Blogs

CRM: Reflections on September 11

When the planes hit the twin towers, the entire world was shaken by the impact of the collision.

When Americans stood frozen, glued to their television sets, radios and phones, the world watched in silence and solemnity.

When everyday men and women emerged from the rubble of devastation as heroes, greatness was born.

And as the World Trade Center crumbled, hearts sank, but spirits soared.

The human response to the attack on the United States on 9/11 was one of valor, strength, and integrity. This reaction to the attacks was not limited to United States’ borders; their courage, sadness, and hope reverberated throughout the world, inspiring people to overcome hardship and to achieve greatness.

Even now, a decade later, September 11 continues to be a quiet day of reflection and introspection for people around the world as they remember the tragedy and heroism of September 11, 2001, mourning the loss of life and celebrating the strength of spirit.

Yesterday, we, too, remembered the tragedy that befell humanity on 9/11. We also reflected on the power of the human spirit. As a collective, humanity is unwilling to surrender the dream of a better tomorrow. Our hope is that, as a collective, we continue to aspire to make that dream a reality.

So, calling upon the lesson of 9/11, we encourage you to join us as we take the time to remember how September 11,2001 impacted us 10 years ago, how it affects us now, and how we can use the awful events of that day to propel us to accomplish great things- both on a business and personal level.

In honor of those who lost their lives and their loved ones, let us be driven to excel, thrive, and build for ourselves a great future.

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Company, Product, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on CRM: Reflections on September 11

The Real Story: Free Trial, PSA and CRM

As consumers, there are certain words we love to hear. Words like “discounted,” “sale,” and “free” make every shopping experience more enjoyable. Without fail, getting a good deal elicits a smile, a cheer and a feeling of accomplishment.

So, as a consumer, you probably aren’t questioning why we offer a fully functional 30 day free trial of the software without any commitments or fine print. For you, an IT professional, getting free access to a leading comprehensive professional services automation (PSA) software solution without any commitments is simply exciting and something not to question. Plus, as your grandmother probably always told you, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth.

But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you happen to accidentally look the gift of a free, fully functional trial for a mouth, and question why it is that we provide potential users with unrestricted, commitment-free access to our fully functional PSA system, then what?

Well, unlike a horse that is prone to kick or bite if you start to question it, we enjoy entertaining questions and adhere to a policy of complete transparency. So, in answer to your question, the reason that we provide potential customers with a 30 free trial of our CRM solution is very simple. It’s you.

We care about both our trial and actual customers. For you we want to ensure that not only is our software designed to improve your workflow, but we also want to ensure that everything about our company conveys our commitment to you, including our transparency, business automaton tools and affordability.

Also, because we care, we provide you and the rest of our potential customers with access to a comprehensive 30 day free trial. In doing so, we are telling you that we want to remove all elements of anxiety and risk associated with selecting and investing in a PSA system.

Our free trial gives you the opportunity to figure out exactly what makes the app a unique and fully functional PSA solution. Instead of taking us at our word that the app can help you streamline your entire workflow, we invite you to experience its power on your own before you purchase. We encourage potential customers to assess our software for themselves. We want trial and paid customers to trust us and our product because of their experiences, not because of our marketing or website content, no matter how much pride we take in our marketing material!

So, by offering a free trial, we eliminate the risk involved with you trying a PSA solution. You can gauge for yourself the value and functionality of the this PSA software without having to worry about fine print obligations.

More than just hoping to empower you to make your own evaluation of the app, our 30 day free trial is also a testament to our software solution. We don’t just tell you that our system is easy to install and use. We encourage you to experience the usability and full functionality of our system so that you can experience its benefits firsthand.

If you or an IT professional or an MSP you know has yet to try this app, click here to get 30 days of our fully functional PSA software solution FREE. With the free trial, see for yourself how it can benefit your IT business.

As an aside, please note that we ask for your name and contact information when you sign up for the free trial. Providing us with this information however, is optional. You are welcome to enjoy the 30 day free trial anonymously by clicking on the download button without providing us with any of your personal information.

Whether or not you choose to join the family of users as a result of your 30 day free trial, we are happy to have the opportunity to share our software solution with you.

We hope you enjoy it as well!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Product | 1 Comment

Be Prepared!

Going back to school is always greeted with great hesitation and expectation. Students worry about the challenges that will unfold and the work loads they will face. Simultaneously, the excitement of freshly sharpened pencils, newly organized binders, new friends, and endless possibilities fills the end of summer with an incredible energy and sense of excitement.

As all parents know however, the key to ensuring that their children focus on the incredible potential wrapped up in new school year is by preparing them. Preparedness. It’s so important!

Whether it’s bolstering their children’s long division skills, ensuring that their knapsacks are organized, that healthy snacks have been purchased, or that school clothes have been acquired, parents can help their children return to school with a can-do attitude that will enable them to make the most of the new school year.

Likewise, as an IT professional, meeting with clients is also filled with both excitement and apprehension. Working with clients is a great way to build up a company, to expand your clientele into a new niche, or to increase word of mouth marketing. But, with all the potential benefits of building customer relationships, you also face the challenge of impressing potential and returning customers with your efficiency, skill and overall preparedness.

So, how can you help yourself or a technician on your team prepare for an on-site service call?

Prior to meeting with a client, our PSA software’ workflow provides you with the following tools to ensure that your service call is successful:

Preview Tab

Available in the Account, Ticket and Asset windows, the Preview tab provides a rich-view format from which you can get a bird’s eye view of the many details that can help you enhance your understanding of your relationship between your business and your client, the service Ticket, or the Asset (device) being managed.

Having access to this comprehensive aggregation of Account, Ticket or Asset information enables you to prepare for your service call with greater efficiency and ease. Without having to switch between windows or tabs, you can view the details that will enable you to provide quality, expedited, and well-informed service to your clients.

Technician Service Form
To further prepare you to visit your client, you can print out a Technician Service Form using customizable templates that can include information related to a selected Ticket, including Ticket information, Charge information, and Asset (device) details.

By customizing the template with your business’ logo and selecting a Technician Service Form for your on-site service call, you can generate a professional Service Form that can be used by both you and your clients as a tangible record of the service call details, including your client’s contact information, Ticket details, Asset details, Contract details, and Charge details.

The information included in the Technician Service Form not only provides you with details you need to be well informed about the on-site service call, but also enables you to provide your client with a professional accounting of the service call while on-site.

To access the Technician Service Form, select the Ticket for which you will be providing on-site service from within the Ticket window. Then select: Tickets>Print>Technician Service Form1 or any of the Technician Service Form options.

Online Services

Once you are informed about your relationship with your client and have the details of the service to be provided, you are ready to head out to your on-site service call. Prior to departing to your scheduled appointment however, you might find it helpful to have directions to your destination.

With Online Services, you can link Web sites to the application. So, for example, you can define an Online Service to open a Google Maps to open from within the Account window. By integrating a maps site within the app, you are able to streamline all elements of your on-site service preparations, including planing the route to your destination!

For more information on adding a new Online Service, click here. Also, a few samples that you can copy to your PSA system can be found here.

Whether preparing to head back to school or preparing for an on-site service call, it’s important to remember the Boy Scout motto and “Be prepared.” In doing so, you can be confident in your ability to face the challenges that lay ahead of you while impressing those around you.

So, whether you invest time and energy into sorting out school supplies and maintaining a homework calender, or you spend your time managing Account, Ticket and Asset details and maintaining a service call (Dispatcher) calender, being organized and prepared is a way of investing in your future and planning for your success!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in IT Industry, Product | Tagged , | Comments Off on Be Prepared!

QuickBooks Batch Invoice Wizard: Doing More With Ease

There are a lot of reasons why more is better, especially when it comes to getting more with ease. According to Dr. Paul Williams at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, by simply exercising regularly, people experience many health benefits. More exercise reduces risk of everything from cataracts to gallstones and strokes. Likewise, Pringles ads make it incredibly clear that more with ease is better. That’s why “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop.” It’s just that easy! Even IT professionals are in agreement that more is better when achieved with ease, specifically when it comes to things like RAM. Upgrading computer memory (RAM) is easy, and it speeds up all computer functions, including web surfing, gaming and multitasking. More with ease is just the way to go.

We took the credo of “more with ease” to heart when we were evaluating our professional services automation (PSA) software, for enhancements for version 5.6. As we assessed it, we became aware of the fact that we could improve our QuickBooks Link by enabling you, our users, to generate more invoices much more easily. In order to convert the “more with ease” philosophy into a tangible and useful tool, we developed a Batch Invoice Creation Wizard, released as one of the version 5.6’s new features.

Like our regular QuickBooks Link that enables you to generate invoices in QuickBooks based on Charges in this CRM, the new Batch Invoice Creation Wizard also allows you to convert Charges in our PSA directly into QuickBooks Invoices, only the wizard allows you to produce many invoices at once. This time saving feature will help you reduce the time it takes you to convert billable time into revenue by enabling you to produce more (Invoices) with ease!

This new feature specifically adds a new layer of functionality and time saving features to managed services providers (MSPs) and IT services provides who have recurring billing agreements with their clients. Now, with the Invoice Batch Creation Wizard, you can manage and invoice subscription-based and recurring contracts with ease. After using our Contract-Price Charges feature to define recurring charges and renew your Contracts, you can utilize the Batch Invoice Creation Wizard to easily convert all of your recurring contracts into QuickBooks invoices. Instead of converting a single, recurring Contract into a single Invoice, this utility enables you to generate batches of Invoices from the list of Contracts you manage in the app with just a few clicks. This is “more with ease” in action!

Whether you’re an MSP or an an IT services provider, you can start utilizing the Batch Invoice Creation Wizard, by going to File > New > QuickBooks Batch Invoice Creation Wizard.

Once selected, you can create batches of invoices at once at either the customer, service contract or ticket level.

At the customer or Account level, you can create multiple invoices from the still-to-be-invoiced, Billable Charges that relate to the Accounts that you select. Billable Charges that can be invoiced using the Batch Invoice Creation Wizard at the Account level can also include Charges related to Tickets and Contracts.

On a service or Contract level, all Billable Charges related to selected Contracts are converted into QuickBooks Invoices with just a few clicks. Ticket-related charges are included in invoices generated on the service or Contract level.

Creating batches of invoices on the Ticket level enable you to convert all Billable Charges that have yet to be billed into invoices for all selected Tickets.

Not only does the Batch Invoice Creation Wizard help you reduce the amount of time you spend generating invoices, helping you convert your labor, parts provided and expenses accrued into revenue, but it also ensures that you no longer need to manually generate single invoices, although this is still an option.

Being able to create many invoices with a few clicks is a better, more efficient solution for invoice creation for the busy and growing IT service provider or MSP’s business, which is why we are thrilled to be to introduce this new feature to you.

So now, we invite you to join the “more with ease” bandwagon, so that you can reduce your workload and save yourself time with the version 5.6’s new QuickBooks Batch Invoice Creation Wizard tool as you convert your services and time into revenue with ease!

Until Next Time,
-Success Team

Posted in Product | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on QuickBooks Batch Invoice Wizard: Doing More With Ease

Growing Your IT Business with CRM and QuoteWerks

Who doesn’t like the idea of growth? Whether you’re a child hoping to finally be tall enough to ride the latest roller coaster, a wrestler hoping to grow enough to make it into the next weight class, or a business person hoping to grow your company, we all recognize that growth is essential to achieving our goals.

Likewise, we are preoccupied with growth, and continuously attempt to grow our professional services automation (PSA) solution, so that it can continue to be a leading business management tool for IT professionals and managed services providers. As part of augmenting our offering, we developed a new integration with Aspire Technology, Inc.’s sales quoting and proposal software, QuoteWerks. Not only does this new integration help us expand the features our PSA provides our users, but the new QuoteWerks Link also helps ensure that our users will have an easier and more time conscious way of growing their companies.

So that you can start benefiting from the QuoteWerks Link right away, we would like to take this opportunity to explore this new module with you.

For starters, what is the QuoteWerks Link and what does it do?

The QuoteWerks Link is an exciting integration that enables our mutual CRM and QuoteWerks users to take advantage of QuoteWerks’ advanced sales quoting technologies while managing all the Sales Opportunities in our CRM, along with all other business management activities. With this new Link, you can easily create and adjust QuoteWerks Quotes from within our CRM by linking QuoteWerks’ Quotes to our CRM Sales Opportunities. The QuoteWerks Link also gives you the ability to create Quotes/Sale Opportunities from either QuoteWerks or the CRM, while tracking sale stages and billing customers from within our CRM.

How does the QuoteWerks Link work?

Within our CRM’s Opportunities window, there are two QuoteWerks icons. The first icon enables you to work within the app on a selected Opportunity and link the Opportunity to QuoteWerks Quotes. The second icon enables you to work on QuoteWerks Quotes and link all activities performed in QuoteWerks to specified Opportunities.

Whether you choose to work from within the CRM app or QuoteWerks, by using the bi-directional integration, you only have to enter data, including Account/contact information, once. Account and Contact information is easily pushed from the CRM to QuoteWerks so that you no longer have to manually enter client information.

Not only do these features help you reduce the amount of time you spend creating and managing Sales Quotes, but these automation features also increase data accuracy and help you cut down on errors and duplicates.

The QuoteWerks Link also helps increase your efficiency by easily enabling you convert Quotes into Charges within the CRM. Once a Sales Opportunity or Quote is approved, you can create a Charge based on the total amount of a Quote by clicking on the QuoteWerks icon and selecting the New Product/Part Charge.

With a few clicks, you can not only create a professional Sales Quote, but a few clicks is also all the separates you from converting a Sales Quote into a billable Charge. The time saving benefits of the QuoteWerks Link make it easier to manage your sales Quotes, increase your business’ profitability, and provide your customers with efficient, expedited service that will impress them and help you attract new and returning business so that your IT business continues to grow.

For more information on how to use the QuoteWerks Link, click here.

We hope you have enjoyed learning more about the QuoteWerks Link, and wish you luck as you begin to utilize this exciting feature to help you and your IT business grow.

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Company, IT Industry, Product | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Growing Your IT Business with CRM and QuoteWerks

Asset Configuration Notes

If you have ever seen a Michelangelo sculpture up close, or for that matter, if you have ever seen any great work of art, you can appreciate that attention to detail is a necessary ingredient to any achievement. As an IT professional, you probably don’t dabble in marble sculpture fashioning or oil painting with great frequency. The likelihood is that the expression of your genius is in the ways in which you monitor and manage electronic devices. But unlike an artist who generally only works on one piece at a time, you are responsible for hundreds of devices. Being charged with the task of managing a slew of Assets can be a taxing task if for no other reason than it requires you to manage the details of hundreds of Assets so that you can best service your customers.

In order to transform this activity from a burdensome and grueling task to a simplified and streamlined enterprise, we added an Asset Configuration Note feature to version 5.6, the new release of our professional services automation (PSA) software.

The Asset Configuration Note, accessible in the Asset window’s Preview tab and Configuration Note tab, provides you with an easy way to customize data entries and lists of details stored and displayed for an Asset. The Asset Configuration Note also enables you to store different data according to the type of Asset. Moreover, each Asset can hold multiple Configuration Note Sections, and every Asset Configuration Note that you create can be stored as a template to be used by other Assets of the same variety.

As great as this feature sounds, you are probably asking yourself, but how does this work exactly?

Well, let us explain…

An Asset Configuration Note can be used anytime you want to store data in easy-to-setup, predefined structures, either from a Asset Configuration Note template, or one created on the spot. Unlike a standard field, Asset Configuration Notes can contain multiple sections, with each section containing its own data entries. In other words, instead of inputting single fields of information, such as a computer’s serial number, or its CPU, the Asset Configuration note enables you to create and manage a detailed set of data for an Asset, including, for example, the Asset’s name, OS, IP address, programs installed, RAM, CPU and Operating System Information.

As you can see from the image above, each section of data can contain either textual data entries, memo (multi-line text) entries or value-selection entries, for which you can select the value from a drop down list of values you create, thereby providing you with additional ways to customize and maximize the Asset Configuration Note feature.

In order to turn the Asset Configuration Note feature into an even more beneficial tool, you are also able to convert an Asset Configuration Note format into a template. For example, you can configure an Asset Configuration Note template to hold specific fields for a given Asset type (like the OS, CPU, Memory etc. for PCs). For each Asset of that type that you manage (e.g. PCs), you can easily insert and use the already created template.

In order to create a template, you can either go to the settings menu, click on Assets > Configuration Note Templates > New, or you can click “Save as Template” from within an Asset Configuration Note Window after you have created a Configuration Note.

Configuration Note templates can can be added to an Asset from within the Asset window’s Preview tab or Configuration Note tab. The template can either be inserted as-is, or edited to best fit the new Asset.

In addition to helping you manage Asset details in an efficient and easy to view manner, a powerful free text search tool is also available, enabling you to search both entry labels and values, so that you can find the information for which you are looking with greater ease and speed.

So, while you may never be recognized for bringing a life-size image of David to life with a chisel and a block of marble, with the Asset Configuration Note feature, you can garner a reputation for being a detail-conscious, efficient and proficient IT service provider who brings excellence to the workplace and unparalleled service to your customers.

As we like to say in our office, “Excellence: it is all about the details!”

Until next time,
-Success Team

Posted in Company, Product | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Asset Configuration Notes

CRM and QuoteWerks Now Integrate!

As an IT professional, the last thing you want is to feel like you are always chasing down new business opportunities. You are an IT professional and a problem solver, so when you provide current or potential customers with new service contracts, hardware or software, you want to keep track of and manage your many sales quotes and proposals in the most efficient way possible.

We are always trying to develop new features and integrations that help you run your IT business more efficiently, so that you can maximize your time and your profits. For this reason, we have teamed up with Aspire Technologies, Inc., the creators of QuoteWerks, a leading sales quote and proposal software, to develop a two-way integration between our PSA software and QuoteWerks.

Today, we are very excited to officially announce the release of our integration with QuoteWerks. The press release is available here.

Through this module, mutual PSA and QuoteWerks users can:
▪ Track Quotes in QuoteWerks or in the CRM Sales Opportunities.

▪ Create professional and customized QuoteWerks Quotes from
CRM’s Sales Opportunities window.

▪ Push CRM’s customer Account and Contact information into new and
existing QuoteWerks Quotes.

▪ Link the QuoteWerks Quote to CRM’s Sales Opportunities.

▪ Manage complex Sales Opportunities that involve several QuoteWerks
Quotes in a single Sales Opportunity in the CRM.

▪ Open QuoteWerks Quotes directly from within the Sales Opportunity
window in the CRM app.

▪ Convert a QuoteWerks Quote into a Charge record in CRM.

▪ And more…

We invite you to read our press release and stay tuned for a more in depth look at the bidirectional integration in the near future!

In the meantime, we encourage you to join us as we celebrate our partnership with Aspire Technologies, Inc., and get excited because the tracking and management of your sales opportunities just got so much easier!

Happy Sales Quoting!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Company, IT Industry, Product | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on CRM and QuoteWerks Now Integrate!

Statistics Board

Certain members of our team LOVE riddles. In their honor, here’s a good one: what’s both old and new, useful and more powerful than a team of heavy-weight contortionists? No, not a 110,000 horsepower engine! This is a tech blog. Want to try again? Give up? The answer is….

PSA Version 5.6!

We bet you didn’t see that one coming!

In all seriousness, we are very excited about the release of version 5.6. This new version of our professional services automation (PSA) software includes a plethora of new automation features that can greatly increase your productivity, your efficiency and your profitability.

Over the next few entries, we will be exploring some of 5.6’s new and interesting additions starting with the new Statistics Board.

We recognize that maximizing efficiency and profitability requires more than just automation services; it requires information. So, with version 5.6, we have included a new Statistics Board that provides you with instant access to a variety of statistical and summary information regarding your business. Having access to these key performance indicators (KPIs) gives you the ability to evaluate the performance of both your individual employees and your business as a whole.

From providing you with easy access to information, such as the average time it takes to complete a Ticket, to the total Charge hours assessed to your team of technicians, and the total number of newly expired warranty licenses, all of the Statistics Board’s query results enable you to assess your business’ current performance, and help you plan for an even brighter and more successful future for your business.

The Statistics Board query results cover a range key performance indicators, including issues pertaining to Tickets, Sales Opportunities, Assets, Contracts and Charges. To help you use the Statistics Board to its full potential, the board can be customized to be filtered by employee and time period. In addition, you can also compare results (e.g. the performance of two technicians during the same time period or the total number of Charge hours for two time periods). Being able to customize your queries and compare results gives you the power to manage your company more efficiently and maximize your time and resources.

In order to make accessing the query results even easier, you can also personalize the Statistic Board by creating custom names for the Statistic lines, change Text colors (based on the result), background colors and text styles.

Also, for continued analysis, query results can be exported to Excel with a mere click of the “Export to Excel” button. Accessing data to evaluate and bolster your company couldn’t be any easier!

Like the Statistics Board, the list of beneficial features that we have added to version 5.6 will help you run your business more seamlessly and effectively. Most importantly, with this new version, there are new ways for you to reduce the number of hours you spend managing your company while you increase the number of hours you spend growing your company.

We feel fortunate to be sharing all of these exciting updates with you and look forward to sharing more addition insights into version 5.6’s new features with you over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, enjoy exploring this new and exciting 5.6 version of our PSA! And for those who have yet to upgrade, click here.

Also, for those not yet using the app already, we invite you to try a fully functional, 30 day free trial of thew new version by clicking here.

We hope you enjoy!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Product | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Statistics Board

New Release: version 5.6 is Here!

We have always been dedicated to producing professional services automation (PSA) software that improves the efficiency with which IT services providers, managed services providers (MSPs) and computer repair professionals run their companies. As demands on IT professionals continue to evolve and technology continues to improve, we continue to augment our PSA system for MSPs to enable our users to run their businesses using the most current and powerful features.

Today, we are thrilled to announce that we have, once again, enhanced our offering. With version 5.6, users gain access to a slew of brand new features and a enhancements that make managing their businesses easier and more efficient.

We invite you all view our official press release by clicking on the following link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/8/prweb8684675.htm.

Also, if you’re not already using our PSA for your business and would like to try this new version with a free, 30 day, fully functional trial, please click here, and experience the streamlining features that our CRM software has to offer.

Over the next few weeks, we look forward to exploring the new features with you on our blog.

Until then, enjoy version 5.6 and the exciting new features it has to offer!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Company, IT Industry, Product | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on New Release: version 5.6 is Here!

An Invitation to Join the Release Candidate

In high school, there’s always that amazing and exclusive party for which people clamor for an invitation. It’s the party that tells you how you rank on the school’s social ladder. In movies, this major blowout is thrown by the the coolest girl in school, the one with the perfect hair, the perfect house and the perfect boyfriend. It’s only upon receiving the elusive Holy Grail of high school popularity, also known as an invitation to the party, that can students breath a sigh of relief and revel in knowing that they have made it socially.

While we’re not in high school anymore, and if we were, being that we’re a bunch of software developers, we probably wouldn’t be making the party’s guest list anyway, we are throwing a party of our own that is one for the movies (or, at least, one for the techies)!

Last week, we brought you news that we are going to be releasing version 5.6, the newest and most robust version of our professional services automation (PSA) software yet, and today, we are celebrating the unveiling of the Release Candidate for the new version of our software solution.

We are inviting our users to join us on the Release Candidate for version 5.6 to experience the new and enhanced features of our PSA software solution that add increased functionality to our PSA solution.

If you haven’t had a chance to preview some of version 5.6’s new features, take a look at last week’s blog entry (Muggles and the Magic of version 5.6) to get some more information about the new version.

In the meantime, you are hereby formally invited to click here to join the Release Candidate party for version 5.6 and catapult yourself to the top tiers of the PSA ladder for IT professionals. You won’t want to miss this celebration!

Until next time,
Success Team

Posted in Company, Product | Tagged , , | Comments Off on An Invitation to Join the Release Candidate