Not sure how to ask this question since I know very little about CRM software, but assume the following:
Joe has a website that offers a service related to customers of various businesses
Joe wants to approach companies and convince them to add hooks into their CRM software, so that every time they view an entry for a customer, there is one additional field, which points to information on Joe's website and is related to that customer.
As I understand it, most/all CRM systems have a way to add a new field for each entry in the database. However, for Joe to make it easier for companies to accept his proposal, can he prepare an add-on/script/plugin/etc so that every company with CRM software of a given brand can just run it and the new field gets added, so that Joe doesn't have to work with every company's individual CRM Software installation and tailor his solution to that? (Basically one add-on for companies who use SAP, one add-on for companies which use Oracle, etc)
Or is each company's CRM installation so customized that it is almost impossible to make a generic add-on/script/plugin/etc for all companies who use CRM of a given brand?
Unfortunately, there is no standard. This is one reason why it's a good idea to stick to popular CRMs such as Salesforce and SugarCRM. Both have a large selection of add-ons through AppExchange and SugarExchange respectively.
Most modern CRM solutions is based on an SOA approach. Each CRM platform is design to support independent vendor solutions like this. Each CRM uses a different deployment approach and different software development languages. Depending on the language you know, that may help direct you to the first CRM product.
I hope I understand your question correctly, you want any system to be able to link in to yours and retrieve a link so that people can pull data from your system via the link. If that is the case the best way is to create a Webservice, any CRM program should be able to call the Webservice and get the required data.
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Morning/afternoon/evening all,
I am building a website for a rental property in France and the client wants to be able to use a single solution to manage bookings across the following platforms: Booking.com, AirBNB, Abritel (French) and Gites de France. Ideally, with the possibility of integrating TripAdvisor later.
So, when the centralised platform is updated, it updates across all the other platforms automatically. And when a booking is made, it feeds through to the centralised system.
I am highly doubtful that this one-shop solution exists but thought I would ask anyway. If it doesn't exist, would a bespoke solution be possible? Any other suggestions welcome.
Thank you
EDIT: I have learned that websites such as AirBnb can sync with iCal and Google Calendar. I wonder if this could be a simpler solution.
its is very possible provided the third party platforms have services that can be called for data exchange..... first check for the services exposed by those platforms and how to consume them.
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I'm in an internship and have been given a project to develop an application for a warehouse. I googled for solutions I found some systems like Intranet, ERP and CRM.
I don't know what is the best solution and I don't know what is the difference between those three solutions.
What is the best one to use for my application and what is the best system to use?
p.s : I can't use the openERP system.
Intranets are internal company websites used to share information between colleagues or to serve specific internal business needs, such as internal ticketing systems for the IT Support teams, etc.
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management systems are used for storing and tracking information about your current and potential customers. It could be integrated with other systems, such as your sales systems, to give a single view of that customer, i.e. show any interaction the customer may have made (telephone calls, meetings, previous sales etc). A very popular online CRM used by a lot people at the moment is SalesForce.com, for example.
It sounds like you need an ERP system, or Enterprise Resource Planning, which could integrate a whole bunch of different systems and bring in things like manufacturing, sales, customer data, finance etc. BUT this is no small task and I think as an intern you will struggle A LOT with this.
That said, what exactly does this application need to do for your warehouse? How big is your warehouse, how many products are you talking about/sales turnover/how fast do products move? DO you have to develop this yourself or do you just have to make some recommendations? Normally ERP system implementation will take a lot of planning, a lot of previous experience and a lot of people to implement, and normally very costly!
I will prefer Adempiere ERP, it best suits your internship project. Its an open source ERP and it will fulfill all your needs. But requires little effort to learn and configure but its best.
Given below the differences of Intranet, ERP and CRM:
ERP: ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING:
An ERP solution is fully integrated software that allows communication across all areas of the business. ERP software applications can be used to manage product planning, parts purchasing, inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders. ERP can also include application modules for the finance and human resources aspects of a business.
An ERP solution can include CRM This is part of the Customer Service Module however it is tied into other modules.
It is ONE software handling multiple processes and automatically updating each stage of a job. ie: say an order comes in through sales (CRM) ordering to buy 10 pairs of pants, this will then check in the ERP Warehouse module to make sure this item is available, if not it will then work through to the manufacturing module which will then create an alert for them to make some more pants, it will then update dispatch send it to the customer, update Finance and send an invoice and then finally update the CRM for future customer interaction.
CRM :CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:
A CRM solution is software designed to manage all customer interactions in an organized way. It allows management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.
For more details refer: http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/12/27/erp-vs-crm/
I would appreciate any advice on this. I am not a developer. I am starting an online ebook business. Our backend data base runs on purely web based applications running on an SQL server 2008, .NET 4 / 64 bit environment. It contains all the stock information and pricing data. Due to the fact that we need to store 200,000 sku and rising all the stock information and pricing needs to be kept in the back end database.
Nopcommerce has been suggested as a good ecommerce database and cms system. Would it be suitable for this project? And does it have an established ability to pull data to the back end for viewing, browsing and also transfering data into the basket for customer purchases?
Thanks for your help.
As far as I know there is no out of the box support for second (backend) database. However, as you may already know, it is an open source solution and can easily be extended to support what you are asking for. You will need to hire someone who is nopCommerce savvy.
Also, nopCommerce has a support forum ... you might have better luck asking your question there as the project contributors often visit that section. Good luck!
We're looking into implementing an issue tracker for our web agency. The problem is that most issue trackers seem to revolve around the assumption that an issue is a bug, whereas in a web agency environment, a lot of the issues (request, or whatever you want to call them) are about changes and additions to a current web site.
It also seems to me that a lot of issue trackers assume that you're working on one main software project, and uses that project as the focus of the tracker. A good issue tracker for a web agency would be one which puts each separate client and their issues at the heart of the system, making it easy for them to track and report issues.
Does anyone know of a good issue tracker for the web agency workflow? What are other people using?
In my experience, issue trackers are so closely coupled to the workflow of the organisation that what works in one place may be a complete misfit in another. That said, could basecamp work for you?
We are using Gemini very flexible with the ability to have workflow at the project level.
But where Gemini really helps us is the cross project views. You can view your work across all projects with really good fitering.
Have you had a look at fixx at all? Obviously, being the developer of fixx, I will want to plug it but I know from first-hand experience that a lot of our customers are web agencies who work in a service-oriented environment and need to track more than just "software development" projects.
With fixx, you can define custom issue types (for example "change request" or "Copy changes") and track work against that type.
Unfortunately, fixx still does suffer from the "project-centric" view but a lot of our customers work around this by defining a project per client/website. So, if you were doing web/maintenance on stackoverflow.com, you would have a project called "stackoverflow.com maintenance" and would assign all your users from that company to that specific project. From there, using notifications and filters, it would be very easy for clients to keep track of progress on their specific issues.
FogBugz – it's simple by default, but extensible; it's got an integrated wiki, charts, tags, and you can even tie it to your source-control system (and they also offer their own integrated source control system, Kiln, which is pretty amazing with FogBugz).
Are you using other applications to manage the rest of your business' operations?
I ask because WORKetc has great issue tracking software, and this software is combined with other aspects of business management which can simplify the management process. So not only could you manage all support inquiries and responses in one place, but also your projects, finances, and contacts. Most importantly, it would allow you to use one central contact base for your entire company, while allowing you to reference that contact information (as well as lead information) while working on support inquiries, projects, invoices, etc.
WORKetc's support system works around email integration and simple ticket system (as well as prioritizing) and directly integrates with projects, contacts, and other aspects of the system so that you can save time while responding and managing tickets.
I think especially for the use case of a web-agency, where it's not really about bugs, but mostly (visual) feedback and all of it happens on the web, a visual feedback tool might be the thing you're looking for. Most of these tools will create a screenshot of the webpage and include the given feedback on it.
Some of them also have some kind of dashboard where you can discuss further, or have integrations to other tools like Basecamp (and some them do both).
Here's an article from smashing magazine, which describes a lot of them, e.g.: TrackDuck, BugMuncher. Another great tool the article doesn't mention, maybe because the article is a bit dated, is Usersnap – this one even includes browser extensions.
How would I programmatically connect to an existing back-end system of a restaurant using say Micros POS, with a web app built with .Net and C#. Thanks.
Update: Sorry for the ambiguity but I'd like to set up an online ordering system that takes users' orders and forward to a restaurant's back-end system to be processed and printed in the kitchen for cooks to see.
There is no particular reason for choosing .Net other than the fact I'm most familiar with it. I'm open to other options.
In general I'm looking for information regarding the feasibility of this and how to go about it programmatically. How would my app send orders to the kitchen's printers? Do restaurant back-end systems allow for a .Net (or any other) app communicate with it? Do they provide an API?
I currently work at an ISV that does basically this with another one of the big 3 point of sale systems.
First and foremost, get the Micros environment up in a VM.
Next, most of these back office systems are running either Windows 2000 or Windows XP (depending on the age of the system), so be really careful about the version of .Net you choose.
Now, as far as architecture goes, run a service on the back office that communicates regularly with a centralized web service (the website that customers order on), once an order is made available, from there you can then insert it into <insert pos type here>.
You will also find in most instances, especially with Micros being the largest Point of Sale on the market for restaurants, they will not be very helpful with documentation and helping you out with integrating into their software.
Also, I think that My Micros (their enterprise application) already supports this type of functionality.
Another opinion, get into FSTech this year and browse all the competition, there are tons for online ordering just so you can get familiar with the competitions feature sets.
What you need to know is define what you want to do with the POS before a choice of technology, if all you want to do is show some data/reports from the POS system's work, you would need to connect to whatever back-end database the POS devices feed into.
If you need to do something else, you need to look for whatever relevant documentation.
It would help you more to ask a more specific question.
I would probably start by determining if Micros POS has an API. If they do, are the systems at individual restaurants even connected to the net? Try chatting up the manager at a place that uses one of these systems, or just check the documentation on their website.