SugarCRM For Dummies E-Book

Karen S. Fredricks

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 425

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

SugarCRM is an innovative customer relationship management software solution that enhances your company's marketing effectiveness, drives sales performance, improves customer satisfaction, and provides executive insight into business performance. SugarCRM For Dummies will show you to take advantage of this free, open source CRM application to boost your sales and please your customers. This guide helps you choose the flavor of Sugar you need, acquire and deploy it, set up accounts and contacts, and organize your day. You'll first learn how to install SugarCRM, customize user preferences, create databases, and import contacts from other software. Next, you'll discover how to extend SugarCRM's capabilities to meet needs unique to your business. You'll also find out how to: * Schedule appointments, link them to records and notes, and organize your sales opportunities * Build campaigns, track their success, and grow your contact list with Web-to-lead forms * Manage customer issues and forums to exterminate software bugs * Send e-newsletters and automate customer e-mail communication with templates * Take advantage of a complete recipe book for SugarCRM administrators * Improve sales performance with SugarCRM * Provide great service to your customers * Develop searchable libraries and FAQs * Create and share documents SugarCRM For Dummies will get you quickly up to speed on this customer relationship management software so you can enhance your business. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Leseprobe

SugarCRM For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You Should Read

What You Don’t Have to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Adding Sugar to Your Life

Part II: Cooking with Sugar

Part III: A Spoonful of Sugar Keeps Your Customers Happy

Part IV: Sharing the Sugar Bowl

Part V: Working with Extra-Strength Sugar

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Adding Sugar to Your Life

Chapter 1: Adding Sugar to Your Life

The History of Sugar

Getting Started with a Few Basic Concepts

What in the world is Open Source?

What in the world is CRM?

A few other terms to know

Sugar, Sugar!

Identifying the Typical SugarCRM User

Knowing the Basic SugarCRM Ground Rules

Looking at the Three Versions of SugarCRM

Chapter 2: Acquiring a Sweet Tooth

Taking the Sugarland Express

Hosting SugarCRM On-Site

Demanding to have your Sugar hosted

Building a Sugar Cube

Preparing for Your Sugar Installation

Adding Sugar to your Web server

What’s in an IP name?

Operating under the right operating system

BYOD (Bring Your Own Database)

No browser, no Sugar

Plugging in to a Plug-In

Ready, Set, Install!

How does this stack up for you?

It’s typical to use the Typical install

Creating a second database

Logging in to SugarCRM

The Importance of Being Yourself

Chapter 3: Finding Your Way Around Sugar

There’s No Place Like Home

You can go Home again

Treading on the title bar

System links

Working with Colored Sugar

The Module tabs

The Last Viewed bar

The Shortcuts menu

Quick Form

Giving Sugar the Preferential Treatment

Working with Passwords

Chapter 4: Working with Accounts, Contacts, and Leads

Having a Record Is a Good Thing

Looking at the List View

Accounting for Your Accounts

Adding a new Accounts record

Accessing an existing Accounts record

Accounting for an Accounts record’s subpanels

Contacting Your Contacts

Adding a Contacts record

The contacts they are a changing

Managing subscriptions

Leads Lead to Bigger Things

Adding a few Leads records to sweeten the deal

A promotion is a very sweet thing!

There’s a Whole Lot of Updating Going On

Deleting Records

Thinking before deleting a record

Two warnings before deleting a record

Checking for Duplicate Records

Exporting Your Records

Part II: Cooking with Sugar

Chapter 5: Keeping Track of the Sweet Things in Life

Actively Working with Activities

Creating an activity

Scheduling a sweet rendezvous

Accessing Your Activities

Viewing the “Honey-Do” lists

Quickly printing an Activity List

Viewing the Activities tab

Editing your activities

Clearing activities

The miniature Task List

Viewing the various calendars

Creating Sweet Love Notes

Adding a note

Working with notes

Working with the Note List

Chapter 6: Creating a Project Isn’t a Major Project

Adding a Bit of Management to Your Projects

Creating a Projects record

Creating Project Tasks

Managing a Project

Adding a Professional Touch to Your Projects

Passing the project buck

Going, going, Gantt!

Creating Project Templates

Taking a holiday from your project

Taking a look at the big picture

Chapter 7: Working with Opportunities

Creating Opportunities

Initiating the opportunity

Editing Opportunities records

Keeping an Eye on the Prize

Viewing the Opportunity List

Graphically viewing your Opportunities

Seeing what’s changed in the Change Log

SugarCRM Professional Opportunities

Producing sugary products

You can quote me on that

Chapter 8: Working with Documents

Creating Your Documents with the Documents Module

Dealing with Your Documents

Accessing your documents

Verifying your versions

I’ll Take a Bit of Sugar with My Word

Installing the plug-in for Microsoft Word

Creating a mail merge template

We’re off to see the Mail Merge Wizard

Performing a mail merge in Word

Chapter 9: Watching Your Sugar Content

There’s No Place Like Home

Honing in on the Home page

Changing the Home page dashlets info

Adding new dashlets to the Home page

You Can’t Drive Your Business without a Dashboard

Basic dashboarding 101

Professional dashboarding

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Doing the Global Search

Getting back to basics

Advancing your way through the searches

Part III: A Spoonful of Sugar Keeps Your Customers Happy

Chapter 10: Adding a Bit of Case Management

I’m on the Case

Let’s Make a Federal Case Out of It

I Rest My Case

It’s a Case of Reporting

Building Your Base of Knowledge

Creating a KB

Playing tag with your KB articles

Being the KB Editor and Chief

Seek and ye shall find the article

Chapter 11: Keeping Bugs Out of the Sugar Bowl

Learning to Fix What’s Bugging You

Waiter! There’s a bug in my software!

It’s a case of too many bugs

Focusing on Forums

Creating a forum one topic at a time

Creating a forum

Threading your way through the forums

Part IV: Sharing the Sugar Bowl

Chapter 12: Adding Sugar to Your E-mail

Getting Started with Sugar E-mail

Setting up outbound e-mail accounts

Setting up inbound e-mail accounts

Working with the Emails Module

Setting up inbound e-mail accounts: Part 2

Personalizing your e-mail

Filing e-mail in e-mail folders

Creating an Address Book

Creating E-mail Templates

E-mailing Your Contacts

Viewing and Managing E-mails

Importing an e-mail message to Sugar

Creating a record from an e-mail

Working with group folders

Changing Your Outlook on Sugar

Archiving e-mail

Connecting contacts to Sugar

Synchronizing your Outlook calendar and tasks

Chapter 13: Campaigning Doesn’t Just Occur in an Election Year

Campaigns Module

We’re Off to See the Campaign Wizard

Creating Web-to-Lead Forms

Targeting Your Targets

Keeping your eye on the Target List

Hitting the Target List with a few targets

Let the Campaigns Begin!

Look before you leap — or hit Send

Houston, we have a campaign problem

Managing your non–e-mail campaigns

Measuring the success of a campaign

Part V: Working with Extra-Strength Sugar

Chapter 14: Sweetening the Deal

Being a Team Player

Creating a team

Being noticed by the team

Knowing which team to root for

The Forecast Is Looking Good

Creating Time Periods

I’m forecasting that there’s a schedule on the horizon

Setting Quotas

Working through the Forecast Worksheet

Viewing your Forecast Worksheet progress

Creating Reports 101

Running a Rows and Columns report

Creating a Summation report

Scheduling reports

Working with Workflow

Creating a Workflow Definition

What condition is your condition in?

Alert! There’s an alert ahead!

Actions speak louder than words

Two optional but useful Workflow steps

Chapter 15: Adding an Extra Lump of Sugar

Creating Your Own Unique Database

Doing your homework

Knowing your Developer Tools

Stepping into the Studio

Adding a field to the database

What you see is what you get

Working with Drop-down Lists

Creating a drop-down list

Adding the drop-down list to a field

Manufacturing a Module

Packing up a package

Making a module

Building a relationship

Deploying the module

Configuring Module Tabs

Renaming the module tabs

Playing hide and seek with the tabs

Chapter 16: The Administrator’s Recipe Book

Setting up the System

Fiddling with the System settings

Sticking to a Scheduler

Applying Sugar updates

Getting Locale with the locals

Dealing with Database Users

Adding a new user to the mix

Doing the rock ’n role

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 17: Ten Reasons to Upgrade to the Professional or Enterprise Version

Becoming a Team Player

I Want that Report on My Desk First Thing in the Morning!

You Can Quote Me on That

The Forecast Is Always Sunny

Becoming a Road Warrior

Keep Up with the Folks at Microsoft

A word about Word

Changing your Outlook on Sugar

Portals

Flow through Your Work with Ease

Access Control

Building a Bigger Database

Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Make Your Life Even Sweeter

Parlez-vous Francais?

I Think I Need a Change of Theme

Have BlackBerry, Will Travel

Grabbing Tidbits of Information

Plugging in to Microsoft Office

Plugging in to Outlook

What’s in a Word

Using a Talended Piece of Software

Connecting QuickBooks to Sugar

Getting Organized with Sales Folders

Being Alerted by SalesAlerts

Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Become a Master Sugar Chef

Read this Book!

Visit the Help Menus

Download a Bit of Documentation

Adopting a New Sugar Baby

Attending Sugar University

Sharing Sweet Words of Love

Watching the Wiki

Thinking fondly of the Forums

Finding Bugs in the Sugar bowl

Taking a Honeymoon

Taking a trip to Silicon Valley

Coming soon to a location near you

Developing a Love for the Developers Page

Using a Portal Instead of a Door

Hire a Consultant

SugarCRM® For Dummies®

by Karen S. Fredricks

SugarCRM® For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008939702

ISBN: 978-0-470-38462-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Karen S. Fredricks began her life rather non-technically, growing up in Kenya. She attended high school in Beirut, Lebanon, where she developed her sense of humor while dodging bombs. After traveling all over the world, Karen ended up at the University of Florida and has been an ardent Gator fan ever since. In addition to undergraduate studies in English and accounting, Karen has a Master’s degree in psycholinguistics. Beginning her career teaching high school English and theatre, Karen switched to working with the PC during its inception in the early ’80s and has worked as a full-time consultant and trainer ever since.

Karen holds certifications in ACT!, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Office. This is the tenth For Dummies book that she has written. Specializing in CRM and contact management software, she has written titles on ACT!, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, and Microsoft Office Live. She is a frequent guest on several syndicated computer radio talk shows and has frequent public speaking engagements.

Karen resides in Boca Raton, Florida. Her company, Tech Benders, specializes in CRM software and provides computer consulting, support, and training services. Karen particularly enjoys helping her clients increase their bottom line through their marketing efforts and improved sales processes. In her spare time, Karen loves to spend time with family and friends, play tennis, work out, ride bikes, and write schlocky poetry.

Feel free to send your comments about the book to [email protected].

Dedication

This book is dedicated to new and existing CRM users. I know that you’ll be able to use this book to take your business to “the next level.” I hope you enjoy reading it as much as enjoyed writing it!

Author's Acknowledgments

The people at Wiley Publishing are fantastic to work with and have made writing this book a pleasure! My acquisitions editor, Kyle Looper, is a joy to work with. This is the third book I’ve done with my project editor, Blair Pottenger; I know when to stick with a good thing! Brian Walls, my copy editor, made sure that all “T’s” were crossed and the “I’s” dotted; Brian, your edits were always right on!

Family, friends, and fun go together, and fortunately for me I have lots of all three. Special recognition goes to my daughter, Alyssa, on her graduation from that “other” Florida school and to my mother for still going strong in her nineties. Boca’s Swim and Racquet Club has the friendliest group anywhere; hellos go out to my various “games” and especially to my “Almost Champions” team mates on the USTA 4.0 league.

Writing a book is not easy, but having someone special in your life certainly makes it a lot more fun! Gary Kahn has loved and supported me during the writing of my last 9 books. You’re the best — I couldn’t have done it without you. Can’t wait to see where the next Bruce concert will be!

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Blair J. Pottenger

Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper

Copy Editor: Brian Walls

Technical Editor: Michael Lonski, Sujata Pamidi

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katie Key

Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, Sarah E. Philippart, Christine Williams

Proofreader: Joni Heredia, Amanda Steiner

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

Special Help: Chris Harrick (Senior Director of Product Marketing, SugarCRM)

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

You just have to love any product with the word sugar in its name. SugarCRM is one of the best-selling customer relationship management (CRM) software products on the market today. For many users, SugarCRM represents their first foray into the area of CRM. CRM software is a little more complex to understand than other types of software. With a word processor, each document that you create is totally separate; if you make a mistake, you need only to delete your current document and start fresh. CRM, however, builds its way into a final product; if you don’t give a bit of thought as to what goal you wish to achieve, you could end up with a muddled mess.

I’m excited about the product and know that by the time you discover how to unleash the power of SugarCRM, you’ll be excited, too. You can use SugarCRM at work. You can use SugarCRM on the road. You can use SugarCRM at home. Most importantly, you can use SugarCRM to grow your business.

So what am I so excited about? I’ve seen firsthand how SugarCRM can save you time and make you more efficient. To me, accomplishing more in less time is an exciting thought — it allows more time for the fun things in life. Best of all, SugarCRM is a program that’s very easy to get up and running in a very short time. You’ll be amazed at not only how quickly you can set up a database but also at how easily you can put that database to work.