Best practices for use of CRM

[TDaniels]

I have been asked to help improve our current CRM situation. We are a government agency using Open SugarCRM to track companies and individuals that we work with. Right now the CRM is being used as a phone book and nothing else. The problem is that no one here has ever been trained on the proper use of SugarCRM. Is there some place that may have a user manual on how SugarCRM should be used (not just how, but should) to track projects, opportunities, cases, etc. And exactly what defines an accounts, a contact, an opportunity, an activity, etc? So basically I'm looking for documentation on how Sugar should be used and why it is used that way, can anyone point me in the right direction? I do have access to the user manuals, but they are pretty much useless in helping you understand the way the software should be used. Thanks.

[kuske]

Whe I searched half a year before I found some useful basics in SugarForge.

Just try the following link
http://www.sugarforge.org/search/?ty...words=training

Some other good basics in French I found following this link
http://www.sugarforge.org/frs/?group_id=215

Last but not least I can recommend Sugar University and the tutorials in http://developers.sugarcrm.com/

I hope I could give you some hints for further investigations.

Greetings

[TDaniels]

You are a saint. That is exactly what I need. For people in the future that might be in the same boat I am and search this thread, the document "CRM for Sales Personnel" (http://www.sugarforge.org/search/?t...&words=training) does a good job of explaining exactly what the purpose of the tabs in Sugar are.

[susiewilliams]

Hi there,

You also might try checking out the Sugar Podcasts, which are small (2-3 minute) audio programs on a variety of subjects, from broad "what is CRM and how is it used" to specific "best practice" subjects. To date, we have 61 podcasts with more being added weekly.

You can find the entire set of them here:
http://www.sugarforge.org/content/co...s/podcasts.php

We're also on iTunes... just search for SugarCRM on the iTunes store and you can subscribe to the free series. New podcasts are posted each Monday.