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small overseas property company that needs a simple CRM
We are a small overseas property company that needs a simple, but completely customized CRM. The problem with most CRM applications, is that they are overly complicated and do not fit our current workflows.
We like the webApp back-ends for many of these, but our internet connection is unstable, so we need to be able to host the app on our Intranet Server. Must also render properly in Firefox.
We have taken a shining to many of the features found in the open-source project, activeCollab, and much of what we need is in the core, so it will need extensive customization or built off its behaviour. Primarily we need the comments and file attachment capabilities extended to the address book, have the task delegation with automation, and simplify the layouts (break away from the multi-tab display for each category).
We need:
User/Group Permissions and Control. Admins have ultimate control, can create users, assign to a group, and re-assign to-do. This of course means a Login system.
Automatic Task Delegations (To-do’s). When creating client, customer or listing (project) in this program, it automatically assigns a pre-set of tasks to users. E.g. a new listing, would automatically send a To-do to an agent (agent = group; assigned “agent User”, depends on assignee User or Admin) such as “take pictures of ListingX”. There is a big list of procedures that we need to disperse. A front-end CMS, to create or edit these automated tasks would be extremely useful.
Comments for Address Book (clients, customers, lawyers, etc. - big list of types of people we deal with, so Address book will also need to navigate those categories).
Comments also needed for Listings.
File attachment option when submitting comments.
Schedules for each user, appointments & manual to-do’s can be assigned by any user.
When a To-do is complete(click checkbox), it auto submits a script to the RELATIONAL Listing e.g. agent User clicks To-do checkbox about taking pictures of ListingX, under Listing’s comment history it will now say “agent User took pictures of ListingX”.
Relational database congestion/reporting - I just invented the term, since nothing else came to mind how to classify it. Say there is the following listings in the database: “PropertyX, Unit2”, “PropertyX, Unit 5”, “PropertyY, Unit 3”, “PropertyR, Unit 6” , “PropertyX, Unit 10” - each of them are their own respective listing(project), but if I clicked “PropertyX”, it will display all the PropertyX’s on the right pane (activeCollab’s influence) that are clickable for detail on that specific unit, BUT, all the logs/comments from those ALL applicable units will show up in the main layout.
Clicking a client who owns various properties, will have all the listings on the right side, clickable for details. A business is clickable to list all its employees, and from there clicking one of them will list their details. The application is heavily dependent on relational information.
Automated Project Association - When creating a customer in the address book, the assignee User has ability to auto-associate that customer with listings they are interested in.
This will be based on a search context and criteria they fill in, and then results are displayed. The user will then checkbox the ones that fit the criteria, and click “send email” or “send fax”. Send email, will automatically use the newly created customer’s information, with the results (just web links for further information the customer can click). Send Fax will open up all the web links on the user’s computer, for them to print/fax manually to the customer. When doing either of these, the system will automatically log this interaction in BOTH the customer’s comment/log history, but also the respective properties they inquired about. “John Smith called looking for CriteriaX, CriteriaY and CriteriaZ. Suggested PropertyX, PropertyY and PropertyZ”. The Project/Property will only parse: “John Smith called in looking for CriteriaX, CriteriaY and CriteriaZ. Sent them information on this property”. The listings in the comment are all clickable to jump to that Project; And John Smith will be listed as recent inquiries on those listings as well (the right pane).
Sync or parse Address Book database (excluding the comments and files) to Mac OS X’s Address Book.app (openLDAP? Manual vCard generation seems cumbersome for distributing contacts across multiple computers, though I’m not familiar with LDAP)
Sync or parse the Scheduling into compatible iCal (ICS) format (ICS is an open standard, that is just simply text. Perhaps generate a ICS for every user, and whenever changed, it re-generates the ICS inside a WebDAV directory, that the users can subscribe to with iCal?).
Quick searching based on First Name, Last Name, Property Name, phone Number, Business Name
Much of this is simple to accomplish with MySQL&PHP, as its purely relational databases and SELECT statements (probably simpler with Ruby). Even I could do a good chunk of this manually, though that is not my job and my PHP is a bit rusty, it would take me considerably longer. Additionally, I would have more problems implementing the User Access/Permissions Controls, how to implement scheduling and even the synchronizing or parsing the data to external applications like Mac OS X’s AddressBook.app and iCal.app is beyond my ability - I merely have theories how this might be accomplished.
We are primarily PC users, our primary application suite is Microsoft Office, but rather tools like iWork, Address Book, iCal etc. We prefer that collaboration technology; the latter allows us to synchronize that data to our respective phones and smartphones via iSync, much more freely than most other collaboration technologies. In addition, largely why we need to be able to parse out the CRM’s address book and schedules.
We are open to payment plans suggested by the programmer, though obviously, the biggest pay-out should be at project completion. Despite my busy schedule, I will work with the decided programmer, every step of the way, to ensure it meets the output we need.
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