INTRODUCTION
InfoCentreCRM was designed to provide busy entrepreneurs with an easy, yet powerful means of keeping track of all the people in their lives; prospects, customers, vendors, employees and friends. The system is entirely web based so it’s always available to you, no matter where you are from the nearest Internet connection. Just log in securely and you have access to all the details of every one of the important people in your life.
For many users of InfoCentreCRM, they will access it as the Back Office of their web site hosted by InfoCentre. This is extremely convenient because it means that all the functionality of the system is integrated with the functions of the web site, including customer relationship management (CRM), followup, email, calendaring, VideoConferencing, WebMeetings and drip-marketing functions found in InfoCentre web sites.
The first time you log into InfoCentreCRM, the system will contain a few sample records. Looking at the John Doe record will give you some idea of the power of the system and help you to visualize how you will use it to manage your contacts.
Note that the InfoCentreCRM screen provides a tabbed menu along the top of the screen. The system also provides for 16 options below the notepad area. These options and functions are each available by simply clicking with your mouse.
The center of the InfoCentreCRM screen is much like a Rolodex card. Here, you can enter name, address and contact information, as well as trigger data in user-defined fields that enable you to easily search to find all the contacts that fit your search criteria or that meet your follow-up requirements.
Notice also that you can easily page between the records in your InfoCentreCRM database by simply pressing either the [PgDn] or [PgUp] keys on your keyboard. You can also click on the [PgDn] or [PgUp] buttons just below the notepad on the left.
You can click on the [Help] button to display this help document anytime as well.
The default mode of the system is what we call the “view mode”. This means that you will be able to view the contents of each contact record as you page between records. If you want to edit information in any of the records you are viewing you will be required to select the [Edit] function. This is done by pressing the [Edit] tab from the upper menu or alternatively, you may press the [E]dit shortcut key, which is the [E] key on your keyboard.
The tabbed menu along the top of the InfoCentreCRM screen provides the primary function navigation for the system. To access any of the functions provided on this menu you can either click on the tab you want to access or simply press the shortcut key on your keyboard. The shortcut keys are listed below:
[Add] [A]
[Edit] [E]
[Delete] [D]
[Note] [N]
[List] [L]
[Search] [S]
[Email] [M] (Think [M]ail)
[Calendar] [C]
[WebCam] [V] (Think [V]ideoConference)
[WebMeet] [W]
[Campaigns] [P] (Think Cam[P]aigns)
[Home] [H] (Your Home Page)
Now let’s review what each of the tabbed functions can do for you.
[Add] or [A]
The ADD function simply adds a new record to your database. Clicking this option will open an empty contact record, permitting you to enter any information you wish for a new contact record. When you are ADDING or EDITING a contact record you can save the record by pressing the [SAVE] button below the notepad area or the [F12] function shortcut key on your keyboard.
[Edit] or [E]
The EDIT function changes the view of the currently displayed contact record from simply being able to view the data shown to being able to change what you see for the currently displayed contact record. When you are EDITING a contact record you can save the record by pressing the [SAVE] button below the notepad area or the [F12] function shortcut key on your keyboard. You can alternatively press the [Cancel] button to exit the edit mode and return to view mode without saving your changes.
[Delete] or [D]
The DELETE function permanently deletes the currently displayed contact record. You will be prompted to confirm your desire to remove the record. This operation is not reversible.
[Note] or [N]
The NOTE function takes you into the notepad area for the currently displayed contact record, enters a time and date stamp for the current time at the top of the notepad area and permits you to enter any kind of note you want for the contact. Notice that the most recent note will always be at the top of the notes displayed for each contact.
Remember that you can search for any word or phrase to locate matching contacts. This can be extremely helpful to help you to find contacts with whom you want to work or contact. Remember this as you enter data in either the notepad or other fields of the contact record and enter your search terms consistently to streamline this process. For example, if you wanted to be able to find and follow-up on all the contacts with contracts expiring in a specific month and you had entered expiration dates in either the notepad or any of the user-defined fields for your contacts, with the following format “expire:04/07”, you could easily find all these records by using the SEARCH function and entering “expire:04/07” as your search criteria, all the contacts with contracts expiring in April of 2007 would be found and all other records would be temporarily “filtered out” of your search. This makes it easy to work with just those contacts that match your search criteria. After you are finished working with these selected contacts you can release the filter and again view all the contacts in your database.
[List] or [L]
The LIST function presents a listing of your contacts from which you can click to select any record. This will display the full contact record to view. This list also provides fast search alphanumeric tabs across the top of the list screen to enable you to jump to contacts whose last names begin with any letter of the alphabet. Clicking on the underlined Contact Name will display the full contact record.
[Search] or [S]
The SEARCH function enables you to find any contact or contacts that match your search criteria. The search function operates across all fields, including the notepad. For example, if you wanted to find all the contact records with the word “raspberries“ in any part of the contact record just enter “raspberries” in the search field and only those records will be displayed. The SEARCH function is available to you from both the full contact view screen and the LIST screen. If searching from the full contact detail screen, the [Cancel Filter] button will be displayed just below the notepad, to the right of the [PgDn] button. The first record matching the search criteria will be displayed. You may [PgDn] to view additional records, if there are multiple records that match your criteria. If only one record matches your search criteria you will only see one record. You may also press the [L]ist function, while a search filter is active to see all the records that match your search criteria. You may click on the contact name for any of these records in the list to display the full contact record. You may also [Cancel the filter from this screen.
If you access the search function from the LIST, all records matching your search criteria will be displayed in the list.
Multiple search terms can be entered, separated by commas (,).
Remember that you can search for any word or phrase to locate matching contacts. This can be extremely helpful to help you to find contacts with whom you want to work or contact. Remember this as you enter data in either the notepad or other fields of the contact record and enter your search terms consistently to streamline this process. For example, if you wanted to be able to find and follow-up on all the contacts with contracts expiring in a specific month and you had entered expiration dates in either the notepad or any of the user-defined fields for your contacts, with the following format “expire:04/07”, you could easily find all these records by using the SEARCH function and entering “expire:04/07” as your search criteria, all the contacts with contracts expiring in April of 2007 would be found and all other records would be temporarily “filtered out” of your search. This makes it easy to work with just those contacts that match your search criteria. After you are finished working with these selected contacts you can release the filter and again view all the contacts in your database by pressing the [Cancel Filter] button.
The search logic assumes that it is searching for a sub-string, so your search criteria can be anywhere in any field.
[Email] or [M] (Think [M]ail)
The EMAIL function launches your email client software, such as Outlook and inserts the email address in the TO field, placing your cursor in the SUBJECT field of a new message and permitting you to quickly send an email message to the currently displayed contact record:
[Calendar] or [C]
The CALENDAR function displays your InfoCentre Calendar, if you have chosen to have that feature added to your web hosting package.
[WebCam] or [V] (Think [V]ideoConference)
The WebCam button launches the Video Conferencing module associated with your web hosting package.
[WebMeet] or [W]
The WEBMEET button launches the InfoCentre/Sonexis WebMeeting module associated with your web hosting package.
The Campaigns option opens the InfoCentreCRM Campaign Manager or Autoresponder module. This module enables you to create and number of email messages and send them automatically at intervals you specify to any individual or group of contacts that you define. This can dramatically increase your chance of selling your products or services.
The Campaigns module includes six tabs or options, which are explained below.
CAMPAIGNS
This option lists all campaigns. A campaign is a list of messages that you want to send. Campaigns can be sent (RUN) to any individual or group of contacts that you select. Campaigns also include instructions to tell the system when to send each message. When campaigns are run, the first message is always sent on the day you start running a campaign. Each subsequent message is sent (X) days after the previous message was emailed to those to whom you have told the system to send the campaign to. You may RUN, EDIT or DELETE any campaign shown in this list. You may also create a NEW CAMPAIGN by clicking on the New Campaign button.
MESSAGES
The Message option displays a list of all messages that you have created. A few sample messages have been provided in the system. You can create a NEW MESSAGE, EDIT or DELETE and existing message.
CONTACTS
The Contacts option returns you to the InfoCentreCRM Contacts module, where all your contacts are stored.
REPORTS
The Reports option shows all running Campaigns.
OPTIONS
The Options screen displays your personal information, which will be included in the footer of each message sent by the system.
HOME
The Home option returns to your home page.
ADDING A NEW MESSAGE
To add a new message to the system, click on the MESSAGE tab, then click on the NEW MESSAGE button in the upper left corner of the screen. The following New Message screen is displayed:
Enter a MESSAGE NAME. This is the name used internally by the system to identify this new message in the Message List. Enter the SUBJECT. This is what will appear in the SUBJECT LINE of the email message when it is sent to your contact(s).
Click in the message body area below and enter your email message here. Click on the [Save] button to save your new message. You must create Messages before you create a Campaign.
Notes on Messages: You can create HTML messages in another HTML editor and paste web pages into the message body. Remember that if you place graphics into a message that the message must be available online. In other words, you cannot paste images from your local hard drive and expect them to appear in an email message, unless the graphic image files are stored on a web server, available via the Internet, such as in the InfoCentre File Library.
If you attempt to paste something from the Windows clipboard, you will be prompted to allow this. Click the [Allow Access] button to allow the paste to occur.
ADDING A NEW CAMPAIGN
To add a new Campaign, click on the New Campaign button from the Campaigns tab. This will display the New Campaign screen shown below:
Enter the Campaign Name or Title, then click on the Select Message button to pick an existing Message for the first message in your new Campaign. In the example below, there are four existing messages to choose from, although you may have as many messages as you like. But remember that you must create the Messages before you create the Campaigns.
Clicking on any of the messages will select it to be added to the list of messages for your new campaign. Select any number of additional messages. Notice that the first message added will be added with the current date. All additional messages will be automatically scheduled seven (7) days after the previous message was sent. You can adjust this later.
Notice in the example below that we have selected seven messages and that we have used some of the messages multiple times in the same Campaign.
Changing the interval of a message is easy. Just double-click on the name of the message you want to change the interval for. You will hear a soft beep and will be prompted at the top of your browser window to allow scripted windows.
Click on the light cream bar to permit scripted windows and Temporarily Allow Scripted windows.
You can then double-click again on any of the Message Names to change the interval in days since the last message. Notice that you need to select the message name you first selected to change it now from [null] to a number.
Notice how the second message below was changed from 7 days to 2 days:
Notice that you can also change the order in which the messages are to be sent by clicking on the radio button on the left then clicking on the Up or Dwn buttons. You can also DELETE messages from your Campaign in this same way.
Click the SAVE button to save your new campaign.
Campaigns can be used over and over once they have been defined.
New Campaigns appear in the Campaign listing.
RUNNING A CAMPAIGN
To run a campaign go to the Campaign Tab and click the RUN next to the campaign you wish to run.
Notice that the messages, start date and Send after X Days are shown but no contacts are selected to send the messages to. This is done by using the contact search at the top of the screen. Just enter your search criteria then click on the [Search for Contacts to include in this Campaign] button. The number of contacts selected will be indicated and they will be listed in the upper portion of the screen for your review.
If you wish to include multiple search terms just enter them separated by a space. For example, if I wanted all the contacts with the last name of “WEEKS” and any records with the word “RASPBERRY” in any of the fields in any of the contact records I would enter “weeks raspberry” in the search field. This provides three records:
Clicking the [Run] button will initiate the campaign and all the selected contacts will automatically receive the messages contained in the campaign as shown above.
The InfoCentreCRM Opportunities module enables you to keep track of the sales opportunities easily for each of your contacts and overall.
Click on the Opportunities tab and the following screen will be displayed unless you are sitting on a contact record for which one or more opportunities already exists.
To add a new opportunity just click on the ADD button.
Fill out each field to define the characteristics of the new opportunity:
Opportunity Description (Unique name for this opportunity)
Company (The default company will be the contact record from which you launched the Opportunity module. However, you can select any other by using the drop-down selection tool)
Name: (The name associated with the Company record you select, will be displayed here.)
Type: (New or Existing Business)
Lead Source (Use drop-down to select source)
Amount (Dollar volume)
Projected Close Date (When do you think the deal will close?)
Next Step (What needs to be done next?)
Stage (Use the drop-down to select next step in the sales cycle)
Probability (Indicate percentage probability from 0%-100%)
Notes: (Add any notes you like)
Press the [F12 Save] button to save this opportunity or CANCEL to abort
NOTE: After you have added one or more opportunities when you click on the Opportunities tab you will be shown all opportunities for the currently displayed contact or if no opportunities and associated with the currently displayed contact record no opportunities will be displayed unless you click on the [Show All Opportunities] button. Then all opportunities, regardless of what contact record is displayed will be shown in the list. This is a great way to see the total of upcoming business you have in your pipeline.
The InfoCentreCRM Attach feature is like an infinite file cabinet where you can upload and attach any kind digital file to any of your contacts. Each file can be up to 100MB in size.
Go to the contact record under which you wish to store a file. Click on the ATTACH button to display the empty Attach screen:
To attach a file click on the [Browse] button to select it from your local hard disk drive. Then click on the [Upload] button to upload it. After it is uploaded, it will appear in the list for the current contact.
The Import / Export features enable you to get contacts information into InfoCentreCRM and out of the program in Microsoft Excel format.
EXPORT
Clicking on the EXPORT button will export all your contact records. You will be prompted to OPEN or SAVE or CANCEL:
Click on SAVE and select the location where to save the file:
After the file has been downloaded to the location you specified you can open it with Microsoft Excel.
IMPORT
Just follow the on-screen instructions to import data into your InfoCentreCRM program. Be sure to download the template spreadsheet file first and insert your data in the template file as instructed.
If you don’t place your data starting in row 13 of the template it won’t be imported correctly. You may only import data into the columns/fields provided. This permits importing data into all of the available InfoCentreCRM fields.
After you have copied your data into the spreadsheet template, save your file. Then import the saved file.
CUSTOMIZATION
The InfoCentreCRM system is developed in ASP.net and an ideal platform for developing any kind of database-driven customer-centric management system. If you are interested in customizing any aspect of the system please contact us for additional details. skip@infoCentre.biz or (801)369-2225
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