What's new in 7?
Administrative users of CRM 7 will immediately notice a new Orders Module which can be enabled for all users. This module is an extension of the Quotes Module and allows users to turn quotes into orders. From there, orders can be tracked with events and notes until complete.
Quotes and Orders also gain an enhanced calendar view. This view is essential if you have trucks making product deliveries and pickups. To support businesses that rent products, there is also a new "rentals" product type which allows you to estimate inventory on certain dates when coupled with our new rental calculator.
Working with accounts is now even easier thanks to portlets which have been added to the Account Details page. Users can see the recent history, orders, quotes, tickets and contacts right on one page.
Behind-the-scenes, the API has been simplified in CRM 7. Client applications written in Java can take advantage of Account, Contact, Order, and Product Catalog API Helpers which allow records and configuration data to be easily imported into the CRM.
ConcourseSuite CRM is now available in both a free 5-user trial version and commercial versions which include source code. David Richards, CEO of Concursive says "We've found that technologists want to be able to have the ultimate in CRM customization and integration with their businesses, and they have the developers to support internal development and maintenance. So we've made the latest source code available for as little as $750 with 1 year of upgrades."
Download and install ConcourseSuite CRM today. Our CRM is mature, robust, aggressively priced, and comes with the latest source code -- you're never locked in. Our licensed editions come with 1 year of maintenance, upgrades, new versions and source code.
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ConcourseSuite version 6.2 has been released. This is a minor release with improvements to searching, importing, and API functionality. There are also several fixes. Please see the ConcourseSuite 6.2 announcement in the support area for complete details.
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Today we're announcing that ConcourseSuite is available as a cloud service. What makes this unique, is that you can now get started with a CRM for only $99/month, no matter how many users you have. Organizations use CRM in many different ways, so Concursive has created a new deployment option that is based on actual usage – the more bandwidth and storage you require, the more resources you pay for.
To put this in perspective, a traditional Enterprise-Class CRM license is based on many factors including number of users, access to source, integration, customization options, support, maintenance and more.
Organizations that choose ConcourseSuite in the Cloud receive:
- A complete customer relationship management site: containing Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Marketing and Help Desk, plus API access for integration
- ConcourseCloud CRM software license: the software license for the first month is billed immediately. You will be automatically billed each subsequent month from your date of purchase and are free to cancel your subscription at any time by contacting us: support at concoursecloud.com
- Administrator access: your contact information will be used to create the first site user when your instance is ready -- you can invite any number of other users
- A secure cloud instance: your site comes with SSL when you use our custom domain names; contact us to use your own domain name and SSL certificate
- Fully supported and periodically updated: your site will always have the latest enhancements
- Access to support: you can reach out to the ConcourseCloud CRM Help Desk with setup, billing, usage or any other questions you have
- Account notices: ConcourseCloud will notify you about news and account information
Check out Concursive's CRM pricing, then signup here to get started with your own cloud-based CRM from Concursive.
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ConcourseSuite reaches version 6.1. CRM users will notice improvements to the Leads and Marketing modules, while a number of improvements correct issues that have been reported since the previous release. The development team has squeezed in updates to a number of libraries which extends support to newer versions of PostgreSQL and Asterisk. Please take the normal precautions for upgrading (like backing up the previous version, database and storage files).
The changelog follows...
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ConcourseSuite 6.1 is all about product consistency and stability. The 6.1 release is in active development and might include a few unannounced features that we are working on.
ConcourseSuite is available in early access form to customers and partners, and once 6.1 is released the binary will be available for download. We continue to work on making the source available but we don't yet know when that will be.
If you are interested in the latest commercial version of ConcourseSuite, please contact us so we can get in touch with you. Customers can choose to use ConcourseSuite On-Demand, ConcourseSuite Hosted or ConcourseSuite Enterprise.
ConcourseSuite also works well with ConcourseConnect. ConcourseConnect allows you to create groups or departments of users, then enable them with Social CRM tools for true multi-tenancy.
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In CRM 6, we continue to use Java JSR-168 portlets and have expanded the areas in which they can be used. Portals are great for flexibility, and by having embedded portals throughout the CRM application, integrators can adapt pages to better suit their customers. Portlets can be used to mashup data from other sources, or to even embed whole other applications in a context-sensitive way.
In the following example, the Accounts page has been fitted with financial information that pulls an account's stock holdings right into the Accounts page. The page also displays the accounts latest issues or phone calls, providing more information to the sales representative with fewer clicks.
Concursive continues to use Java Portlets in their products because portlets are a standardized platform for proven flexibility and scalability.
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It's the Simple Things that Make CRM a Compelling Solution
SFA, Sales Force Automation, in one of the three cornerstones of most CRM products. The others are Marketing and Customer Service - they're used on a regular basis by companies that need to manage those functions in a standardized, transparent way. But when a CRM solution is used for Customer Service, every transaction is entered into the system for disposition - it's not an option. The Marketing functionality is employed for specific tasks - surveying customers, sending promotions etc.
Sales Force Automation, the function of following up leads, managing accounts, scheduling activities and making notes on interactions are optional tasks for the salesperson. A good salesperson, who understands the value of creating a history of interaction with customers and prospects, will take the time to add to that history so that future sales calls are focused on the customer need. In order to get sales force adoption, a CRM system has to be intuitive.
ConcourseSuite has been designed as a logical, intuitive, easy to use CRM product that is can be customized in a varierty of ways by the user. It is a tool that makes it very easy for sales people to enter data, move from screen to screen and create the history necessary for successful sales calls.
Flashy software has it's place, but a CRM system should invite quick, straightforward communication with the user.. ConcourseSuite makes it easy.
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Leads are Valuable - Don't Leave Follow Up to Chance
How does your company get it's leads - website, direct mail, mass media adverising, trade shows? It's probably one or all of these. And every single method costs money. That means each lead has a monetary value and should be treated as such. You wouldn't buy a compiuter monitor for $100 and throw it out the next day. But if you pay $5000 to attend a trade show and get 50 business cards, each one has cost $100. Make sure it's worked properly by the right person.
Leads management tools differ from one CRM application to another. Assignment notification, process management, manager oversight, record creation and final disposition are the steps in an efficient leads management process. And the process must be simple and intuitive so that the system is used.
Concourse Suite allows easy leads distribution via email notification and Action Plans. An Action Plan is an easily built, step by step, dynamic outline of the company's approved procedure for lead follow up. It can be attached to each lead so that the salesperson following up has the company roadmap and management can monitor progress.
Leads are potential revenue - make sure you handle with care.
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Identify Your Targets
Email marketing can be an effective tool to grow your business when the group you are contacting has been carefully segmented by certain criteria you decide is the most effective way of identifying prospects.
In your business, it may be size of the prospect, how long a company has been in business, or the prospects associations with other customers . The important thing is you must look at your business and decide what characteristics are most important for a prospect to have when introducing them to your products and then tag each one with a one or more of those attributes when entering them into your customer database.
Concourse Suite makes it easy to enter contact information and assign multiple Contact Types to each one. If your business sells to individuals, you can enter their information and assign the Contact Types you've decided are the most important to your marketing efforts. If your customers are companies, you can assign individuals to those companies, enter specific contact information and Contact Types to each, and create groups of Contacts to market to.
Identifying markets and targeting specific groups who are more likely to have a need for your specific products is a more effective way to build your business and increase your revenue.
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On our Concursive Professional Services blog we’ve talked about a number of great tips to get the most out of customer management, from the importance of managing customer relationships in a recession to adding personalized value with CRM. But what many of our posts assume, is that you’re already working with some sort of CRM suite (hopefully, ConcourseSuite).
Today’s post is targeted more towards those who haven’t yet
One of the biggest misconceptions about CRM suites is that you need either a big company, or big budget to make best use of customer relationship software. This is entirely not the case.
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