follow up calls - how do we manage them?

[Guest]

Hi Dave,

Agreed on all points...and too many more to list here!.....please do let me
know of any inspirations!

Ian

I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,
back-link via the Contacts field in the Task to the Account, and either use
the manual Link to Record in a Task for existing Tasks or the Create new Task
in an Account to achieve bidirectional navigation. This is at least a
workable approach.

In my opinion, the key requirements for BCM's competitive success are to:
1. Integrate BCM with Outlook in such a way that the full functionality of
Outlook is available in BCM and enhanced by the additional functionality
offered with BCM.
2. Support fluid relationship management among contacts (e.g., individuals,
accounts, organizations and roles [including positions]), events (e.g.,
calendar [schedule] & condition [task] driven), processes (opportunities,
sales cycles, delivery cycles) and supporting content (e.g., documents,
folders, attachments, notes, messages). Linkages need to be as automated as
possible to reduce work effort.

Selling and delivering occur in a non-linear fashion that can only be
handled through effective integration and agile management of this kind of
information.

I am also the owner of a small consulting firm and must depend on software
to relieve me of administrative overhead that I don't have time for. BCM
shows glimmers of this vision but needs a more thoughtful and
better-architected approach to achieve it.

If I stumble across any “eurekasâ€, I'll pass them on.

--
DMRC

We have a simple requirement and as yet BCM does not seem to fulfil it. This
is getting very frustrating to the point of ditching the product. Here it is:

We need to be able view a list of follow up calls to accounts (or business
contacts – either will do) that need to be made each day. From that list we
need to drill through to the account and make the call. Sounds simple doesn’t
it? ….You’d think.

Apparently BCM doesn’t support Follow up flags in any meaningful way (due
dates especially), or enable a list view of accounts that can be sorted by
follow up flag “due dateâ€.

Also, Tasks are clearly held outside of BCM and the only way to make a link
that you can drill back to the account with is to manually search and attach
from the contact box on the task.

Yes, I know you can link the task to an account when the task is created
from within the account, but you can’t drill back to the account from the
task (unless you’ve gone through the unnecessarily long process of manually
attaching it first). This makes using tasks in the way we understand it,
unmanageable.

Surely wanting a follow up list sorted by date is standard contact
management functionality.

Sorry for the “rant†but as a company we want to access our list of follow
up calls quickly and make them.

Please help us if you have any good suggestions as to how we can truly make
the best of BCM?

Thank you.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Dave,

Have you had the chance to take a look at the newly released Dynamics MSCRM 3.
0? This new release appears to offer most of what you have stated is needed
in BCM albeit for much more $$$. I wish it did not have to be such an all or
nothing choice because full CRM would be a bit of overkill to make the leap
to financially. The added functionality would be extremely useful despite
that the Microsoft Marketing gurus and apologists keep inaccurately trying to
convince us smaller users that our targeted current needs can be met with BCM.
From the early reviews it appears that MSCRM is far more seamless with
Outlook than the sometimes kludgy fit that BCM provides. Most notably is
that you do not have to maintain 2 separate contact db folders. I'm not sure
I can wait around until mid to late '06 and then likely again be underwhelmed
by the next version of BCM. It's a tough business call that I will have to
make sooner than later.

-THP

I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,
back-link via the Contacts field in the Task to the Account, and either use
the manual Link to Record in a Task for existing Tasks or the Create new Task
in an Account to achieve bidirectional navigation. This is at least a
workable approach.

In my opinion, the key requirements for BCM's competitive success are to:
1. Integrate BCM with Outlook in such a way that the full functionality of
Outlook is available in BCM and enhanced by the additional functionality
offered with BCM.
2. Support fluid relationship management among contacts (e.g., individuals,
accounts, organizations and roles [including positions]), events (e.g.,
calendar [schedule] & condition [task] driven), processes (opportunities,
sales cycles, delivery cycles) and supporting content (e.g., documents,
folders, attachments, notes, messages). Linkages need to be as automated as
possible to reduce work effort.

Selling and delivering occur in a non-linear fashion that can only be
handled through effective integration and agile management of this kind of
information.

I am also the owner of a small consulting firm and must depend on software
to relieve me of administrative overhead that I don't have time for. BCM
shows glimmers of this vision but needs a more thoughtful and
better-architected approach to achieve it.

If I stumble across any “eurekas”, I'll pass them on.

We have a simple requirement and as yet BCM does not seem to fulfil it. This
is getting very frustrating to the point of ditching the product. Here it is:

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

Thank you.

 

[Tim P via OfficeKB.com]

Additional comment:

I just spent some time by phone with Avidian and they are developing a new
Prophet version 3.5 (to soon follow their currently just released v. 3.0)
that will offer a client for Outlook Web Access (OWA). This will make it
even easier for web based, multi-user remote access to data. A lot of the
current challenges for more effective data sharing among multi users will be
resolved. This would be applicable for the data sharing needs of everyone
from the single user entrepreneurial salesperson up to enterprise level of
need. No more synch hassles as everything could be accessed and updated in
real-time. The old days of expensive IT infrastructure requirements to do
this sort of thing are fading fast. For anyone interested in exploring this
alternative go to www.avidian.com. (I do not work for Avidian or benefit
financially from referring to them). If BCM can't or won't be improved in
order to enable greater user adoption, there are certainly some other
alternatives for small business users to consider.

"Necissity is the mother of all invention!"

-THP

Dave,

Have you had the chance to take a look at the newly released Dynamics MSCRM 3.
0? This new release appears to offer most of what you have stated is needed
in BCM albeit for much more $$$. I wish it did not have to be such an all or
nothing choice because full CRM would be a bit of overkill to make the leap
to financially. The added functionality would be extremely useful despite
that the Microsoft Marketing gurus and apologists keep inaccurately trying to
convince us smaller users that our targeted current needs can be met with BCM.
From the early reviews it appears that MSCRM is far more seamless with
Outlook than the sometimes kludgy fit that BCM provides. Most notably is
that you do not have to maintain 2 separate contact db folders. I'm not sure
I can wait around until mid to late '06 and then likely again be underwhelmed
by the next version of BCM. It's a tough business call that I will have to
make sooner than later.

-THP

I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,

[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input Ian & Tim. I'm so busy building a business that I don't
have time to research and migrate to other products right now. Nor am I
prepared at this point to pay more for another one. I have, however, been
reading the remarks on other candidate products such as Avidian's and MSCRM
with interest.

The best product I've ever encountered that allowed rapid and flexible
development and navigation of key relationships was Organizer from Lotus
Notes. It was quite amazing.

--
DMRC

Additional comment:

I just spent some time by phone with Avidian and they are developing a new
Prophet version 3.5 (to soon follow their currently just released v. 3.0)
that will offer a client for Outlook Web Access (OWA). This will make it
even easier for web based, multi-user remote access to data. A lot of the
current challenges for more effective data sharing among multi users will be
resolved. This would be applicable for the data sharing needs of everyone
from the single user entrepreneurial salesperson up to enterprise level of
need. No more synch hassles as everything could be accessed and updated in
real-time. The old days of expensive IT infrastructure requirements to do
this sort of thing are fading fast. For anyone interested in exploring this
alternative go to www.avidian.com. (I do not work for Avidian or benefit
financially from referring to them). If BCM can't or won't be improved in
order to enable greater user adoption, there are certainly some other
alternatives for small business users to consider.

"Necissity is the mother of all invention!"

-THP

Dave,

Have you had the chance to take a look at the newly released Dynamics MSCRM 3.
0? This new release appears to offer most of what you have stated is needed
in BCM albeit for much more $$$. I wish it did not have to be such an all or
nothing choice because full CRM would be a bit of overkill to make the leap
to financially. The added functionality would be extremely useful despite
that the Microsoft Marketing gurus and apologists keep inaccurately trying to
convince us smaller users that our targeted current needs can be met with BCM.
From the early reviews it appears that MSCRM is far more seamless with
Outlook than the sometimes kludgy fit that BCM provides. Most notably is
that you do not have to maintain 2 separate contact db folders. I'm not sure
I can wait around until mid to late '06 and then likely again be underwhelmed
by the next version of BCM. It's a tough business call that I will have to
make sooner than later.

-THP

I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,

[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

HI GUYS - This is the first time i have posted here so i wonder if the people
originally writing here about follow up calls and the like, will pick this up
again as i have read with considerable interest having experienced the same
problems.

One thing that i dont think has been covered but baffles me the most about
this subject is the felds (Columns) in the task view. For example in the
'simple list' view you get a colomn for 'subject' and one for 'due date'.

To get the account or contact phone number related to that task you have to
drill through.... but cant you add colomns via right clicking on the task
header and choosing 'customise current view', then clicking 'fields' and
choosing 'account', 'contact tel' etc so that it appears next to the
'subject' and 'due date' in the main task view????

I have tried to do this, the columns do appear, but no information is
entered in the fields, even though the task and the account or contact are
properly linked....

Am i missing the point??? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

Additional comment:

I just spent some time by phone with Avidian and they are developing a new
Prophet version 3.5 (to soon follow their currently just released v. 3.0)
that will offer a client for Outlook Web Access (OWA). This will make it
even easier for web based, multi-user remote access to data. A lot of the
current challenges for more effective data sharing among multi users will be
resolved. This would be applicable for the data sharing needs of everyone
from the single user entrepreneurial salesperson up to enterprise level of
need. No more synch hassles as everything could be accessed and updated in
real-time. The old days of expensive IT infrastructure requirements to do
this sort of thing are fading fast. For anyone interested in exploring this
alternative go to www.avidian.com. (I do not work for Avidian or benefit
financially from referring to them). If BCM can't or won't be improved in
order to enable greater user adoption, there are certainly some other
alternatives for small business users to consider.

"Necissity is the mother of all invention!"

-THP

Dave,

Have you had the chance to take a look at the newly released Dynamics MSCRM 3.
0? This new release appears to offer most of what you have stated is needed
in BCM albeit for much more $$$. I wish it did not have to be such an all or
nothing choice because full CRM would be a bit of overkill to make the leap
to financially. The added functionality would be extremely useful despite
that the Microsoft Marketing gurus and apologists keep inaccurately trying to
convince us smaller users that our targeted current needs can be met with BCM.
From the early reviews it appears that MSCRM is far more seamless with
Outlook than the sometimes kludgy fit that BCM provides. Most notably is
that you do not have to maintain 2 separate contact db folders. I'm not sure
I can wait around until mid to late '06 and then likely again be underwhelmed
by the next version of BCM. It's a tough business call that I will have to
make sooner than later.

-THP

I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,

[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Hi Lexicon,

I don't think your'e missing anything beacuse it's the same here.

Makes no sense to me either.

Ian

HI GUYS - This is the first time i have posted here so i wonder if the people
originally writing here about follow up calls and the like, will pick this up
again as i have read with considerable interest having experienced the same
problems.

One thing that i dont think has been covered but baffles me the most about
this subject is the felds (Columns) in the task view. For example in the
'simple list' view you get a colomn for 'subject' and one for 'due date'.

To get the account or contact phone number related to that task you have to
drill through.... but cant you add colomns via right clicking on the task
header and choosing 'customise current view', then clicking 'fields' and
choosing 'account', 'contact tel' etc so that it appears next to the
'subject' and 'due date' in the main task view????

I have tried to do this, the columns do appear, but no information is
entered in the fields, even though the task and the account or contact are
properly linked....

Am i missing the point??? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Kevin

Additional comment:

I just spent some time by phone with Avidian and they are developing a new
Prophet version 3.5 (to soon follow their currently just released v. 3.0)
that will offer a client for Outlook Web Access (OWA). This will make it
even easier for web based, multi-user remote access to data. A lot of the
current challenges for more effective data sharing among multi users will be
resolved. This would be applicable for the data sharing needs of everyone
from the single user entrepreneurial salesperson up to enterprise level of
need. No more synch hassles as everything could be accessed and updated in
real-time. The old days of expensive IT infrastructure requirements to do
this sort of thing are fading fast. For anyone interested in exploring this
alternative go to www.avidian.com. (I do not work for Avidian or benefit
financially from referring to them). If BCM can't or won't be improved in
order to enable greater user adoption, there are certainly some other
alternatives for small business users to consider.

"Necissity is the mother of all invention!"

-THP

Dave,

Have you had the chance to take a look at the newly released Dynamics MSCRM 3.
0? This new release appears to offer most of what you have stated is needed
in BCM albeit for much more $$$. I wish it did not have to be such an all or
nothing choice because full CRM would be a bit of overkill to make the leap
to financially. The added functionality would be extremely useful despite
that the Microsoft Marketing gurus and apologists keep inaccurately trying to
convince us smaller users that our targeted current needs can be met with BCM.
From the early reviews it appears that MSCRM is far more seamless with
Outlook than the sometimes kludgy fit that BCM provides. Most notably is
that you do not have to maintain 2 separate contact db folders. I'm not sure
I can wait around until mid to late '06 and then likely again be underwhelmed
by the next version of BCM. It's a tough business call that I will have to
make sooner than later.

-THP



I'd like to thank Ian, Tim and joeycan for confirming my opportunity tracking
experience with BCM & Outlook. I employ reusable Tasks for reminders,
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Ian,

I noticed you responded on March 3rd and hope the "team" is still active.

Was the question ever answered for "supporting Follow up flags in any
meaningful way (due dates especially), or enable a list view of accounts that
can be sorted by
follow up flag “due date�??

Is there a fix on the way from MS and a date when this will be available?

Is there an acceptable work around for now?

Any comments on the http://www.slovaktech.com/ product? (I am a little leary
installing other applpications as I do not have time to spend debugging
problems.)

Carl

 

[Guest]

Hi Carl,

In my view the follow up flags seem to have no function at all other than to
allow you to put a coloured flag against something. The dates seem to mean
nothing and so this is if no use in the real world.

I have no idea whether MS will address this.

To handle follow ups within BCM, we use Outlook Tasks.

When you create a Task, you can cut and paste the account or contact name
into the contact field (bottom left) of the Task. When the Task is due, you
can click on the contact field which will drill through to BCM and the
appropriate contact. It’s a bit clunky but works.

Hope this helps.

Ian