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4 Replies Last post: Apr 9, 2008 4:50 PM by M.Amores

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Need help: CRM application collaboration tips

Mar 19, 2008 6:04 PM

Start-up

j_glass 1 posts since
Mar 19, 2008

Hello all,

We're a small company with just 5 salespeople (plus a sales manager). We use salesforce.com to manage each of our accounts, leads, contacts, cases, etc. I'm hoping to get advice on how to efficiently address one of the issues we're facing.

Oftentimes, the same object (say, an account or a case) is modified by more than some one else. Example: the manager may be on the phone with a customer, and may discover that a case has been resolved, so she'll change the status of the case to 'closed', though the case is owned by one her salespeople. This is fine (we're a very informal company), except that the salesperson who actually owns the 'object' is unaware of this. We resolve this by the usual means: phone calls, emails ('Hey, I just updated the status info in this case'), text messages, or daily team meetings.

Do you run into a similar issue (not necessarily with salesforce.com, but with any CRM suite that has multiple modules with shared objects)? If so, what are your tips and tricks to collaborate about such changes?

Thanks,
John

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SCORE

LUCKIEST 5,368 posts since
Aug 6, 2007

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1. Re: Need help: CRM application collaboration tips Mar 20, 2008 6:50 AM

Welcome to this web site and most interesting question.
You are a small company with just 5 salespeople, hopefully your small company will grow.
All companies need an employees handbook or manual.
The handbook covers holidays, vacation time, sick leave, office procedures etc
The handbook covers many different situations and changes as new problems come to light.
Do you know about SCORE?? SCORE is FREE
Hope this helps. LUCKIEST

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Mogul

Lighthouse24 2,113 posts since
Oct 10, 2007

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2. Re: Need help: CRM application collaboration tips Mar 20, 2008 12:51 PM

Yes, very common situation. I'm not familiar with salesforce.com specifically, but most systems provide rules and rights that allow you to define what can be done to an object or work package record, by whom, and what notifications are initiated when specific actions like updating or closing a work package are taken. In effect, these rules either prevent the conflict from occurring, or prompt the relevant people to chase down a potential conflict in real time (rather than discovering/resolving it later).

Smaller organizations are sometimes not aware of all the administrative features and functions that reside in the background of CRM applications (or any system, for that matter -- most e-mail users never look at all the nifty administrative features and functions those systems provide). Most of us just tend to jump in and start using a software tool for the things we need it to do immediately without digging in to the underlying capabilities. I'm not saying this is the case with your group or the salesforce product, but then again, a solution might already be "built in." Hopefully, a community member who knows that product can elaborate (this post will at least boost the question back to the first page for a bit).

Welcome to the community. Best wishes.

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Professional

IGoCRMI 5 posts since
Mar 27, 2008

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3. Re: Need help: CRM application collaboration tips Mar 27, 2008 3:48 AM

John -

We typically configure business rules for our clients that will notify the owner, or a group, when any changes have been made. If there are a lot of touches to the record, this may make email unsuitable, in which case you can probably craft some reports to view daily which detail the changes. SF has a pretty good reporting mechanism, and you can probably have reports emailed out daily with a change log for each of the modules affected.

Tim

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M.Amores 1 posts since
Apr 9, 2008

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4. Re: Need help: CRM application collaboration tips Apr 9, 2008 4:50 PM

John,

I too run a small business, and my first suggestion is going to be that using Salesforce for such a small amount of users isen't worth it. I ran into a similar problem using Salesforce. I also found them far too expensive compared to other CRM and web-collaboration applications. Instead I've been using a company called Infostreet, they're product is called Streetsmart7. Even though their CRM isen't as complex as that of Salesforce, i haven't run into any issues. Concerning the issue on status notifications, this CRM automatically notifies the creater of the account, for whom it was created for, and the watch list whenever a change is made. They charge roughly 10$ per user. It also includes other tools that you might find helpful, I haven't been able to play around with all of them, but they include applications like shared calendering and task management, things of that sort. www.infostreet.com is their homepage, they also offer a free demo.

Best of Luck,
Amores.

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