Tag Archives: featured

Sage CRM Administrator – is this necessary?

Our standard MO is to strongly recommend that clients have a designated internal ‘Point Person’ to help with training and support issues. We take a train-the-trainer approach and this point person is the trainer. A full breakdown of this role is found on this page and also referenced in the video on our Planning for a CRM project page.

Back to the topic – is having such a person necessary? 

Yes, and the better the individual the more successful your strategy will be. CRM projects can be massively successful, meh or worse. You can avoid adoption issues to a great degree by making the system unavoidable (read more) but still, massive success requires adequate support systems and your point person is generally a key ingredient of those support systems.

Sage 500 CRM

Greytrix publishes an integration with Sage 500. It uses the same GUMU architecture as Greytrix’s integrations with 100, X3, and Intacct.  And while it does not have the same depth as the Sage 100 integration, it is pretty good, providing for customer integration AND the ability to create Orders from Sage CRM’s web-accessible interface that can be promoted directly into Sage 500’s Order Module. 

A full write-up is found on the Sage 500 CRM page of the My CRM Manager website.

Image Gallery

Centra CRM’s new Image Gallery utility makes it super easy to view images from Sage CRM. For organizations that use images in their day-to-day, this add-on makes Sage CRM even more practical. 

A full write-up including a 2-minute overview video can be found on the Image Gallery page of the My CRM Manager website. 

Quick Start Implementation SUCCESS!

Earlier this summer we started promoting a Quick Start Implementation Package for Sage CRM. The idea being, instead of getting CRM doing absolutely everything the client needs upfront, let’s get them up and running quickly and then work on modifications after. This does not apply in every situation, but it sure is a practical approach for many organizations.  

It is one of those things where… it is obvious now, but why did it take us so long to have this offering (a-duh). It is going really well. Definitely, it will evolve, but it is clearly (now) an important offer to have for many of the companies that approach us.

You can learn more about the Quick Start Implementation Package by (a) calling me, or (b) visiting the Quick Start page on the My CRM Manager website.

User Activity Dashboard

Our User Activity Dashboard is applied with almost every installation of Sage CRM. It provides key indicators related to who is using the system (and not) and how well. 

It covers the basics of who is creating companies, people, and communications. For communications, it has some slick metrics such as which accounts users have recorded communications under (or not) over a rolling 30-day period.

Communication Statistics

Often, clients use Sage CRM to record communications relative to a Company, Person, Opportunity, Case (Job), etc. These can be meetings, calls, emails (in or out), or otherwise. Remember, Sage CRM is fundamentally a communications system.

Our Communication statistics code makes it very easy to measure how often (or not) users record these interactions. 

This image shows fields on the Company summary screen that reflects data from the communications tab. And the information collected is often used in reports and dashboards. For example in certain reports that display in our User Activity Dashboard. 

Communication Statistics B

Sage CRM facts every Sage employee should know!

I recently had the opportunity to provide Sage’s Business Development team with training related to Sage CRM. It went over well, and the best bits I wanted to repost here. You can download the training guide we provided and below are some quick facts that all Sage staff should know.

  1. Sage CRM is a communications system used by over 17,000 companies around the world.
  2. Sage CRM is a non-industry-specific, general-purpose communications system.
  3. On average, companies that use it have 12 users accessing the system.
  4. It consistently ranks as a top 5 CRM solution.
  5. It always gets the CRM industry’s ‘best overall value’ award.
  6. Sage CRM integrates with the full lineup of Sage accounting systems including 50, 100, 300, 500, X3, and Intacct.
  7. Globally, Sage CRM sales have increased by >26% each of the last 2 years. So – NCA was up 26% in 2020 and this year it is on track to do the same or better.
  8. Beyond the fundamentals that all CRMs typically have, companies generally use Sage CRM to solve different process problems that they have. It has excellent automation features that can be used to control how information flows through different individuals or different departments. For example, how Jobs, Customer Service issues, or Opportunities are managed.
  9. Sage CRM is not hosted by Sage. Rather the client hosts their own instance. This distinction means that, unlike competing systems (all other CRMs), Sage gives the client ultimate control and ownership of the system and their data.
Most used Links
  1. A general overview of Sage CRM: Sage CRM Overview – My CRM Manager
  2. Listing of the accounting integrations and the details of those integrations: Sage CRM and Accounting Integration – My CRM Manager
  3. Integration with MS Outlook: Outlook Integration (Accelerator 2021) – My CRM Manager
  4. Sage CRM pricing calculator (for estimates only): Cost for Sage CRM – My CRM Manager – Pricing Calculator
  5. Here is a link to the hardware/software requirements for Sage CRM. Our suggestions for minimum requirements for systems that will ultimately host 10ish users are: RAM = 16GB and Processor = Equivalent to Xeon Series Quad Core with a minimum frequency > 2.8 GHz.  Additionally, this Pre-Installation Checklist for Sage CRM outlines what the CRM team will require in terms of access and cooperation from your IT team.

How we work with Sage Partners

It is becoming increasingly more common that Sage accounting partners will reach out to us for general product information or for assistance in presenting Sage CRM to their existing customers or prospects. We always try to be helpful regardless of the type of relationship the Sage accounting partner is seeking. The type of relationship typically reflects whether the accounting partner wants to be in the business of supporting Sage CRM or not.

When the partner does not want to be in the Sage CRM support business

In these situations, the accounting reseller will generally introduce us as the Sage CRM expert and a third party. In these situations we are managing the sale, generating any quotations, as well as providing the services should the client move forward. When an order is placed with Sage for Sage CRM licensing, it is placed by the accounting VAR unless the accounting VAR specifically asks for My CRM Manager to be the ROR and process the order.

When the partner wants to be in the Sage CRM support business

For Sage partners that are already Sage CRM partners or who want to develop their own Sage CRM practice, we can help them too. 

Any partner is welcome to leverage any of the information on our website, including users guides for Mailchimp, Accelerator, the Sage 100 integration, or otherwise. Additionally, we can provide demonstrations for any of the accounting integrations, s5Maps, Accelerator, or anything else.  

Our policy has always been to be helpful to other Sage partners. This is true even if the partner will be quoting the client and doing the service work directly. In these situations, we are strictly acting as a sales resource.

IMPORTANT: At My CRM Manager, we do not sell or support anything other than Sage CRM and the integrations between Sage CRM and Sage accounting systems. A full listing of Sage CRM support options is found on this page.

Oasis has worked with Dan Cousins and the team at My CRM Manager exclusively for many years. Their creativity and knowledge of Sage CRM has allowed our customers to accomplish their goals while maintaining the integrity of their entire Sage system. We bring challenges to the team that are outside the traditional CRM and it always seems that there is a way to make them work! Win win for Oasis and our customers.
Annette Manias
Annette ManiasPresident, Oasis Solutions

New Accelerlator Page

To support Accelerator’s new 2021 UI, we have created a new Accelerator page. We needed to do this due to the changes in the interface, but also there are functional differences. Moving forward we use the expressions ‘Accelerator’ and ‘Accelerator Classic‘.

The differences on the new screen include:

  1. The first six videos reflect the new UI
  2. The text has been updated to reference the updated feature set
  3. The User Guide at the bottom of the page will launch the version with the new UI

We will continue to have both pages (links above), but the new 2021 UI page has become the default.