newbie questions

[customer99]

Hi...jus got the latest sugar installed by a host..we will be using it for a telemarketing environment....our business cycle will be basically calls to leads, and hopefully converting them to customers

questions:

1 - which panels do you suggest we use....eg opportunities, leads, etc.

2 - we have large lists which we would like telemarketers to call from - any suggestions on how to assign or somehow have telemarketers get fed data from a pool

3 - we need to implement a script (preferably with a flow) for telemarketers in the (preferably edit) form....any suggestions on how to implement this ...I tried creating a text field and giving it a default value, but for some reason it didn't show the value in the form.... is there a way to some how have a html browser in the form??

4 - is there an ability to create fields with formulas in OS...how much is development for this??


5 - our telemarketers will be using soft phones (xlite) - any suggestions on how to possibly integrate a one click call situation

Thak you in advance for your help...

Zak

[roblaus]

Hi,

Lots of questions, few answers unfortunately...

1. Start working from leads. You may use campaigns but in the current state it's a bit cumbersome to say the least. Leads are completely separate entities that you will convert to customer and / or opportunity only when you succeed. On this way you don't populate your "real" system (accounts, contacts, opportunities) with unnecessary data.

2. Record assignment currently is only possible through record owners. You of course can add a field like "telemarketeer" but you then won't be able to give a person only his/her records (through roles)

3. Scripting is a tricky thing and currently not implemented. I am sure that some of the guys out there could do a proper adjustment. But it will take time and money.
You can create a field of type html though, where a browser window with the given link opens. I can imagine that it doesn't take a lot of customization to pass lead parameters to this webform and realize on this way whatever you try to achieve. Once you're done the form must be transferred back into the DB. Again - I do not consider this to be a big task (me being a business analyst rather than a programmer I might be wrong but others will hopefully correct me).

4. Same issue here - not out of the box. Triggers on database level might do a great job (if you only have a few of them). They essentially "fire" a SQL action if a particular field changes its value/state/whatever.

5. There is a standard Skype integration but I never tried it. Skype does have a published API that facilitates such things, about xlite or similar SIP based phones I don't know.

rgds
rl

[customer99]

Thank you so much for the answers!!!

I started playing around with creating a html field...possibly using iframes....thank you

Zak