A Day in the Life of a CRM Administrator

Analytics - Using Column Formulas with Numeric Data

2010-08-09T14:56:00.005-07:00

I've made lots of lists with the reporting tool and many times i've wanted a count of the table rows as I review my report. Today i'll show you how to add this simple feature to your report.

In the design mode, simply duplicate the column you wish to run the count for. You'll go into edit the formula where you'll choose the RCOUNT feature from the Running Aggregate section. Note that you can apply this function to any column from the subject area. The expression you use in the RCOUNT has no bearing on the results of the formula, because the RCOUNT function provides a simple running row count in the results table.

Figure 1: For the column formula you'll select Function > Running Aggregate > RCOUNT

Figure 2: Numbered Account Report

Adding Print and Download Links to Dashboard Reports

2010-03-17T10:50:00.002-07:00

On all the pre-built reports and dashboards you have the option to print and download the results out of CRM On Demand. I quickly came to realize that when I added reports to custom dashboards that I was creating that the print and download links weren't included in the reports.

To enable this feature for reports in a custom dashboard you'll need to take the following steps:

Manage Dashboards
Design
Properties of the specific report within the dashboard (You will need to repeat this process for each report within the dashboard for this feature to be enabled)
Report Links
Select links to display (Refresh, Printer Friendly & Download)

If you're like me, we find that the use of dashboards helps to keep our reports in a clean organized place where we don't have to drill down into a number of different reports. Having the ability to export this data out of CRM On Demand and distribute to relevant management teams, etc. will aide you and your team in staying more productive as you use the system.

Customer Highlight: TIA, Inc. CRM On Demand Success Story

2009-12-18T14:24:00.002-07:00

I wanted to share the success of TIA, Inc. because I feel like they are a "typical" company out there trying to manage their customer database. Like many companies TIA was left using Excel spreadsheets to maintain their customer lists and information. While this may work for a short time, most companies find themselves outgrowing these spreadsheets and looking for a solution that can provide a more up-to-date easy-to-use platform to manage their database.

“As soon as I saw it, I knew that was the solution I needed and wanted,” Daya Haddock, CEO and President of TIA, Inc.

With Oracle CRM On Demand they now have the flexibility try new things to reach out to their customers. The important thing for TIA was to be able to have the information at their fingertips and have the data up front and in their face so they could act quickly and confidently.

To read TIA's story of moving to CRM On Demand visit this link, http://www.amxinc.com/index.cfm?Section=40&Page=26&node=mnu_1.

CRM On Demand Analytics

2009-12-17T14:16:00.005-07:00

As we come to the close of another year, I think we often tend to review what we've accomplished this past year and look towards our goals for the next. This review/preview time both for our personal lives and for our businesses I believe is essential to maintaining a state of happiness. We've faced some challenging moments in this past years economy, but we're still here fighting.

I feel like I live and die through the analytics portion of CRM On Demand. There is so much to be said about having that complete view of your customer. As we look at this time of review/preview we can look to gain a better sense of accountability from last year and a grasp on what lies ahead for the future. The challenge for CRM admins and Report writers is how to segment that data into a concise snap-shot view of what is happening on the ground floor.

As you start to get familiar with building reports, you're able to quickly create views that will benefit your day to day sales, marketing, and customer service reps as well as creating the higher level views for management to see where the gaps are.

For those interested in a high level overview of the analytics portion of CRM, Check out this quick video, http://www.amxinc.com/?Section=2&Page=339&prod=oracle.

Oracle has a great video series on how to build and customize reports. You should be able to access these through the "Training and Support" link in the upper right corner of your CRM application.

You can also find some great tips by visiting Oracle's CRM Blog, http://blogs.oracle.com/crm/.

I'm headed off to Portland and then to Lake Tahoe for the holidays to be with family, friends, and to get some good snowboarding in. I wish you all the best during this holiday season and look forward to making next year the best yet!

Personal Layouts

2009-09-04T10:01:00.008-07:00

I had a roommate in college that was a little OCD. When it came to cans of food in the cupboard, Where you put the dishes, or how you organize your closet he had a certain way he wanted things and made sure it was done that way. Labels on the cans of food always pointed towards you and they were organized left to right from biggest to smallest It seems like we all have different little things we do to keep things organized. While some people take this to the extreme most people want things in an order that makes sense to them so they can easily find and access their stuff.

It is no different when users access CRM. Modifying your personal layout should probably be one of the first things you show your new users when they login to the system. Over the past couple of years I've found myself making tweaks all along the way to make information easy to find.

To make changes to your personal layout first go to the "My Setup" link in the top right corner. Then select the "Personal Layout" link.

From here you can re-organize your tab layout. You can control the layout of each of your homepages for Accounts, Opportunities, Service Requests, etc. You can also change the order of the tabs within the detail records.

The last change you can make which I highly recommend is that of the Action Bar Layout. This is everything you see on the left side of the application. Move your Message Center, Search, Favorite Records, etc.

While this seems like such a simple task, many users don't realize they have the option of personalizing the application to fit their needs. I guess for my college roommate having those cans in a particular order just made sense for him and it worked. I believe small things like these will increase the user adoption for all of our CRM users.

Sales Process Coach

2009-08-21T14:50:00.005-07:00

Today's premier CRM systems embed best practices of the organization's sales processes throughout the entire life cycle of the opportunity. By now most companies have slimmed down their sales force to their best reps. The best companies try to take the knowledge and experience of their seasoned reps and use it to train new reps or develop current ones. However, getting a a sales rep to stop and help you with training might seem like an impossible task.

Oracle's CRM provides a structured sales methodology that guides sales reps from initial contact to closing deals. This is done through the Sales Process Coach which uses rules, scripts, and tracking procedures defined by management to ensure the reps are surrounded with the critical information they need to close deals.

Sales Process Coach is configured by each company to guide reps down the most effective path at every point in the sales cycle. As you progress through the various sales stages the Sales Process Coach presents the key points of information at your fingertips. My favorite part of the Sales Process Coach is the Useful Resources section that lists different documents or marketing materials that should be sent out at the different stages. This creates somewhat of a centralized document library for your reps.

I believe that this rules-based approach can help us train our sales force providing them a learning model that is immediate and reliable. Most of all, you can use these resources to transfer the knowledge of your best reps and capture them into your ever evolving sales methodology.

For a demo of Oracle's CRM or more information about the Sales Process Coach feel free to send me an email at bknowles@amxinc.com.

Website Leads

2009-08-07T17:09:00.006-07:00

I remember the days at AMX when all inquiries from our website would be sent to an email address, amxinfo@amxinc.com. The marketing department would then take that email route it to the appropriate sales reps to follow up with. At the time i didn't know any better and thought, "this is just how we do it at AMX."

Well, I'm starting to learn that there is always a better way to do things. This example is no different. We've built an integration from our website directly into CRM On Demand. Today, if you were to go sign up for one of our upcoming webinars, (http://www.amxinc.com/index.cfm?newinc=regcrm0819) you'd find a similar registration page that you would fill out anywhere else. The trick is what happens behind the scenes. As soon as you hit the "register now" button, not only are you sent the login information for that webinar but your information will be passed directly into CRM OD.

This saves a ton of time from the marketing side having to key in that information into your CRM system. From here you can either route that lead directly to the appropriate sales rep or put in place territory assignment rules that will do it for you.

Reply to this post if you'd like to learn more about different integration options related to CRM OD. As we continue to challenge the status quo for the way we do things, I think we start to see different processes that could be automated which will save us so much time in the long run. I never thought I'd see the day when I didn't have to manually key in that lead info. Now, I don't understand why people would take the time to manually key in that information when it could be done for you.

Advanced Reporting Techniques: Action Link

2009-06-09T11:24:00.017-07:00

If you are new to CRM OnDemand or a veteran, this is one trick you need to know when creating reports. Reports can give you great visibility into your data and often here at AMX I find our managers wanting to see specific details about certain record types that you just can't fit into a report. The Action Link allows you to drill down to a specific record within CRM OnDemand directly from the report without having to go and search for that record directly. This is also an easy way to develop call lists for your inside sales team.

Action Links can be created for Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads and Service Requests. For my example I will create a simple Account History report.

First you need to choose the field where you want to have your action link. In this case I've included Account Name. It is important to know that for the action link to work you must place the record ID field to the right of the field. In this case Account ID, but similarly Contact ID, Lead ID, etc. I usually just hide the ID column from the report.

Now you need to modify the Account Name field. Click on the column properties icon, and under style expand the "Custom CSS Style Options (HTML Only)" section. Check the second box (Use Custom CSS Class) and in the text box you need to type "ActionLink" with no space.

The next step is to click on the Data Format tab while still in Column Properties. Check the box to Override Default Data Format. Then select "Custom Text Format" from the drop down menu under the "Treat Text As" field. You will then need to specify your Custom Text. For an Account the custom text is:

For other records such as Opportunities, Contacts, Leads, or Service Requests you'll only need to replace "account" with the other record type names to make this work for each.

By inserting these action links into your reports you will now have the ability to drill down into specific detail records and see additional information that wouldn't fit into your report. This feature will save you a lot of time and increase user adoption as reps will have an easier way of navigating the system.

R16 Update - How to turn on "Record Preview Mode"

2009-05-06T16:00:00.003-07:00

I've talked about the record preview mode before, and I assumed that when Oracle updated us to CRM On Demand Release 16 that it would be automatically turned on. Well, it wasn't. This post will show you how to turn on the record preview mode.

Go to: Admin > Company Administration > Company Profile

From here look for the pick list entitled Record Preview Mode. You have the option to select the viewing option for your company. During the upgrade it was defaulted to "Off." You have the option to select "Click on Preview Icon" and "Hover over Link." My personal preference as i've used the system made me want to choose the click on preview icon.

Once the company administrator has made this change it will be reflected for all users. Individual users can change these settings for their own user profile.

Go to: My Setup > Personal Profile > My Profile

Find the Record Preview Mode pick list and select your viewing preferences.

Outlook E-mail Integration

2009-04-29T16:57:00.010-07:00

Let's face it, you live in and die through e-mail. It's the first thing you open up when you arrive at work and it's the last thing you shut down before leaving. For many of us it doesn't stop there as we receive endless e-mails on our phones. When we're looking at CRM it is must that there is an easy integration between our e-mail client and our CRM solution.

Like most companies, here at AMX we use Microsoft Outlook. Oracle's CRM has an integration that each of your users can easily setup so that you can have record of all these important emails that come in and out throughout the day.

To download is easy:

My Setup

Data & Integration Tools

Oracle Outlook Email Integration On Demand

Download Oracle Outlook Email Integration On Demand

Follow the simple steps for the download which allows you to add emails to Oracle CRM On Demand directly from Microsoft Outlook. You can link emails to Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, or Service Request records in Oracle CRM On Demand.

You can see that once you are done composing your email all you need to do is click "Send & Add to CRM On Demand." Then you get the following pop up below. It will automatically search for related records and add those into the task that is going to be created. All attachments will also be tied into this activity. You have the option to search through CRM On Demand to find related records and tie the activity to the Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, or Service Request.

Once you hit "Save" you're done! A new email task has been created and you have a record of your sent e-mail.

Not only can you save emails as you send them but at any point you can open any email and click the "Add to CRM On Demand" button and you will go through the simple wizard to create your task.

This tool has been a lifesaver for me and for our CRM users. We all want to spend less time doing the administrative stuff and more time doing our jobs. This e-mail integration will save you time and a headache.

CRM Webinar: Sales & Marketing Analytics for JD Edwards

2009-04-15T16:36:00.003-07:00

This will be a good webinar to attend. Thursday 4/16/2009 at 11:00am Pacific.

Webinar Details:

Join Tyler Harker, AMX Account Executive, for this webinar and your chance to learn how Oracle CRM OnDemand can provide sales intelligence for JD Edwards. Compare and contrast CRM options for JD Edwards and see a live demonstration of Oracle's CRM OnDemand integrated with JD Edwards

Topics we will address during the presentation include:

JD Edwards World and EnterpriseOne
Address Book Sync and Lead to Order live demonstration
Closed Loop Marketing
Track it from event to ROI
Simplify sales processes with built-in Sales Coach
Outlook/Lotus Notes Email Integration
Analytics - Sales & Marketing

You can register here: http://www.amxinc.com/index.cfm?newinc=regcrm0416

Let me know what you think! I'll be hosting. :)

If you can't make it, send me an email at bknowles@amxinc.com. I can get you a copy of the recording.

Customers Speak and Oracle Listens with Release 16 of CRM OD

2009-03-06T11:27:00.009-07:00

Well, AMX isn't on Release 16 of Oracle CRM OnDemand yet, but our upgrade date should be sometime soon. I did get a chance to look around and play with a few demo accounts.

Remember how you have to click back and forth from the Account Detail records to Contact Detail records to Opportunity Detail records and so on? While all of your information is there, sometimes it seems a tedious task to be moving back and forth to get the information we want. Well, I'm happy to say this is no more!

In R16 Oracle has created the ability to hover over the Account Name for example when you are on a Opportunity Detail record and key information will display details for that account record in a pop up. I've included a screenshot below. My first attempt at adding an image. :)

I know I'm excited about this new feature. I believe everyone using Oracle's CRM OnDemand will be happy also. In my opinion this is such a huge time saver for someone working in the solution. Well Oracle...you're on the right track. Let's keep these great enhancements coming!

Adding Custom Fields

2009-02-11T16:41:00.004-07:00

Oracle's CRM comes with a pretty good selection of out-of-the-box fields, but every business is different and tracks different information. Today I'd like to walk you through the simple process of adding a custom field.

For my example let's say our company wants to track the economic sector that our accounts are in. We work with a variety of companies that are in the Private, Public, and Non-Profit Sectors. When we run different marketing campaigns we need to be able to segment these different sectors.

Here are the steps:

Go to the Admin Page
Application Customization
Record Type Setup: Account
Field Management: Account Field Setup
New Field
Give a display name for your field (in this case we'll use Sector)
Field Type: Picklist

We have a couple of other options we can choose here, like making this a read-only field, or a required field, etc. I will choose to make this a required field. Hit save.

Now that we've created our picklist we need to add the values to the picklist. When you find Sector in the list click on edit picklist. Set the order and add in your values: Private, Public, and Non-Profit. Save & close.

We're almost done. Now we need to position the picklist on the account detail page. To do this go back to Account Application Customization. Under Page Layout Management select Account Page Layout. Click edit and go to step 3. Select your field from the available fields and use the arrows to move your field where you want it to be (I recommend the key account information section). Hit finish and you're done!

Quick Lists

2008-12-22T14:49:00.002-07:00

My flight from Salt Lake City to Portland for the holidays was cancelled and it looks as if I'll be spending the next few days here in Salt Lake until they can get me a flight home.

As I've been here I started to go back and look at some of my outstanding leads and realized how sweet list creation is in Siebel. Now, I've created numerous lists before, but for some reason being out on the road and somewhat "living like a sales rep," has given me a better chance to see what a sales rep would want to see.

I want a quick view of all my outstanding leads, So I simply go to the leads tab and click to create a new list. I'm able to set any filters or conditions that I want. In this case I just want the owner to be equal to Brent Knowles (Siebel also comes with out of the box lists already set up for you).

The best part about the lists are that I now have the chance to set which fields I want to see and where to see them. This is really where the magic happens for me. A quick easy way to view my data fast so that I can make sure I'm spending enough time nurturing all my leads.

To be honest one of the reasons I love lists so much is the ability to in-line edit my records. I can update fields in my lists without actually going to the record detail page. This gives me the ability to update specific information for my leads without spending a lot of time drilling down into record detail pages.

Creating a good list can be one of the most important things your sales reps do. The great thing is that they can create lists for themselves so that they see the data they need to see. These lists can save your reps a ton of time which ultimately results in more revenue for your company.

How to Create a Workflow

2008-12-03T17:38:00.005-07:00

I want to show how easy it is to create a simple workflow in your CRM system. First let's start with a business scenario that we can build our workflow from.

Dave, a Sales Manager at ABC, Inc. frequently has opportunities that range from $25,000 to $500,000. It is important for Dave to know of all the big opportunities that are being created by his sales reps. Dave has asked the Siebel Admin to create a workflow so that he is notified by email when a new opportunity is created that is over $200,000.

Now that we have our business scenario, we can build the workflow. This particular workflow would be an opportunity workflow. Step one is to give your workflow a name. In this case I'll call it "email for Opportunites greater that $200k." The next step is to choose the Record Type. For this instant I'll choose "Opportunity." The next step is important and it is choosing the Trigger Event. This is what Siebel needs to know to decide when to fire the workflow. For our case I will choose "When new record saved."

Now that I have the basis for my workflow I can create my condition. I open up the expression builder and retrieve the revenue field. from here i just insert my condition "[revenue]>200000" and hit save.

Now that we have our workflow set up, we need to tell it what to do when the conditions are met. In this case we are sending an email to the Sales Manager. Under the Actions tab click Menu and choose "Create Email Notification." This pulls you into a simple wizard where you can design the email you want sent out. Your email could look something like this:

Hi Dave,

I've just created a new opportunity for ABC, Inc., The opportunity name is "ABC, Inc. - Jet 2x 3000."

Opportunity information:
Close Date: 6/1/2009
Revenue: $ 400,000
Sales Stage: Discover
Next Step: Discovery call with executive team

Thanks,

John Smith

You can see that I was able to pull in many custom fields from the CRM System. I've highlighted these in Blue. But this is very flexible. Notice that I pulled in the Manager's name to make this a personalized email. You can choose from any fields in your system to make this a very neat and effective email. Now the Sales Manager, Dave is informed and up to date on the new opportunity that John has created for ABC, Inc.

I set the action item to send the email to the manager of the rep who created the opportunity. But, this is once again a very flexible option within Siebel. I could have easily sent this to the account owner, a specific user, the entire opportunity team, or to any valid email address.

In just a few simple steps you can have your own custom workflows set up so that everyone in your organization has all the information they need to act quickly and effectively. There is a lot of power in these workflows. Other Action items that you can trigger on top of emails are: Creating a Task, Assigning a Book, and Creating an Integration Event. If you have any questions on how to create these kinds of Actions associated to your workflow please let me know.

Lead Qualification Scripts

2008-10-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

Like many companies marketing employees must wear many hats. AMX is no different. I'd like to describe a situation that I'm sure many will agree with. Everything is fine until the cash flow starts to diminish and you see a decrease in revenue. I'm seeing this in many companies lately with the economy the way it is. When the revenue isn't coming in, sales folks continually come to the marketing folks and say we need more leads! Then the marketing folks turn to the sales folks and say, what happened with the leads we gave you?

Many executives look into their pipeline and see a "leaky pipe." Leads are coming in but we aren't seeing orders or purchases coming out of the pipe. Today i'd like to share with you how Siebel CRM OnDemand can help plug up the holes in your leaky pipe by using lead qualification scripts.

Siebel allows for the creation of a lead qualification script. This is basically a survey within the lead detail page. Remember, the purpose is to allow your marketing team to effectively qualify leads before they get passed on to your field sales reps. You can create a customized script that matches and patterns your specific business processes. You will be able to add a weighted score to the answers which allows for easy of use and functionality for reps working the system.

Let me walk you through a sample process.

A new lead comes through our company website that says that someone has downloaded a whitepaper. (side note, I love working for a tech company because all I need to do is walk upstairs and it seems like they can solve anything! We had them create a simple integration between our website and Siebel). Like many companies we have a small telesales team. We assign the lead to them where they can then go qualify the lead using the lead qualification script. Depending on the answers they get from the follow up with the prospect will determine the threshold score. This score can be set by you. So let's say this lead needs a threshold score of 80 to be passed on to the field sales reps. This lead scores an 85. Through workflow which can be set up, you can have the status of the lead automatically updated. You can also assign tasks, and have email notifications sent out to the field sales reps stating that they now have a qualified lead.

Now, let's say that the prospect downloading the whitepaper wasn't at a point to even start talking about purchasing one of your products. If they don't pass the threshold score, the lead can be set to a status of archived, and from there enter your lead nurturing program set up by your marketing department and continue to nurture that lead until it gets to the point of becoming a real qualified lead.

Okay, so i've rambled on for a while here. In the end how can a lead qualification script help close the loop in that leaky pipe? I hear on a constant basis that sales reps don't follow up with all the leads marketing passes their way because they think they are crappy leads. The lead qualification scripts will allow your marketing team to illiminate unqualified leads before they start to bog down your pipeline. In the end we ensure qualified leads are getting to get to the right sales reps at the right times with the right follow up action.

Welcome!

2008-10-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

I suppose my first post should be an introduction to myself. My name is Brent Knowles and I work for AMX International. AMX International is an Oracle Certified Partner that specializes in JD Edwards software. We also have a strong focus in Siebel CRM OnDemand. If you're not familiar with AMX International, feel free to visit our website at http://www.amxinc.com/.

I've been with AMX for a little over a year and a half now. My intent in creating this blog is two fold. First, I want a place to document experiences that I have as a database administrator for the Siebel CRM OnDemand application which we use internally at AMX International. Second, I want to make others aware of the features both good and bad of the application.

I'll throw out the almost cliche remark that i'm not a very good writer. I hope those who read this blog will find it both interesting and useful.

I encourage anyone who is a current Administrator of a CRM system, or anyone considering buying a CRM system to give me a call. I'd love to chat and exchange experiences with you.

Have a great day!

brent.knowles@amxinc.com
(208) 542-8215