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vtiger CRM is a free, full-featured, 100% Open Source CRM software ideal for small and medium businesses, with low-cost product support available to production users. It is used widely in dozens of countries with localization available in over 15 languages. vtiger CRM has a vibrant community of users driving the product forward, and contributing to it's development.

Features

CRM provides a complete set of CRM capabilities, such as

Sales force automation
Marketing automation
Activity management
Calendaring
Customer support & service
Inventory management
Security management
E-mail integration

Videos

Access vTiger CRM Videos here.

First Steps

Becoming a User

Before you can start working with the CRM system you must identify yourself to the CRM system as an authorized user. This is done by a login procedure which requires a Username and a Password. Both are provided to you by your CRM system administrator.

Login

Your CRM system administrator will provide you with a URL to be used as the access address to the CRM system at your browser. You will also need the Username and the Password of your CRM account.

Upon starting the CRM software, the Login screen will appear. The user must type an Username and Password into the available edit fields in order to continue on the program. A user may also choose a different Theme or Language. Username, Password, Themes and Languages are provided by the system administrator. After entering the Username and Password, press <Enter>, or the Sign in Button.

CRM Home Page

After login, you will be shown a Home page screen.Based on the theme you selected, the system settings done by your administrator, and the data stored at the CRM system, your actual screen may look different. The following chapters will explain how you can customize the Home page and how you can use the CRM functions.

Home Page Content

The main area of the Home page, as illustrated in the center of figure: CRM Home page, displays a block summary of the most important CRM information. You can change the order of theses blocks by dragging and dropping. You can also change the content of your home page as explained in section: My Preferences.

Homepage Dashboard: This dashboard displays the data stored at the CRM system as a graphic. This graphic summarizes all information that are related to the user logged in.

My Top Accounts: Here you can see a list of your top accounts. The content of this list is generated by adding all amounts listed at potentials related to individual accounts.

My Top Open Potentials: This is a list of your potentials. It does not include the potentials of other users.

My Group Allocations: This a list of CRM entries which have been assigned to a group where you are a member.

My Trouble Tickets: This is a list of tickets assigned to you or to a group where you are a member.

Key Metrics: The key metrics is a powerful tool. Its function depends on your list view settings. For the data displayed in each CRM module, you may create list views based on criteria that meet your special needs. These criteria can be met, for instance, by using the filter functions. The key metrics will add up the number of CRM entries that meet these criteria. For instance, you build a list view of all quotes which has been drafted. Then the key metrics will show you the total number of these quotes.

My Top Open Quotes: Here are your open quotes listed. All entries are sorted by their amount.

My Top Open Sales Orders: Here are your open sales orders listed. All entries are sorted by

their amount.

My Top Open Purchase Orders: Here are your open purchase orders listed. All entries are sorted by their amount.

My Top Open Invoice: Here are your open invoices listed. All entries are sorted by their amount.

My New Leads: Here are the new Leads displayed. You may select at the My Settings menu what you consider as new.

Upcoming & Pending Activities: This lists the upcoming and pending activities from your calendar. Pending activities are overdue and not closed.

My Recent FAQs: This is a list of your entries at the knowledge base.

In the right-hand area of the CRM's Home page, you see a list of your upcoming and pending activities as well as the tag cloud. The activity features of the CRM system are described in section: Calendar and Activities. The purpose and the functions of the tag cloud are explained in section: Tag Cloud.

Navigation

The smart design of the CRM system will allow you to get most information quickly. You can navigate within the CRM as if you were browsing websites. It is recommended to use the icons and links provided by the CRM system. Advanced users may switch to tabbed browsing (offered e.g. by the Firefox Browser or IE7) to speed up the handling process. You may reach each CRM page by a few clicks. All CRM pages are in hierarchical order. You may switch between pages at the same hierarchical level or you may access a page directly. Based on the content of each individual page you may use the following keyboard shortcuts:

[Alt+E:] Edit

[Alt+S:] Save

[Alt+Q:] Search

[Alt+C:] Empty

[Alt+G: ]Select

[Alt+D: ]Delete

[Alt+U:] Copy

At the Top of the CRM system, as illustrated at figure: Top Area you have access to different area types and functions to navigate and to work with the CRM.

Login area: In this area you may access your preference data, get help or release information, or leave the CRM system.

Navigation area: Here you can swap between the functions and data lists offered by the CRM system.

Quick-Menu: Here you can quickly reach data entry pages.

Search: Here you can search you entire data base.

Tools: By clicking these icons, you get a quick access to the calendar, the clock, the calculator and other functions. In addition, you may use the Open Selection Menu icon for a quick access to all CRM modules. These icons are available at all CRM menus if appropriate.

My Preferences

When you click My Preferences a new window opens as displayed in figure: My Preferences. This allows you to view and edit user information and to set your own preferences. Most of these fields are self-explanatory. The highlighted fields in figure: My Preferences are fields that serve special purposes and are explained in the following table:

User Login & Role - Admin: If the check box is marked, the user has administrator privileges. This field cannot be edited by a user; it can only be changed by the administrator.

User Login & Role - Role: This field displays the role assigned to the user. This field cannot be edited by a user; it can only be changed by the administrator.

User Login & Role - Status: This field shows whether a user is active (only important for administrators). Inactive users are not allowed to access the CRM system. This field cannot be edited by a user; it can only be changed by the administrator.

User Login & Role - Default Lead Display: This Field defines how long a Lead is considered as new and displayed at the home page.

More Information - Signature: This defines the signature which is automatically added to outgoing e-mails.

More Information - Internal Mail Composer: This defines whether the internal CRM mail composer is used when clicking on an e-mail address. If switched off the mail composer installed on your computer is used.

More Information - Reports To: Here the supervisor of a particular user is defined. This does not influence the security settings at all.

User Photograph: Here an image or photo of an user can be stored.

Home Page Components: This defines which CRM information is displayed at the users home page.

Tag Cloud Display: This defines whether the tag cloud is displayed.

My Groups: If a user is a member of a group, a list of the membership is shown.

Login History: That displays the login history for the CRM system.

Every user can define and change his own password. It is recommended to change the password frequently.

Click on the [Edit] button to make changes. Alternatively you may move your mouse pointer over an entry. An edit function is then offered, which you can use to change one particular entry.

The View Audit Trail button is only functional, if the CRM system administrator enables this function. Please refer to section: Audit Trails for further information.

The order and the content of the blocks shown at Home can be modified for each individual user. You may change the display order of these blocks at home by drag and drop. You may change the content by clicking [My Preferences] and the [Edit] button. Mark the information blocks you want to see at your home page display.

In addition, you may define the conditions of displaying entries such as the Default Lead View and Default Calendar View.

Global Search Function

The Home pages provides a powerful search function that allows you to search the entire database. You may search for any terms. Fill in the search field and hit the [Find] button.

Quick-Menu

The Quick-Menu at Home allows you to jump quickly to an entry page. At the drop down menu select the new entry you want to make.

Access Privileges

Your access privileges to the CRM system are set by the administrator when configuring the CRM system. The following privilege types are available:

The permission to use certain CRM modules.
The permission to view data in certain CRM modules.
The permission to edit or to change data in certain CRM modules.
The permission to delete data in certain CRM modules.
The permission to export or import data from certain CRM modules.

The CRM system makes sure that you can only exercise certain operations if you have the proper privileges. You may get further information at Administrative Tasks. Please contact your system administrator if you want to know more about the privileges set in your system or if you want to have them changed.

How to Start

To best use, the CRM system needs to be configured based on your company's needs. Every user with administrator privileges is allowed to modify the basic settings. All the possibilities are described in chapter: User Administration of this manual. In addition, there are many functions available which allow users to configure the presentation of data without changing the basic settings and without administrator access privileges. All the options will be explained in the following sections.

Even without a lot of configuration you will quickly be able to start with the CRM system. The data about customers are the core of each CRM system. So you may start to enter such data. Since the CRM system is much more than a simple storage system, I recommend that you make yourself familiar with the sales process as described in section: The Sales Process. Start with entering customer data as a Lead. Then convert such a lead into a Sales Potential. Watch how contacts, accounts and potentials are generated automatically. You may also import lead data from your existing office environment to speed up the process.

As the first step I recommend to start with entering the most important contact information of your active customers. You may add further information later. You will also need to enter your company as an account and employees data as contacts. You will need these data to efficiently communicate with other users. For further instructions please refer to section: Customer contacts. After you have entered your contacts, you will have a wide variety of automated CRM functions available.

As the second step I recommend that you begin with entering your product and/or service offerings. In section: Product Related Entries you will find detailed instructions for entering product and service information as well as price books. Again, start with entering only the most important information. You may append the data later.

If multiple users start using the CRM at the same time, please keep in mind that you have to enter any kind of information only once. Make sure that you communicate with the others.

Use your CRM data immediately when you schedule the next customer contact. Get yourself familiar with the activity functions as they are described in section: Calendar and Activities and define your sales process by different sales stages.

Over time you will improve your capabilities to operate the system step by step. In a short time you will experience the use of the system as a habit.

Data Entries for the CRM System

Customer Contacts

The effective administration and utilization of customer contacts is the most important element of a customer relationship management system. Ultimately, all business activities are targeted on customers. The CRM system distinguishes three different contact types:

Leads

Contacts to single persons

Contacts to an organisation, such as legal entities, groups, agencies etc.

The CRM offers you to enter any kind of information to each of these contact types and to link organisation and individual persons to other CRM entries if appropriate.

During the work with the CRM system, contacts should always be linked to the different stages of the sales process, such as leads, potentials or help desk. By referencing to sales stages you will be able to handle your contacts efficiently.

The following example describes a typical sales procedure:

Based on a first contact to a prospective customer a Lead will be created. As this sales stage it is not clear whether there will be a business opportunity. This Lead will contain all the information about the contact or the account available at this sales stage.

The Lead status of this contact will be maintained until it is clear whether there is a business opportunity. All activities related to this Lead will be listed within the CRM.

If there is a business opportunity, the Lead will be converted to a Potential. At the same time contacts and accounts are created automatically and the Lead will be deleted. All the information collected for the Lead is still available but will now be presented based on the basis of their content in contacts, accounts or potentials.

By using this procedure, only those contacts and accounts are created which have a chance to become a business. The CRM system will not be overloaded with useless data.

In addition, you may enter new accounts or contacts directly if they do not fit to the described procedure. This might be true for your own employees, partner of your company, personal contacts etc.

New Leads

The sales process supported by the CRM has been divided into the following steps:

Lead

Potential

Quote

Sales and Purchase Order

Invoice

Service

You will find a more detailed description in section: The Sales Process.

Leads are your first contact to a prospective customer. You may collect leads from your marketing activities such as trade shows, advertisement, presentations etc. Probably, most of your leads will not lead to a business.

If you want to collect more detailed lead information, you may click the [Sales] tab at the navigation area shown in figure: Top Area. Use the plus icon to open the edit view for a new lead as shown in figure: New Lead. Now you can enter all the lead information you have.

Click [Save] to send your entries to the CRM system.

New Accounts

It is most efficient way is to create a new account from a lead as described at section: Creating Potentials from Leads. However, sometimes it will be necessary to enter new accounts directly. This is helpful, for instance, if you want to have competitors, private contacts or special contacts also stored in your CRM system. Since account information can contain references to contacts, it is always advisable to enter the account information first before you take care about the contact information. When you add a contact to the CRM system later, the related account information will already be available.

To create a new account, click [New Account] at the entry Quick-Create menu.goto [Sales] -> [Accounts] and click the plus icon. An new window will open.

Now you can enter the basic account information. You should only enter information which is relevant to you or to your business. The illustration exemplify already some entries. Non-relevant entry fields can remain empty or should be removed by your CRM system administrator. You may also consider to use customized fields. If several user have writing access to the same entry fields, make sure that you agree on a common standard for making entries.

In case you want to use the Locate Map function of the CRM system in another country than the USA, you must include the country information.

You may add further account information by clicking the [More Information] tab.

Click the [Save] button to transfer your data to the CRM system.

New Contacts

If you want to enter contact information to individuals, please click [New Contact] at the entry Quick-Create menu or goto [Sales] -> [Contacts] and click the plus icon. A new window will open.

The offered standard fields are self-explanatory. Make sure that all CRM users agree on the same purpose for each entry field. Your CRM administrator may remove those standard fields which are not suitable for your company based on profiles, or add additional entry fields as explained in chapter: User Administration.

If you click the [More Information] tab, you may add further information to the contact.

While most are self-explanatory, the following fields serve special purposes:

Email Opt Out: Contacts which have this check box selected will not receive e-mail messages that are normally sent to them by the CRM system. The CRM system will not send automatic e-mails to these contacts. This helps you, for instance, to respect the contact's wishes when it comes to privacy.

Reports To: Here you may chose the name of the supervisor if the contact has been entered already.

Do Not Call: Mark this check box to indicate that the contact does not wish to receive calls.

Reference: You may use this check box to indicate whether this contact is willing to serve as a reference for you business with other customers.

Notify Owner: When you mark this check box, the owner of the contact will be informed by e-mail whenever the data change.

Contact Image: If available, you may also upload a contact image to the CRM. Please note that this image must be in the *.png, *.jpg or *.gif format. Note that this image will be also displayed as an icon at the contacts list view. A mouseover function for this icon is provided at the list view which displays the full image.

You may also use this entry page to allow contacts to access the Customer Portal. The Customer Portal provides contacts with a limited access to the CRM help desk functions. Please refer to section: Customer Portal in this manual and to the Customer Portal manual for further information. Click the [Save] button to transfer the entries to the CRM system.

Export and Import of Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Vendors

The export and import functions will help you to exchange data between your office environment and the CRM system. CRM data can be used by a large variety of other applications at your office.

To export or to import data, click a module name as shown in figure: Top Area. You will get to the List View . At the top of the list, you will find the import and export tools icons.

The following section describes the import and export function for contacts. If you want to import or export accounts or other modules, you can use this description accordingly.

Import Contacts

Click [Import Contacts] at the Tool tab as shown at figure: Contact List View. A new window will open. You have to select your data source by browsing your computer or network. If you have created a file that meets the requirements, you can upload the file into the CRM system. Click [Next] to continue.

For the second step, a new window will open.

At this site you have to link your data with the according CRM fields. You see the standard fields as they are offered by the CRM, and your custom fields if you have created them beforehand. It is not necessary that you to create references for all data types in your file, but you must link the mandatory fields. In the illustration you can see sample entries.

When you have set all references, click [Import Now] to transfer your data to the data base.

At the last import step the CRM shows you the result of the import operation. Below you will see a list of all imported contacts. Now you can review your import, accept it or reject it.

Export Data

With version 5.0.4 the export functions have been improved. You may select the following criteria for your export:

all records of this module

only the records you have marked at the list view of this module

all records which meets your search criteria at the list view of this module

all data of the current page at the list view of this module without search criteria set

Therefore you have to make your decision at the list view about the data you would like to export, before you hit the export icon. For instance, if you would like to export all records of contacts where the last name starts with a B, make a search as explained in section: List Search with B as your search criteria. Afterwards hit the [export icon] at the list view menu, if this function is available to you, and the menu will be displayed.

At this menu you may change you selection criteria if desired and click the [Export Contacts] button. A new window for uploading data to your computer opens. The upload window you will see depends on your operating system. If you have a Windows computer, you will see a window. If you click [OK], all data will be exported to your computer. The data are provided as ASCII file with comma separated values, also called CSV format.

Data Format for Imports

Before you can import data you have to format these data in order to meet the CRM's requirements.

The first requirement is that the data must be presented in the ASCII format with comma separated values (CSV). The CSV file format is often used to exchange data between disparate applications.

If you want to import data, these data must be formatted according to the following rules:

All fields are separated by commas and must be individually wrapped by double-quote characters.

All data sets must include the mandatory fields (e.g. Last Name and Company for leads).

Fields that contain embedded line-breaks or fields with leading or trailing spaces are not allowed.

Number fields have to contain numbers only without "." or "," characters (for instance, use 3800 instead of 3,800).

Fields that contain double quote characters should be avoided. If you have to use them, they must be surrounded by double-quotes, and the embedded double-quotes must each be represented by a pair of consecutive double quotes.

The first record in your file may be a header record containing column (field) names.

Dates must be imported in the following format: year-month-day hour:minute:second, for example: 2008-01-07 00:00:00

Entries for Multi-Select Combo Boxes must be separated by a |##| character string, for example: "America |##| Europe"

Checkboxes must be imported in the following format: 1 for yes, 0 for no

Each line represents a data set.

The second requirement is that all your data must use the UTF-8 character set. Please refer to chapter: UTF-8 coding tools for further information.

The third requirement is that you have to include custom fields with your import if you have created such fields before. In case you do not have a content for the custom fields you may leave the field in your data list empty but you must import it. If you do not import these fields, the status of these fields in your CRM's database remains undefined and you can not use such fields for filter functions.

Hints for CSV and Excel Formats

The file formats used in Microsoft Excel have become a pseudo standard throughout the industry, even among non-Microsoft platforms.

Excel is an application that also produces and uses CSV. Unfortunately, depending on your Excel version the import of CSV data may cause some problems. Some Excel versions do not automatically accept comma separated values. If you experience that after open of exported CRM data, all fields are listed in one column, you may use the following instructions for clean them up:

Import the CSV file, rather than just opening it. On the Data Menu, choose Import External Data, then import your data. Browse to the CSV file from the CRM, and click Open. This brings up the Text Import Wizard.

In step 1, select Delimited.

In step 2, check Comma. You will see a preview that shows how the data will be separated.

In step 3, you can select each column in turn and choose a format. For the CRM date choose Text and you will get a well sorted Excel sheet.

If you want to import contact data from you office application, you need to make sure that these data a well formed. The following list describes how you may use contact data from your MS Outlook:

1. Check the data format: Unfortunately, in the most cases, data to be imported need to be checked and modified manually before importing. That is a necessary task to make sure that all data are well formed.

Export your contact data from Outlook in the Excel format.

Start Excel and open your data file.

Look for any special characters such as commas (,) semicolon (;) and double-quote (") and substitute those, e.g. by a space character.

Look up the column that contains the mandatory fields. Make sure that each individual data set has a mandatory entry. Do not use any special characters.

Remove all columns which you do not need at the CRM system.

Check the content of each individual entry. Make sure that it contains the information you intend to have there. Removing wrong entries later at the CRM system will cause a lot of work. It is better to do it now.

2. Create a CSV file If you are sure that you have valid and good data, you need to create a CSV file that fits into the CRM system. There is an Excel Macro online available at the vtiger forge (see http://forge.vtiger.com/projects/excelimptool/) that does the formatting for you and exports a well formed CSV file. If you want to do it manually, the following procedure has proven to work quite well:

For practical reasons add a column at the beginning. Enter the term "Start1111" (without the " character) in each field for each data set .

Also for practical reasons add a column at the end. Enter the term "End2222" (without the " character) in each field for each data set.

Save your data as CSV file.

Open the file with a plain text editor (not MS Word!).

Substitute all "Start1111" entries by a " character, substitute all "End2222" entries by a " character and substitute all ; characters by the string ","

Save your data. Now you have a well formed file that you can import as explained in section: Import Contacts.

After you created the CSV file you must make sure that this file is compatible to the UTF-8 character set format. Please refer to UTF-8 coding tools for further information about UTF-8 and convenient conversion tools.

The Sales Process

The Sales Process You may use the CRM system to accomplish your entire sales process from the first contact with a prospective customer to the after-sales services. The CRM system considers, that during this process different requirements for necessary data, sales force automation, reporting an others exist. The following sales process phases are offered by the CRM and explained in the following sections:

Leads
Potentials (sorted by different stage, priorities and other criteria)
Quotes
Sales and purchase orders
Invoices
Help desk with ticket system and FAQ

The sales phases are connected closely with the contact and activity management, product and service catalogues and powerful reports.

Marketing

The CRM supports your marketing efforts with a Campaign module. Click the [Marketing] menu to open the list view of your marketing campaigns.

You may add a new campaign by clicking the [plus icon] on top of the list.

To work with a campaign, open it by clicking the name at the list view. The master data you just entered, are displayed immediately. Click the [More Information] tab to add contacts and leads to your campaign.

Product Related Entries

The CRM uses the term product as a comprehensive term for all kinds of goods or services your company offers. Similar to a catalogue, the CRM provides functions to capture and to categorize your products with various prices and vendors. These information can be actively used in the work with customers.

Working with the CRM System

This chapter explains how to work efficiently with the CRM system. It includes hints for the usage within the sales process from leads to after-sales services.

Working with Lists

If you click appropriate menus at the navigation area, you will see a list of all data stored at the CRM system. In the course of the time these lists can become very large and difficult to handle. Furthermore, due to the limited screen size, only a few columns can be displayed.

Therefore, it is appropriate and usually also necessary to adapt the list views to the respective needs of the users. Generally, each user can create individual lists. These are then also available to other users.

The CRM system gives you various possibilities for arranging the lists according to your needs. Thus you have a very effective tool for managing larger data sets, getting informed automatically on changes or to selecting data for further use. You are allowed to create an unlimited number of individual list views.

Customize Lists

Using the account list as an example, I will explain how to arrange an individual view. This view can then be transferred to all other lists in a general manner.

In principle you can set the following parameters:

the content of the columns (what will be displayed),

the time interval in which data have been created or changed,

various logical AND and OR operations between data stored in the CRM system.

To create a new list view for accounts click [New].

The new window that opens, will give you the opportunity to create your own list view.

Working with the Sales process

The CRM system has been designed to support you in all phases of your sales cycles, starting with leads up to closed businesses by integrating all relevant data.

Sales processes are defined differently in each enterprise . Yet, there are common principles for the work flow, which the CRM system represents.

The most common scenario for goods or services with longer sales cycles could be:

When you have your first contact to a prospective customer, you create a lead. At this time you do not know whether this contact has serious interests in the goods or services your company offers. You may collect as much information about this contact as possible.

Now sales is starting to work with this lead. You may schedule meetings, make some calls or send e-mails until you know whether there is a business opportunity.

If you find out that this lead does not go any further, you set the lead status to lost and forget about it. If this lead looks promising for your business, you can convert it to a sales potential.

During conversion the CRM will create a sales potential, an account and a contact, using the data you have already collected. The lead will be deleted.

Now you start working with the potential. You indicate the progress by setting different sales stages.

The contact and account information related to your sales potential are the basis for you and your co-workers for the work with a potential customer. You may use this information for scheduling and controlling activities, distributing tasks, forecasting revenues, understanding the purchase decision process of a customer, and much more.

Working with Leads

A lead represents the first stage of a sales process and is therefore the starting point for many activities. In order to work with leads effectively the CRM system provides you a set of tools.

Leads List View
You may reach the lead list view at the Sales > Leads menu. At this menu you may:
- Delete leads: Mark the leads to be deleted and hit the appropriate button.
- Send e-mails to leads: Mark the leads to be recipients and hit the appropriate button. Refer to section: Sending Emails for further instructions.
- Change the status of a lead: A lead status represents the status of your work with a lead. The CRM offers you several lead states. Note that your system administrator may change the status list. Mark the leads to be changed and hit the appropriate button. In the pop up window select the new status.
- Change the owner of a lead: Owners are CRM users only. Mark the leads to be changed and hit the appropriate button. Note that any further access is controlled by the role settings of the new owner.
- Create, modify and use display filters: As described in section: Customize Lists, you may change the content of your list view on the basis of filters.
- Merge lead information with e-mail templates: Mark the leads to be merged, select a template and hit the appropriate button. You may refer to section: Mail Merge Templates for further information.

Link Leads with other CRM entries: You may link a lead with other activities such as calls, meetings or tasks and with e-mails, attachments, notes or products. To establish such links, you may use one of the following ways:
- By the lead detail view: Open an existing lead and create new entries related to this lead.
- By direct entry: Click [New Event], [New Task], [New Note] or [New Product] in the entry area of your CRM system, or open an existing entry. Select the related Lead as a reference before you save your entries. The information will be linked to the lead and will be available at the lead's detail view.

Note All established links will be also available at sales potentials after conversion as explained in section: Creating Potentials from Leads.

Working with Potentials

In the sales process, sales potentials are the logical successors of a leads. Therefore, you should create a sales potential from a lead and transfer all information available for the lead to this sales potential as explained in the next section. You can also directly create a sales potential (see section: Direct Entry of Potentials). Sales potentials are characterized by the fact that obvious interests of a potential customer in an offer from your company exist. Sales expects that an offer can be made in the future and estimates that it is appropriate to take over lead data.

Creating Potentials from Leads

To create a sales potential based on an existing lead, you have to switch to the lead detail view as shown in figure: Lead Detail View - Master Data.[Image:crm4.png|Lead Detail View - Master Data]]
Click the Button [Convert Lead]. A new pop up window will open as shown in figure: Convert Lead.[Image:crm5.png|Lead List View]]
With the lead conversion the following operations are automatically performed by the CRM system:

Creation of new entries for Accounts and Contacts. Transfer of all data from the lead to the new created entries.

Creation of a potential linked to the newly created account and contact.

Deletion of the lead.

Note: A lead transformation cannot be canceled.

Working with Support

The CRM system offers comfortable possibilities to maintain the valuable customer relationships after a business transaction has been made, by offering support functions.

Why should you use the support functions?

Above all, the support functions help you to collect and sort customer requests, inquiries, disturbances, problems etc. related to the sold goods or services.

The support functions keep CRM users and customers informed on the status reached in respect to the response to customers messages.

Support staff gets a very effective tool to keep track of customer complaints or requirements related to customers or products or both.

Sales staff and management can get a quick overview of support activities related to customers or products or both.

CRM user or customer get a convenient access to frequently ask questions (FAQ). That can help you company to keep the service requests low and to maintain standard procedures in responding to customers requests.

The CRM's capabilities of providing FAQ as well as tickets are extended by the Customer Portal functions as explained at Customer Portal manual.

Trouble Tickets

In the CRM terminology, tickets are any kind of customer service requests as they occur after sales. Tickets are listed at the Support > Trouble Tickets menu.

Create New Tickets

To create a new ticket, open the Support > Trouble Tickets menu. You may use the magnifying glass icon on top of the list for searching the list. You may also use this menu to change the owner of a ticket, delete unwanted tickets, set filter functions for the list view or merge ticket information with templates.

Click the plus icon to open a new ticket. You should enter as much information as possible. Use the Priority, Severity and Category to weight the ticket.

Work with Tickets

To work with a ticket click, its title. A new window will open.

At this menu you may:

Edit, duplicate or delete a ticket: The edit function allows you and your co-workers to change the entries and to make comments before or after a solution has been found. Note that you may enter data without opening the edit view. Just move the mouse pointer to the appropriate fields within the detail view to make your entries.

With the duplicate function you may copy a ticket. This function might be useful to split ticket. Use the delete function carefully. It might be better to keep a ticket in the list and change its status.

Convert as FAQ: You may receive frequent customer requests to a same topic. This function allows you to convert a ticket to a FAQ as explained in the next section.

Add a tag: You may use this function to set your own priorities as explained in section: Tag Cloud.

Merge the ticket information with a template: You may use this function to merge ticket information with an e-mail template.

You can modify the master data in the edit view of a ticket.

Each ticket can go through different working stages and will be closed sooner or later. The CRM will help you to keep track of the working progress and records the changes.

Any CRM user can post a comment. The comments will be sorted in chronological order and indicate the CRM user who made the comment. At the end of the live cycle of a ticket, you may present the solution.

All changes to a ticket are displayed at the ticket history. The information provided allows you to find out:

Who changed ticket information?

What changes have been made?

What was a change made?

Click the More Information tab to view or to add ticket related activities, notes or attachments.