Need a Contact Management Template...

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Guest

Hi, let me start by saying I am Very new to Access. :) What I am looking for
is a template for content management. I have found some, but nothing is
exactly what I need. I'm not sure it's even possible. This is what I am
looking for. I have 3 excel spreadsheets with multiple worksheets each.
Each spreadsheet contains info. of our customers like name, co. email, phone
#, etc... This is the problem, one spreadsheet is for quote, the other for
samples given out, and the last is for leads. So actually one person could
be on all three spreadsheets. What I have to do every time someone contacts
us is open all three spreadsheets and update each in the notes section under
their name. Its very annoying. So I just want something where I can search
for a name, then see all the info right there and be able to type it in one
place. (if possible have it transfer to all three spreadsheets also because
they will still need to be used for follow-ups when looking at "all quotes
given between any given dates") So far I have over 5,000 names. So it can
get very confusing if one note is left out of one spreadsheet. Basically, if
you can't understand my ranting, I need help organizing this mess :) Thanks
for any help and just for reading :)
 
This is an Access newsgroup, not an Excel newsgroup.

The design you mentioned would violate normalzed Access design principles.
You would not add three separate records for a 'customer' that falls into
three different categoies.

I'd suggest you start with the Contact Mangement template that is part of
Access.

Sounds like you will need a "Contact Type" table and field. Or you might
want three checkboxes and you can indicate if the customer has gotten
samples or what ever.
 
You really need a commerical Customer Relations Management Software Package
(CRM)

But to put your 'requirements' into Data-Ese ( I try doing this as a first
step in data normalization, state everyting in Noun Has attributes, Noun has
one to many relations with Noun)

(Note: I have made a LOT of assumptions about your business and data, so not
all of the below will apply, but can work as an example)

You have a number of customers
each customer has one to many contacts
each contact has one to many addresses (office1,office2,office3,home,villa
in France), one to many telephones (office, fax, mobile), and one to many
emails (office, home)
you provide customers one to many quotes through one to many contacts, this
could become more complex if a contact can represent more than one company!!

you have a number of 'products'
each product can have one to many 'forms' (size,format,etc)

you provide product samples ('forms') to one to many customers via one to
many contacts

each contact can provide one to many customer leads
each lead has one to many 'followup' actions
each customer lead can become one customer


So we have roughly:

Customers
Contacts
addresses
telephones
emails

Products
ProductForms
SampleProvided
Date
Contact
(may be a lot of other stuff here)
Leads
Date
ReferringContact
(other stuff)
LeadFollowUP
Date
Results
(other stuff here)
Final Disposition (negative, maybe, positive, etc)

Some 'data normalization', building the needed tables, relations, forms, and
reports and you are on your way.

Ed Warren
 
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