search results in SugarCRM’s select menu, email info@epicom.com.

SugarCRM integration with Pardot has been critical to companies in the finance, non-profit, and healthcare industries. Each of the companies mentioned below are Epicom customers. Our engineers consulted with these companies and customized SugarCRM to work uniquely with Pardot for the customers’ specific industry.

FINANCE INDUSTRY
Transcend Capital is a brokerage firm that uses Pardot’s nurture program in combination with a custom web form. The account sign-up form on Transcend’s website is a multi-step process. Several things occur in the background when completing the form, including criminal background screening and integration with Penson Financial.

In addition to pushing information through to the CRM system after each step, the web form is tied to Pardot’s drip marketing program. If a prospect falls out of the application process at any step, they are placed into a particular drip program depending on where they fell out. The company can also capture and track at what step people were dropping out of the application process and can then analyze and report on those metrics.

NON-PROFIT INDUSTRY
The Linux Foundation is the non-profit that serves the Linux developer community and the corporations that are interested in leveraging Linux for their product portfolio. The Linux Foundation is using SugarCRM and made the choice to deploy Pardot because of its ability to handle large quantities of email. The company also wanted to take advantage of the nurture program and more easily segment sponsors, corporations, and the Linux community.

Epicom built a custom module in SugarCRM to store each form submission and categorize what type of activity it is (Training, Education, Membership, etc.).  All new activity from Pardot is automatically synced to SugarCRM and creates the appropriate record depending on what form category it was. The Linux Foundation can then run all of their normal reports for new memberships or number of training inquiries based on these activities. Pardot segmentation lists also sync with target lists in SugarCRM whenever a new activity comes in or a new lead or contact is created.

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Medicat is an electronic health management software built for the college health market. In early 2011, Medicat deployed Pardot to work with its current SugarCRM system and hired its first full-time marketing person. Medicat uses Pardot as a customer communication and retention program through campaigns, webinar registration, monthly newsletters, and auto responders.

Medicat’s monthly newsletter communicates new product features and helpful training resources. From the newsletter, Medicat is able to track what topics are of higher interest and can develop better content accordingly.

Medicat is also using Pardot to host its own virtual conferences through WebEx. They built a landing page in Pardot specific to the event. They also made the agenda click-able and separated each session into links that point to different WebEx registrations. This allowed people to choose specific sessions without having to register for the entire event. It also enabled Medicat to see who attended specific presentations and track that intelligence.

Epicom President and Founder, Bill Harrison, will present these case studies in detail at Pardot’s User Conference on Tuesday, November 15 at 1:45 PM. Stop by to learn how Pardot and SugarCRM are used in different industries. For additional information contact Epicom at info@epicom.com.