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This text refers to program version 8.4  

CRM Example - Contact Management

This page uses an example to illustrate the Task Manager in day-to-day use. Please follow the links below for further examples:
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Every morning, Françoise French will open the Task Manager (i.e. her 'To Do' list). She can do this in two ways:

  1. She can click (Windows/Mac OS X) or tap (iOS/Android) the [Tasks] button in the Navigation Centre:

  2. If she has Tasks that should have been carried out before today, the Task Manager will be opened automatically when she logs in.
If she has Tasks that should have been carried out before today, the [Tasks] button will have a red counter as illustrated above. If she only has tasks that should be carried out today, the [Tasks] button will have a green counter.

When the Task Manager opens, it will list Activities whose Task Type is To Do that have been assigned to Françoise. In practice, it is a list of the Activities that Françoise is to carry out by the end of the day (including Activities from previous days that have not been completed). Activities that have been marked as Done are not shown.

If the list is a long one, Françoise could reduce it to show Activities of a particular Type, Customer and/or Priority using the fields above the list. This option is not available on iOS or Android.

When Françoise carries out one of these planned Activities, she will double-click or tap the appropriate row to open the corresponding record in the Activity register. She can then remind herself of the details of the Activity before carrying it out. She does this now for the first Activity in the list.

When she has finished the task, she can record the Result in the field towards the top right of the window and mark the Activity as Done by marking the check box in the top right-hand corner:

In this case, the call was made successfully and the Customer expressed interest in the products Françoise was selling. She recorded this interest is recorded in the Activity record, using the grid on the 'Text' card:

When she saves and closes the Activity, the Task Manager will be updated automatically. The Activity will be removed, since Activities that have been marked as Done are usually not listed:

Sometimes, it will not be necessary to open an Activity in order to complete it. The Task Manager itself displays sufficient information to carry out the work, including any notes and comments already entered on the 'Text' card. You can read these notes by clicking the arrow icon to the left of the Activity Text (again, this option is not available on iOS or Android). Françoise does this for the first Activity in the list:

When she has completed the task, if there is no need to enter a Result, to enter more notes or to create a new follow-on Activity by duplication, Françoise can tick the check box in the 'Mark' column:

By ticking the check box, Françoise has marked the Activity as one that should be updated by her next action. If she now saves the Task Manager (by selecting 'Save Changes' from the Task Manager's Operations menu, by pressing the Shift-Enter key combination or by selecting 'Save' from the Record menu), the Activity will be marked as Done and removed from the Task Manager list. Of course, she could tick the check boxes in several rows before saving.

On reviewing her Task Manager, Françoise decides to call Joseph Conrad at the Against All Odds Trading Co. She opens the Activity by double-clicking or tapping to remind herself of the details.

The Text field in the header shows her that she is to make the call to follow up a Quotation that has already been sent, to try to convert it into an Order. In fact, Françoise created the Activity when she sent the Quotation to the Customer, using the 'Workflow Activity' function on the Create menu of the Quotation window. This function automatically connects the Quotation to the Activity. In the Activity, the [Link Manager] button is shaded and so reminds Françoise that it has an linked record:

When viewing the Activity, Françoise can easily remind herself of the details of the Quotation by clicking or tapping this button to open a list of linked records:

Then she double-clicks or taps the Quotation in the list. The Quotation is opened:

Françoise is able to convert the Quotation into an Order. From the Create menu of the Quotation window, she selects 'Order'. An Order is created and opened:

From the Task Manager, therefore, Françoise has been able to move into the Quotation and Sales Order modules, quickly and easily find the Quotation she wanted, and generate an Order, all in single steps. She could now print an Order Authorisation, close the Order and Quotation windows, mark the Activity as Done with a suitable Result, save and close it and finally return to the Task Manager.

At other times during the day, Françoise will be contacted by several of her Customers. By entering an Activity for each contact or event, she will quickly build up a contact history for each Customer. This means that if, for example, someone from New World Import/Export Co calls to complain about a missing delivery of goods, she will easily be able to call up a list of recent Activities in relation to Mr Wang's company. This list would include both her own contacts with the New World Import/Export Co and those of other members of staff.

One way Françoise can do this is to use the 'Filter' card of the Task Manager (this option is not available on iOS or Android). She can remove her Signature from the Person field, enter "002" as the Customer (using 'Paste Special' to select the correct one if necessary) and choose to view Done Activities using the fourth column of options. She will then see a complete contact history for Customer 002:

She can double-click or tap any Activity to see more details if necessary.

An alternative method would be to produce an 'Activities, Contacts' report for Customer 002 from the CRM module:

The detailed version of the report is illustrated.

In both cases, Françoise can see at a glance the comments recorded on the 'Text' card of each Activity. Both show the Activities carried out and entered by different Persons over the time period, and are excellent tools to be used to sort out any queries or mistakes in relation to a series of events, providing, of course, that each member of staff has conscientiously entered a record of each task they have carried out.

As with all reports in Standard ERP, the 'Activities, Contacts' report contains a Search facility that you can use to look for occurrences of a particular word or words in the report. The production of this report can of course be followed by other reports, after searching for related information. Several reports can be kept on the screen at the same time, which adds a tremendous flexibility and power to the system. Françoise can also click or tap on an Activity Number in the left-hand column to open an Activity record.

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