BAASS Insights Technology Blog

If you need to change the "sa" password, the correct thing to do is to logon to CRM, change the database password under Administration>System>Database first, then reset the password in MSSQL, and finally reset IIS and logon to CRM again. 

But if the database "sa" password has been reset first, then it will not be known to CRM, so you will not be able to connect to the database. Then you'll need to reset the password in MS SQL to the previous password. 

But what if you don't know the database "sa" password? You will first need to reset the "sa" password to something you do know. Then you will have to reset the password in the CRM registry. (Backup the registry before doing this!!!). 

In the registry browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | eWare | Config | [CRM], where [CRM] is the name of the CRM instance. 

You can set the DatabasePassword to the new database password in plain text. Do an IISRESET, then you should be able to logon to CRM. Once you have logged on to CRM go and reenter the new password and it will be saved back into the registry in encrypted form. 

With all of the excitement over the release of Sage 300 ERP v2012 and its new features, it’s easy to forget how many amazing tools you already have at your fingertips. One of the handiest tools for those of us in administration is also one of the more under-utilized features in Sage CRM – Document and Email Templates.

If you’ve done any work with us in the past, you’ll know we send out Project Plans in the preparation phases for projects. They enable everyone to be on the same page prior to commencement, and are often full dates and information useful throughout the duration of the project. If we had to manually fill in each and every detail of this document for each customer, it would be a very tedious process.

In order for us to maximize our efficiency and maintain consistent formatting, regardless of who is planning the project, we have created a Document Template for our Project Plans in CRM. We have also created an Email Template for sending them onto you, to make sure you are getting the same level of customer service with each communication.

As daunting as it may seem, it’s actually a very simple process that can save a lot of effort in the long run:

1. Layout: Create a general layout in word for the type of document you are creating. For familiarity sake, I will use our project plan document as my example:

2. Merge Fields: Depending on your security rights, you may need to contact your administrator to complete this step. Because of CRM’s ability to be customized to suit your business, field names are often company specific. This means there is no one document that will outline the field names to insert into our templates. In order to find out what the field names are, you need to:

        i. Click on “Administration”, located below the “Main Menu” option on the left side navigation.

        ii. Click the “Customization” icon that has now appeared in the left side navigation.

        iii. Select the Entity which contains the information you would like to have auto-merge in your document. This often directly relates to the type of document template you are creating.

                1) In my example of our Project Plan document, I would select the “Opportunity” option, since my template is directly related to an opportunity.

        iv. This will take you to a screen that contains a list of all fields related to that entity. You may need to go between the entities in the previous step to collect all relevant “Field Names” to add to your template.

                1) The screen should appear similar to:

        v. Enter a Field into your word document (In our version of word I navigate to the Insert tab, click on quick parts, Field) which will then give you a pop up.

                1) Select the field name “MergeField” and enter the Field Name from CRM into the Field Name section of the pop-up.

                2.) For example, if I want the company name to auto-fill each time I use that template, I would use the Field name of comp_name .

                In the project plan document, I used comp_name in the Field Name section:

        vi. Continue to fill in each part of the template* where you would like information auto-populated from CRM. My final project plan looks something like:

*Note: You can utilize Word features in any part of your document as well. For the “Date” section in the example above, I have inserted a date field to auto-update each time the document is accessed.

3. Upload Template to CRM: Depending on your security rights, you may need to contact your administrator to complete this step. You now need to upload the template to CRM to ensure it’s availability to anyone that may need it. To do this:

        i. Click the “E-mail and Documents” icon on the left side navigation

         ii. Select “Document Templates” under the “Documents” heading

        iii. On the right side navigation, select “Add File”

        iv. You will now need to fill in the information as it pertains to your document. For our Project Plan, I selected the following:

         v. In the “File” section, browse to your saved word document and click “Save”.

       vi. Your document will now appear under the “Shared Templates” header.

4. Using the Template: Now that the template has been created, you can access it whenever you need to.

        i. To use or test the document, you need to navigate to the relevant entity. In my example, I have gone Company – Opportunity and am now in summary.

        ii. Right click on “New” in the left side navigation and select “Document”

        iii. Click on the file name you would like to use and select “Merge and Continue

        iv. If you have further information to add, click the “View Merged Document” option. This will open the file in Word. If you would not like to create a communication with that document as is, uncheck the create communication box. You will be able to file this document when it is completed.

5. Problems: If you have any tags that were not automatically merged, you may need to revisit Step 2 and double check the field names are correct, and that you have inserted the field correctly, or are using the correct entity to pull the information from.

You will be amazed at how handy Document Templates in CRM can be for day to day tasks and documents, and it’ll be a bit hit amongst the admin staff.

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If you don’t currently have Sage CRM but would like more information or think it may be something that could benefit your company, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d be more than happy to show you how CRM may be a valuable asset to your company!

Schedule management and maintenance is no laughing matter, I’ll have you know! When it comes to keeping track of 5 consultants’ schedules on a daily basis and you are solely responsible, things can potentially turn pretty sour if you mess up. The billable appointments, the non- billable ones, the personal commitments, internal meetings, external meetings, phone calls in, phone calls out, ongoing support with clients, vacation requests, technical support coverage, kick off meetings, follow ups, yes friends, the lists goes on.

Sure, you go right ahead, visit your nearest calendar store and take your pick ( Cute puppies, nature, Brad Pitt- whatever floats your boat) and prop that calendar up beside your desk and I wish you all the luck in the world keeping tabs on everyone’s schedules by hand. Of course, you have the benefit of your images of choice and that may bring a smile to your face from day to day but does it have the following? The following being what I would consider the icing on the cake of the CRM calendar:

• I can set reminders. I love this ability. Just as much as I love the snooze button on my alarm clock in the morning – this in affect is the same. Consultants have no excuses and either do I!! So as soon as I log in to have a look at my calendar, I can see all of my 593 reminders of the things that I have to do. Okay, hopefully it doesn’t get to this stage for most of you but it is reassuring to know that you will not be allowed to forget to do those little niggles and if you keep seeing them blasted into your face each day, you are bound to get fed up of looking at them and so this is motivation to get it done.
• I can set a recurrence communication – so this saves me manually entering a new appointment for something that I know is going to be taking place each week, bi – weekly, monthly, and yearly. Can you say time saver? Think back to and imagine the days when we had to make the same appointment over and over and over. Sends shivers down my spine!
• It also helps to manage the comings and goings of our hardware – if our training laptops and projectors are being taken onsite somewhere and I am panicking as they are all missing from the office, I can add the laptop / projector to the appointment and then easily find out where they are at any given time.
•  I have an appreciation for the “created by” and the “updated by” because it lets me know if some little fairy has been messing with my appointments and thinking that they will get away with it!J
• When I am done or when the consultants are finished with whatever the task on hand was or the appointment, they can then set it to complete. Simple, clean, efficient. Oh organization – it’s a wonderful thing!!

Are you using the options and fields in Sage CRM to their full potential?? If you are – you can easily delve a little further in and pull up a report in seconds if you want an analysis of what is done, what isn’t complete, or just to get a simple grasp of where things stand. For example, say its Friday morning and its time to do the weekly invoicing and you need to know what work has been completed this week so that you can invoice it in an efficient manner. Providing that staff change their billable appointments to complete once completed, you have yourself a neat little report here that aptly provides you with the details you need to go ahead and bill. Go to your Find button and click on the Communication option. Fill in the specifics according to what you require and voila!

If you want to talk to us about getting a personal assistant in the form of a CRM system in place, contact us!

Learn more about Sage CRM here.

BAASS Business Solutions has been using Sage CRM to manage staff schedules for several years now. It has powerful scheduling features for recurring appointments, conflict notification, email and on screen reminders and more.

One of the Key Performance Indicators I use as a predicative indicator of our capacity and revenue forecast is an adhoc report I export from CRM on a weekly basis. The report takes me about a minute or two to export but once exported it takes about 15 to 30 minutes to manipulate so that it provides the number of days in the month that are booked as compared to those that are not, and the number of days that are booked for non billable vs billable activities. It also requires some sorting to check for double bookings. The report is critical to predict future revenues, lead time, and resource allocation.

I knew this report could be automated with some work but it was beyond my expertise. One of my staff saw the request on our CRM wishlist and decided to take it on. As I was creating the adhoc version of the report in Excel he felt that Sage Intelligence was the best option as it is an Excel based BI tool that can look at any data source including our CRM data. In a few days he designed a report that not only gives me the data I want with the click of a button it allows for easy configuration if we add employees or make other changes to our organization. It now takes less than 15 seconds to get a report that formerly took a half hour to prepare. I can also run the report hourly or more frequently if I want, as opposed to weekly.

We have even set the report to be sent to my email so it is waiting for me every morning.

I now have valuable information at my fingertips when and where I need it.

Thanks Mitch!!!

If you would like us to see if we can help your business get access to data in a more effective manner or get access to data you can't get access to now, give us a call. You might be surprised what your software is capable of doing.

In CRM we keep many additional details about our customers in addition to the standard details that you might find in any typical ERP.  CRM is designed to be able to handle these extra details by allowing us to add extra fields to a company’s details.  In this case, SIC codes.  In Sage 300, there is no place for a SIC code without creating an optional field.  Optional fields are a powerful addition to Sage 300 that allows for the creation of custom containers of information, like a SIC code.  Although Sage 300 and CRM are synchronized, you can’t expect two independent systems to be able to automatically keep up with structural changes made by the end user.

When the conversation started, we were talking about how are we going to get this piece of information reliably from CRM to Sage 300.  So I proposed a little piece of custom software that would check for changes in each and make the same change to the other, a common approach to address this type of functionality gap.  It’s not a difficult thing to create, but like anything else, it was going to take a bit of time. However, I then asked the magic question which should have been asked at the beginning...

“Why do you want to do this?”

To which he responded; “I want to be able to get a sales report that groups by SIC code”

SIC codes are in CRM and sales numbers are in Sage 300.  It seems logical that if you want to report on two pieces of data, to put one where the other is.  In this case, put the CRM data in Sage 300.

But wait! There is an easier solution! Just because data exists in two different places, does not mean we can’t combine them into one report. Using any number of techniques, we can create a single report that would give all the required results in far less time than creating a tool that moves data around.  Solutions like Sage 300 Intelligence are designed exactly for this purpose.

If you have Sage 300 5.6 or 6.0, you already own Sage 300 Intelligence and that is a great starting point.  If you have multiple sets of data that you would like to combine, let's see what we can do for you.

Contact us for more info and subscribe for more Sage 300 Tips & Tricks.