I guess I have been to busy trying to pull some things together to post any blogs recently. I have been working on allot of pretty cool things; in my book anyways.. Which I will be sharing shortly.
Mostly I have spent the month of July hanging out with my family and enjoying the sunshine.
But soon it is back to the races..
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Lead Generation Tool for SugarCRM
After playing around with Sugar's impressive UI for awhile I decided I would try my hand at developing a little C# application around Sugar's Web Service and the WhitePages API.
With this handy little tool I only need to enter in a business phone number and it looks up the rest of the information using the White Pages API. After adding in additional information such as the company website or other contact information within a single click I can submit the info into Sugars Lead Module and now I am ready to send out emailing and mailings with my sales letters or offers.
I currently have armed my twenty something sister with this tool and the local yellow pages; with very specific instructions on which ones to target.
All she needs to do is: Enter in the business phone number, click the reverse lookup button, verify the information and submit to Sugar.
She is happy because she doesn't have to hand enter the information into a spreadsheet or directly into the CRM package and I know that their are no mistakes in the entry form.
With this handy little tool I only need to enter in a business phone number and it looks up the rest of the information using the White Pages API. After adding in additional information such as the company website or other contact information within a single click I can submit the info into Sugars Lead Module and now I am ready to send out emailing and mailings with my sales letters or offers.
I currently have armed my twenty something sister with this tool and the local yellow pages; with very specific instructions on which ones to target.
All she needs to do is: Enter in the business phone number, click the reverse lookup button, verify the information and submit to Sugar.
She is happy because she doesn't have to hand enter the information into a spreadsheet or directly into the CRM package and I know that their are no mistakes in the entry form.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Installing SugarCRM on gOS
It was several weeks ago I was thumbing through the magazine rack at my local grocery store when I saw the Google magazine that includes g OS. I decided to pick it up and check it out. The magazine had some cool articles about Google app's and also included gOS which is a Googlified version of Ubuntu. Since I had been so focused on work the past few weeks I never had a chance to check it out in depth.
I had two old desktop machines that were out of commission for one reason or another that I decided to get the electrons flowing through again.
I started installing Vista on one of them and gOS on the other (slower machine.) Of course the installation of Vista completed way after the installation of Ubuntu.
While I was still waiting around for Vista to finish the initial copying of files from the DVD I decided to try and install the community version of SugarCRM onto the Ubuntu machine. It was a pretty straight forwarf installation, but following these installation instructions I found online helped out allot.
I have been doing some searching on the internet for the past few days looking at all my options for a good CRM package. And of course on a tight budget I had to consider all options. I have used Goldmine, Microsoft's CRM software, and Sales force in the past but I have to say that
One of the first companies that I worked for the boss would heavily penalize anyone who did not keep their customer correspondance up-to-date into the CRM package which was Goldmine at the time. But after watching a customer call in and have the sales rep he was previously working with out of the office. That is was critical to keep everyone informed. I learned early on in my career that your list of customers and prospects is one of, if not thee, most important aspects of your business. And without good tools to manage them, you risk loosing them. SugarCRM seems like a good choice for any startup business to get going with a solid CRM package.
I had two old desktop machines that were out of commission for one reason or another that I decided to get the electrons flowing through again.
I started installing Vista on one of them and gOS on the other (slower machine.) Of course the installation of Vista completed way after the installation of Ubuntu.
While I was still waiting around for Vista to finish the initial copying of files from the DVD I decided to try and install the community version of SugarCRM onto the Ubuntu machine. It was a pretty straight forwarf installation, but following these installation instructions I found online helped out allot.
I have been doing some searching on the internet for the past few days looking at all my options for a good CRM package. And of course on a tight budget I had to consider all options. I have used Goldmine, Microsoft's CRM software, and Sales force in the past but I have to say that
"SugarCRM is the one of the best CRM packages out there that you can use for free."I was impressed with the feature set and the interface that was available in the community version of the application. You can also opt for a hosted solutions as well. I have it running on a very modest old desktop machine with limited memory and the responsivness of the application is very impressive.
One of the first companies that I worked for the boss would heavily penalize anyone who did not keep their customer correspondance up-to-date into the CRM package which was Goldmine at the time. But after watching a customer call in and have the sales rep he was previously working with out of the office. That is was critical to keep everyone informed. I learned early on in my career that your list of customers and prospects is one of, if not thee, most important aspects of your business. And without good tools to manage them, you risk loosing them. SugarCRM seems like a good choice for any startup business to get going with a solid CRM package.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Time to Move On
Recently, like many other Americans, I am out of work. It has only been a little over a week now, and I am starting to feel allot better. Both mentally and physically. It is definitely nice to be away from someone else's problems and have a chance to start working on my creating my own.
I worked as a Software Analyst for a small firm in the Seattle area for the past two years. I learned allot from working there, but every day, every project, every task was due, TODAY!
It appeared that their was no plan for the business, beyond today.
I now intend to start my own adventure and to start my own business, and taek you along for the journey. Wish me luck!
I worked as a Software Analyst for a small firm in the Seattle area for the past two years. I learned allot from working there, but every day, every project, every task was due, TODAY!
It appeared that their was no plan for the business, beyond today.
I now intend to start my own adventure and to start my own business, and taek you along for the journey. Wish me luck!
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