Looking up at the sky on a clear night, you can see hundreds of thousands of stars, comets, planets and other astral bodies in the sky. To the untrained eye this has no discernible pattern or form. But to an astrologer or astronaut this is their playground, a world to explore, visit and understand.

A CRM solution offers a similar challenge. With an ever expanding galaxy of modules, functions, features, add-ons and more, making your CRM more sophisticated by the day.

With this in mind, it is important to not lose sight of the fact that that your CRM remains as straightforward to use as it

Read more ...

• NO major cash outlay
  
  
• NO upgrade expenses
  
  
• NO maintenance costs
  
  
• NO closing times
  
  
• NO new technology infrastructure
  
  
• NO long-term commitment

Means a big YES when you are looking at and evaluating a hosted CRM solution such as OpenCRM

I just love this quote and I was reminded of it this morning with some news about a project we did not win that is now back on our radar - honest I am not gloating but its a good reminder for any business.

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur" Red Adair.

One great feature of CRM is the capacity to maintain your calendar in the cloud and to plan your calls, meetings and tasks – those that are imminent, recurring tasks and the longer-term projects, as well as storing details of those jobs you have successfully completed. This becomes an incredibly powerful tool when you start implementing shared calendars.

Sharing a calendar means you can see what your colleagues have planned. If you are delegating activities a quick glance at the team calendar lets you know who is free and when. If you want to plan a team meeting you can slot that quickly

Read more ...

A large database on a CRM solution contains a massive amount of information. To sort through this and filter and search for records you need potentially means a lot of work. This is where using Views and Reports come into effect.

Views are essentially pre-saved searches, offering the results you need without having to go through the search motions. This means you can create endless numbers of views and filter the data as precisely as you need.

Want a list of invoices that are due this week? No problem. Does your sales rep need a list of all accounts in his catchment area that he hasn’t

Read more ...