Question about calendar/agenda

[Anomander]

Hi Folks,

I'm quite new to SugarCRM, I'm looking into it for a customer who needs a CRM system for a call center. As far as I van see, SugarCRM fills the bill so far. Only got a question about Calendar/Agenda.

Is it possible to create more than one agenda in SugarCRM for different people/identities ?
I need that functionality, as the customer needs an agenda for every client, in which appointments can be made. The agenda needs to be accesible for customer's employees and for the client.

Would appreciate the feedback !

best regards,
Andy

[eNick]

Andy,

I'm not sure I quite understand but for an overview of how the calendar works...

It is a calendar per user, not customers (though it can be shared accross users - again, not customers). Unless you make all your customers users too?

When you schedule a meeting, it works much the same as in outlook. You create the meeting, time, add notes etc and then add invitees. These invitees may be customers. When you invite them, then get an email detailing the meeting details.

I've not seen specific "agenda" functionality in Sugar but maybe I'm missing something?

[Anomander]

Hello eNick,

Thanks for the reply.
So, if I understand it correctly:

Say, I have 4 employees, and 10 customers. Then I should create accounts for all 4 employees and 10 accounts for the customers and share these accounts for everyone. Guess that should do the trick, right ?

cheers,
Andy

[eNick]

Well, in the community edition, every user sees all accounts anyway (unless you install some 3rd party stuff to stop that).

So, yes, if you create 4 users, and have 10 customer accounts, all 4 users will be able to see all 10 customers and could book meetings with them etc. even if the account is not specifically "assigned" to that user.

That's my understanding of it, anyway.

[Anomander]

OK, so far I have been able to create a few accounts and to be able to view the calendar of customera by employeeb, both accounts being different through roles. But, as far as can see, I cannot directly plan an appointment in the agenda of customera by employeeb. Or can I ? I mean , I don't want to invite cusomtera, but directly plan an appointment for them.
If that is possible, then I am a happy chap.

cheers,
Andy

[eNick]

Sorry, I'm quite confused! And I don't want to give incorrect advice if I'm not understanding what you say.

I think its the term "agenda" that's confusing me as I'm not sure what that is in Sugar terms.

As I see it, each user owns a calendar. A user can schedule a meeting with an account's contact (which would be customer in this instance).

But the customer themselves doesn't have a calendar.

I think you're using the term account to mean both a customer account and a user account?

If what you're trying to do is say that a user wants to scehdule a meeting between employee John Smith and customer ABC Ltd, then they can do so.

But as I said, I'm finding your terminology hard to follow. Sorry.

[Anomander]

Hi,

Sorry if I'm not clear. It might help to explain the way this callcenter is working. The callcenter is going to answer the telephone for several Doctors. So, the employee gets a phonecall and it appears to be patient x which wants an appointment with Doctor y. The employee should be able to make an appointment for Doctor Y at a given time.
So, the employee should be able to make that appointment for Doctor Y.

Hope this makes things a little more clear.

cheers,
Andy

[eNick]

Suddenly all is clear!

Thanks that makes it much easier. In my opinion then, yes you can do that!

How you set it up probably depends on whether your doctors access the system directly or whether someone just hands them a print out of their appointments.

If the people on the phones are users, and doctors are set up as "employees" (even if you rename the tab to read doctors) then the user can schedule a meeting between contact "Mr Jones" and employee "Dr Smith". I think it will show you when the doctor has free slots and stuff (I know it does for users I'd have to check for employees).

This can also be done even if Doctor Smith is a user and is probably easier if that is the case as you can then filter all the appointments for that doctor. And of course the Doctor could just log in and see their activity list directly rather than relying on print outs.

Having said it can be done, it's a little convoluted as when you schedule an appointment, the user is the default attendee and thus would have to be removed. But I suspect that can be done as an easy customisation.

Now to caveat all that, I think you probably need to play about with Sugar and produce a prototype and satisfy yourself that it is fit for your purpose. But in my opinion you can make it fit.

I hope that all helps.

[Anomander]

That is great ! I think I can figure that out....I will dive into that tomorrow. Now, indeed, the user who creates the appointment is the default attendee...that should be removed. Can you give me hand how to do that ?

cheers,
Andy

[eNick]

Well, depends on whether you wish it to be done manually or automatically.

It can very easily be manually removed - the attendee is listed under the meeting with a "remove" button.

To do automaitcally, and in an upgrade safe manner, one would write a logic hook. This would be triggered either on record creation (so it is never on there) on on save (so it is removed automatically on save).

I say "either" because off the top of my head I can't remember the point the attendee bean is attached to the meeting bean - I'd need to check.

But suffice to say that part of Sugar's extensibility framework is designed to allow you to perform such customisations with relative ease. (don't mean to condescend if you already know all this).

Finally, pragmatically, there's not even a need to do it. You could just "put up" with the receptionist being registered as an attendee. The doctor would still see the appointement in his list of appointments.

Realistically, though, you're liable to be getting some customisation done (or doing it yourself) so it would probably be something you'd get cleared up at the same time.