středa 24. února 2010

Almost there!

OK, so I think the time for the first technology preview is comming!

I am already successfully synchronizing my Outlook tasks with Remember The Milk. I have also implemented an archiving plugin as I had a lot of completed tasks in my default task folder and I had bad luck trying to find some Outlook Auto-Archive settings to clean this up.

I would like to do more testing till the end of the week and release a Beta version on the beginning of the next week. Stay tuned!

Please help me by filling my short survey so I have the right testing environment. Thanks!

pondělí 22. února 2010

No results in Outlook Remember The Milk Survey for few days?

Silly me... I was not receiving new entries in my Outlook Remember The Milk Survey for few days so I blamed weekend for that ... but no, the form was too tall for the windows so you would not be able to submit it ... I am very sorry for that, please submit again, if you can now... My apologies...

neděle 14. února 2010

Remember the Milk Outlook Synchronization?



Please go to my Gassumo page about SprinxCRM OutlookSync for Remember The Milk to read about the synchronization utility, to download latest versions etc.

You may also want to read about the latest addin - Producteev Connector for SprinxCRM UniversalSync.








UPDATE 4!



Go to SprinxCRM OutlookSync for Remember The Milk homepage.


UPDATE 3!


Install

UPDATE 2!


Release Candidate 1 is out! Please read more here. The survey is closed for now. Thank you!

UPDATE!



After about 6 weeks I am happy I can tell that Outlook Sync for Remember The Milk is reality!
It is still in a beta stage, but you can download it from here. Happy synchronizing!



I am a great fan of Remember The Milk. I have registered long time ago, but stopped to use it when I found out that there is no Outlook Synchronization. After buying nice Google Android HTC Dream/G1 phone, I have returned back to them and would be really lost without keeping my tasks both on the web and on the phone using Astrid.


Since I have started to develop things again and I am currently developing Outlook Addins, I might consider developing Remember The Milk Outlook synchronization. It will probably just synchronize tasks and attach correct labels.


What do you think, would you use that? Please answer below or click here and open the form in new window:

čtvrtek 11. února 2010

What am I doing these days? Synchronizing Outlook!

These days I am pretty busy creating a new version of SprinxCRM OutlookSync. There are 450 millions of Office users around the world and I assume a lot of them are using Microsoft Outlook.

To start - don't take me wrong, I think Outlook is a great product and I really like it. But it is not a CRM. Once again - Outlook is not a CRM.
I hear you to disagree with me and I understand there are plenty of people using Outlook as a CRM, but let me quote SearchCRM:

"Again, without knowing more about your situation, this can be a very effective approach -- especially for a very small (3-5) group of users with no remote (disconnected) requirements. But BE CAREFUL, because you may find that you quickly exceed the capability of Outlook to scale to your requirements. Sure, you will find work-arounds, but 1-2 years later you will likely end-up with a disjointed system, unhappy users, and poor quality data. More than likely, your users will simply stop using the application when it becomes too kludgy" (http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/answer/Using-MS-Outlook/Exchange-for-CRM)

What I am trying to achieve with OutlookSync is to connect Outlook with SprinxCRM and bring those CRM benefits to the Outlook users.

The benefits:
  • you will be able to attach an appointment to a company or person so you would know who you will speak to or where to go for the appointment as you have the address of the firm in the CRM
  • send and received emails will be automatically uploaded to CRM and categorized to the person you are emailing with. For example, if you would receive email from Joe Doe , this email will be automatically categorized to Joe Doe in your CRM.
  • when planning future activities with your business opportunity, those tasks will appear in Outlook as well so you will not miss them. Even better, if you keep your Outlook synchronized with your mobile phone, you can mark them done exactly at the time the are really completed for example after you call that guy or had that business lunch.
  • you will never lose any data again as the copy is archived in the CRM
  • you can access your Outlook data from any place as you connect to the CRM using internet or even from your mobile phone if you open the mobile CRM version on e.g. Blackberry

úterý 2. února 2010

Where to practice End-User Support

I am teaching End User Support at Prague College.The really funny thing is that I am currently dealing with serious support issues with Buxfer. I have bought the highest possible subscription but as of today,I am unable to use it. Have a look for yourself here and here...

Always look on the bright side of life - at least a great example for my students: always check the Service Level Agreement...

UPDATE: Not sure yet how it will end with Buxfer after Unable To Use Buxfer After Setting Projections so I will still give them time to solve it.


UPDATE 2: Finally I have been able to "hack-login" into Buxfer using combination of Buxfer Mobile and Firebux and send the priority support request. My issue has been solved in less than 24 hours then. I understand the need to login first to send the support request, so they know your SLA level, but still, if CRM for service would be in place, they would know just from my email...

UPDATE 3: Yes, finally I am a Buxfer user again. Thanks guys!