Integration Between Zoho Apps: Part III

Integration Between Zoho Apps: Part III: "

​This year we have focused a lot ​on contextual ​​​​​​​​​​​integration. This includes integration between Zoho Apps as well as ​integration with ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​external apps. I want to briefly highlight​​​​​​​​ some of the new integrations between Zoho Apps​​ (also check Part I, Part II).

Zoho Wiki Integration with Zoho Projects

Zoho Wiki & Projects are two different types of collaboration tools. But when you have a need to collaboratively ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​create content, then our Zoho Wiki integration with Zoho Projects can be really handy. Content can now be created in the context of the project you are working on. More details on this integration is available ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​here.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Zoho Chat integration with Zoho Projects & CRM

As we mentioned previously, Zoho Chat is one of those apps that is integrated with most of our apps. This year, we integrated it with Zoho Projects as well as Zoho CRM. In case of Zoho Projects, we also enabled group chat between members of the project. More info here.

Zoho Creator integration with Zoho CRM & Invoice​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Integrating Zoho Creator with our business apps is a frequently requested feature. We started this effort by taking some small initial steps by integrating Creator with CRM (more details) and Invoice (more details). Moving forward, we plan expand this integration.

Zoho Reports integration with Zoho Creator

While Creator is integrated with other Apps on one side, we also have complementary apps like Zoho Reports integrate with Creator. Users collect lots of data using their Creator apps. If you need to build reports from the collected data, you can do so with our Reports integration. More details are available here.

Tasks Integration with Projects & CRM

Zoho Tasks is one of those small applications that is part of our Zoho Mail Suite. We also have Tasks option in some of our other apps like CRM, Projects etc. We integrated tasks from other apps in Zoho Tasks providing an aggregated view of all your tasks.

Zoho Search

​We launched Zoho Search this year. While a typical Search cannot be called integration, our actionable search is different. From the search results page, it opens the relevant application to open the content. An email result found in search is opened with Zoho Mail with options to respond to the email. Similarly, a document can be opened directly from a search result and can even be shared with other users right from the search interface. More information is available here.

​​​​​​​​

Zoho Mail & Zoho CRM

We talked about this couple of times, but is worth another mention. Email integration with CRM can be great if done right. But there are many many vendors doing CRM and Email. As we do both, this puts Zoho in a unique position and we are able to integrate Zoho CRM with Zoho Mail as well as other email systems.

When you view the contact information of your customer in CRM, won't it be useful to also view the email exchanges you have had with that customer and may be even send out an email right from the CRM system? That was the thought behind this integration and we now have a good tight integration between these systems. More information about this is available here.​

Related Posts:
Integration between Zoho Apps: Part II
Integration between Zoho Apps: Part I

"

Link to Folder from Contact Field

If you have a folder for a client, or a folder of important documents, and don't necessarily want to attach each and every document to an ACT! record, this field use "trick" will help.  Using a URL field, you can actually type in a directory path, and - when clicked - will open an Explorer window to that directory.

Updated Free Group Count AddOn Released

I've released an update to the free Group Count AddOn.  The new version keeps the functionality of the original - to quickly view a count of a Group and it's sub-groups - but adds a few features requested by users.

Specifically:

• it will create a Group_Count field that can be added to a layout or a column in the Group List view
• creates a new menu item that goes through all the groups and subgroups, counts members, and puts the value in the Group_Count field, or in a Note under the Group record (depending on type of database)
• it auto-sizes the bottom left panel on the status bar - which allows you to view the entire group name instead of cutting it off
• additionally, in that lower left panel, it also automatically shows the number of contacts in the current group [e.g. "Customers has 141 members"] as you click on each group

More info is on my site.  Remember, it's a free addon, please enjoy and pass info along to colleagues and associates.

Sage ACT! 2011 Premium Review from PCMag.com

Sage ACT! 2011 is less of an overhaul than an enhancement of last year's excellent offering. Improved Outlook integration, excellent SMB services, and general improvements throughout make the latest ACT! the ultimate contact management tool.

Full Review Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Lookup Contact Activity - Keep track of who's slipping through the cracks

There's a somewhat hidden search option in ACT! that allows you to search almost all areas of a contact record for the last time that contact was edited.  This search option can help you find those contacts that haven't been "touched" in a while, and not let them slip away.

Professionals, amateurs and the great unwashed

If you want something done, perhaps you would ask a professional to do it. Someone who costs a lot but is worth more than they charge. Someone who shows up even when she doesn't feel like it. Someone who stands behind her work, gets better over time and is quite serious indeed about the transaction.

Or perhaps you could hire a passionate amateur. That's a forum leader doing it for love, not money. An obsessive in love with the craft. A talented person willing to trade income for the chance to do what he loves, with freedom.

Please, though, don't hire someone who just thinks it's a job. This category represents the majority of your options, and this category is what gives work a bad name.

Editing Drop Down Lists

One of the best ways to make ACT! by Sage "your own" and speed up data entry, and searching, is to customize drop-down boxes field choices - or List Values - to better match your business needs. Eliminating excess tags, or changing existing values cleans up the screen, and gets you to important data quicker.

ACT! E-marketing Extreme Makeover

ACT! E-marketing is getting an extreme makeover with the upcoming launch of Sage ACT! 2011, starting with its name. From now on, our E-marketing service will be known as 'Sage E-marketing for ACT!.' This will help us be consistent when we roll out additional services for E-marketing and other categories.

Along with the name change, Sage E-marketing for ACT! will have a new icon on the contact, company, and group toolbars - a more stylized version of the current users have seen, which conveys a greater sense of motion or action as well as a consistent style with other ACT! icons. Go check it out!

But the makeover doesn't end there - there's lots of new features inside Sage E-marketing for ACT!, including:

• Integration with Smart Tasks Sage E-marketing comes integrated with ACT! 2011 smart tasks out of the box. When you're designing smart tasks, you can easily add a step to send an e-mail or add a contact to a drip campaign and directly access your email templates and campaigns. Talk about a personal assistant!
• Ability to edit imported templates At long last! Sage E-marketing for ACT! now includes an Advanced Editor which can edit imported templates. Instead of having to make edits using the source tool and re-import, customers will be able to apply edits to the already imported templates. Customers who regularly import templates are going to love this!
• Landing pages You can now publish email templates as landing pages, bringing sophisticated campaign capabilities to your fingertips. Don't have time or money to add web pages to your website? Create them instantly and let Sage E-marketing for ACT! host them for you!
• A new template manager Sage E-marketing for ACT! has a new template manager which makes your life much easier. Organizing, publishing, and distributing email templates is much easier. And you can upload images and documents into a library for repeated use. Speaking of documents - you can now link PowerPoint, Excel, and text files to your templates in addition to pdfs!

The Engine Behind Smart Tasks #SageACT

By now you’re already super excited about the Sage ACT! 2011 (used to be ACT! by Sage) pre-loaded Smart Tasks that let you automate your marketing and sales activities. This new functionality alone provides unmatched levels of productivity in Sage ACT!. But there’s more there: a much larger foundation is part of Sage ACT! for Smart Tasks.

Underneath the flexible user interface to manage smart tasks, and supporting the execution of Smart Task steps, lies a very powerful workflow engine. The technology supporting Smart Tasks is Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation, a technology leveraged by several CRM products across the industry. For Sage ACT!, that means enjoying capabilities that have blossomed and evolved (e.g. persistence, scheduling, and support of visual design). It also means Sage ACT! can support a range of scenarios: from the automation of steps in-product to enterprise-level workflows. That’s right, custom, complex workflows can be created outside of Sage ACT! and be run in Sage ACT!, for unique customer specified business processes, or flexible system integration. That’s just a taste of what can be accomplished by partners and third-parties alike with Smart Tasks in Sage ACT! 2011.

If you’re technical savvy and want to learn more, stay tuned for Developing Custom Steps for Smart Tasks webinar next month.

Keeping Track of Lookups

One of the most common tasks in ACT! is to create a lookup of either an individual contact, or a group based on some criteria (e.g. Prospects, people in NH, contacts named Bob, etc).  Performing a lookup returns a contact list, but when you go to another contact, narrow the lookup, click on a Company name, or most other navigational options, you loose your original list.

Instead of going through the steps to re-create the contact list, ACT! keeps track of the last 9 lookups you perform, allowing you to navigate between lists and/or contacts.  To get to this option, just click Lookup>Previous on the menu, and you will see a list of your past commands:

Using ACT! by Sage to Track Events & Job Duties

Had a unique request from a client the other day - to attach existing contacts to an event, and assign them to particular tasks/jobs.  In this example, the event was a day-long fundraiser that included a cookout, info tables, and other activities.  By using a Company record and Relationships, here's what we did to configure ACT! to track the event.

Integrating E-marketing with ACT! 2011

ACT! 2011 has a cool new feature called Smart Tasks. Smart Tasks help you manage simple tasks that you do every day. Smart Tasks are intelligent, too, so you can combine multiple steps into a single task to keep you focused on the important things - much like a personal assistant! Here's the best news: you can use Smart Tasks with Sage E-marketing for ACT! (the service formerly known as ACT! E-marketing) to make your personal assistant even more powerful!

Here's an example: maybe you have a regular welcome email that you send to new contacts after you add them to the database. Without Smart Tasks, you wouild have to call up the E-marketing interface, select a template, type in the subject line, choose the contact(s), and send the e-mail. With Smart Tasks, you can store the email template and subject line and then just fire the smart task whenever you need to! You can even incorporate this type of functionality into a multi-step Smart Task, so that clearing one step (for example, making a phone call) initiates the next step (send a thank you email).

There are several Smart Task samples that come with ACT! 2011 that will help you try this out. If you send certain E-marketing templates frequently, you'll want to create Smart Tasks to help you save time and effort.

Please give it a try once you have ACT! 2011, and be sure to tell us how it works for you!

Sage ACT! 2011 - What's New

Sage ACT! 2011 helps you get more of what you value most—time
and money—by automating key activities and unlocking a rich source of new
leads.

---

Sage ACT! Overview

Sage ACT! 2011 contact
management software helps you get more of what you value most—time and money—by automating key activities and unlocking a rich source of new leads. Let Smart Tasks handle the things you need to get done every day. Think of it as a personal assistant that sends emails for you and puts activities on your calendar so your customers get the service they expect.

ACT! and SQL Server Firewall Rules

While ACT! is the program you are "seeing" on the screen, the data is hosted on a Microsoft SQL Server database - possibly on your computer, possibly on a server, depending on your setup. Often when ACT! "doesn't work", or is "broken", it's really just a simple network connection issue, or more likely an issue with SQL Server.

Zoho CRM Professional Edition

Zoho's suite of full-featured, online collaboration tools has matured quite a bit over the past several years. The service rivals Google Docs in its power and sophistication. The company's foray into CRM (customer relationship management) software is slightly less successful, as I found in my tests. Even so, the service offers a highly functional system at a very low price, and is particularly effective for existing Zoho users as well as current Google Apps customers.

Editions and Pricing
Zoho offers three basic CRM packages.

New Features are Coming! New Features are Coming!

ACT! E-marketing is getting a makeover, and you'll be able to enjoy the results soon. The enhancements are centered around the template editor, which will have a new look and feel and add some new capabilities as well. The most significant change is that you will now be able to edit imported html templates. Hooray! And with the new editor, you will find it easier to organize and manage your templates as well.

In addition, we've added image and document libraries so you can store commonly used graphics and documents for use with your templates. This makes the editing process much simpler. Documents like Powerpoint slides and Word documents can be stored on the serviers and linked into your template for your email recipients to download easily.

But wait, there's more... (I've always wanted to say that)! Swiftpage has added a fantastic new feature: email templates can be published as landing pages, so you can add an online element to your campaign with the same look and feel as your emails! And best of all, Swiftpage hosts the landing page for you! You have to try this out...

Swiftpage has been hard at work developing and beta-testing these features for months now, and they're about to be unveiled. Watch for a formal announcement soon!

3 SwiftPage Tricks to Help your eMarketing

If you want to get better use out of SwiftPage eMarketing, here's three tips & tricks that are easy to implement. Additionally, if you are currently using another email marketing program such as ConstantContact, you might want to take a look at SwiftPage (if you're an ACT! user, or keep all your contacts in Excel, it's a must!!!) - contact me and I can show you the benefits of switching.

What’s New in ACT! by Sage 2011

Automate key activities. Sage ACT! Smart Tasks handle the things you need to get done every day. Think of it like a personal assistant that sends e-mails for you and puts activities on your calendar so your customers get the service they expect, with little work required by you. Smart Tasks just get it done.

Unlock a rich source of new leads. Add rocket fuel to your sales and marketing machine with Sage ACT! Business Info*. Sage ACT! Business Info pulls highly targeted prospect lists and business info from Hoover’s™ and puts it directly into Sage ACT!. It helps you fill in the gaps in your database and gives you access to more than 65 million companies and 85 million executives.

Eliminate double entry. Sage ACT! manages all the details of your business relationships and Microsoft® Outlook® manages emails, basic contact details, and meetings across your team. Now you can have the best of both worlds and share your Outlook and Sage ACT! contacts and calendar using two-way sync.

Also, get in-depth information about Sage ACT! E-marketing:
With Sage ACT! E-marketing, you can do so much more than simply send emails and track open rates. It’s about knowing your customers. Capture leads with web forms on your website, nurture those prospects automatically with Drip Marketing plans, and quickly identify your hottest leads using a ranked call list that tells you which prospects are most interested—right from the contact record in Sage ACT!.
See if a demo roadshow is coming near you...

The History Behind Nimble

The History Behind Nimble

When to Upgrade

While you are used to your CRM program, it's ins and outs, quirks and nuances, there does come a time when you either want to, or have to, upgrade.  I've been working in the IT industry since 1994, and believe there are 4 main reasons why people upgrade - not just CRM systems, but office suites, browsers, operating systems, etc.

Social CRM: Does it mean what it says?

This is a good article describing other facets of CRM - namely that it's not only pre-sales and sales process software, but keeping in touch with your clients as well *after* purchase.  By integrating social media you can track what they are "talking about" and react to their needs.

Social CRM: Does it mean what it says?

Attaching Documents Quick Tip

If you use Companies (i.e. where the Company Name is it's own record, and Contacts are linked to that Company), and you attach documents, then you've noticed that attaching documents on the contact record Document tab only show up for that contact, and are not shared across the Company record.  Here's how to fix this...

Put those outdated or extra computers to good use

Do you have extra/outdated computers (or just hard drives) in your storage room/garage that you don't know what to do with? Tired of wasting time looking for data, not knowing in which drive it resides? Tired of not having your data accessible to all computers all the time?  Would you like a central location for important files and backups?  NAS - Network Attached Storage - is what you need, and it can be done for little, or no, cost.

Create a Google Map from ACT! Contact List

Creating a Google Map from a Contact List can be done in just a few clicks with two simple ACT! AddOns. Using the ACT2Excel add-on from CRM AddOns ($69*), and a free Excel template from the Batch Geocode website, we’ll do a simple export to excel, where the mapping will take place.

The bulk of the work is actually done in Excel, defining the cells that will hold the address data. The spreadsheet comes with some sample data, which you’ll want to delete, then replace the Address, City, ST, and ZIP fields with the corresponding ACT! field, and save. Then, it’s back to ACT! to create a contact list and export it to the template you just edited. When Excel opens up, you’ll have the list - address, city, state, and zip - in an Excel sheet.

Finally, just a button press in Excel will create the map. The image below is 5 addresses from the ACTDemo database:

Click here to download the Excel file - GMapsInExcel. Of course, you’ll need the add-on to put the whole thing together, but you can experiment with this template. Please contact me with any questions or comments! Hope this helps…

* Note: this ACT2Excel add-on is a must-have for ACT! users. You can perform customized data exports, create invoices/quotes, execute calculations which can then automatically populate fields back into ACT!, and much more. Check out their page for all the details…

ACT! Dialer with VoIP

Back in the "old" days, all you had to do is go to Tools>Preferences, and on the Communications tab click the Dialer button and tell ACT! the modem to use (if it hadn't already), and the dialing preferences, and you were able to dial a contact's phone number within ACT!  VoIP does not use a modem, so here's how to keep (or recapture) that functionality...

Save Report Filters - Get Report Faster

If you run reports often, you are very familiar with the window that comes up when you start a report - the “General” tab to choose output format and contact lookup, and the other Note/History/Opportunity/Activites/etc tabs where you need to specify both the date range and type of information to output to the report. Furthermore, if you utilize reports often, you find yourself performing the same clicking/selecting on every tab editing dates and checkboxes to get the same report run time after time.

There’s a shortcut to these options, and it’s in the report editor. Go to Reports>Edit Template…, and choose the report you want to edit. When the report editor loads, choose Edit>Define Filters:

This will bring up the same familiar window you get when pulling a report. However, now when you select your criteria - e.g. Send the report to an HTML file using the Current Lookup for All Users, and only select Notes and History for the Current Week - and save the report, those setting will be your defaults for that specific report. If you want the same report format, just with different selections, save the report template with another name. You can have “Notes/History by Week”, “Notes/History by Month”, and so on.

As a bonus, you can also take the most common reports and put that specific report as an icon on the toolbar:

• Right-Click the toolbar, choose Customize
• click the 5th tab - Custom Commands and choose "New"
• Give the command a name, click Browse, navigate to your reports folder, and choose a report (might have to show all files) This is your "command line"
• Now, go back to the 2nd tab - Commands and choose Custom Commands from the "Categories"
• The name and command line you specified on the 5th tab will be in there.  Click and drag the new command to any spot on the toolbar.

That's it, your custom filtered specific report is now one-click away from running.

Find the steps you seem to repeat over and over on a regular basis, and look for ways to make that process more efficient. Chances are, it can be done in ACT! Hope this helps…