Situation: Our client was expanding its sales team and had reached a point where all its team members needed to track prospects, clients, and all marketing efforts in a database.

Constraints:  Our client had already installed and deployed a database program, but the unique nature of the sales force posed several hurdles to providing access to the database including:

• The computer that hosted the database was in the company's office and the sales team worked from their respective home offices - installing, deploying, and managing the database software on individual's computers would be difficult
• Provide access only to the database while leaving other data on the host computer secure
• The computer hosting the database was running Windows XP Professional and installing Microsoft Small Business Server was not in the budget

Solution:

• Install a software on the host computer that allowed selected programs to access remotely
• The sales team members logged-in through a unique web-address in their Browser which provided full access to the database program as if it was installed on their computer

Benefits:

• All sales team members have full access to the database from any computer with an Internet connection
• Changes to clients' and prospects' records are available immediately to everyone
• Only selected programs can be accessed remotely - all other data remains secure
• No need to install and manage software for multiple computers in multiple locations
• The sales force can work more efficiently - ensuring they aren't duplicating their efforts

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Situation:
Our client contacted us after experiencing intermittent errors occur when using Outlook.  In our client's attempted to fix the errors, they had removed all restored their Outlook to a just-installed state (all e-mails, contacts, calendar events, etc were missing).

Constraints:

• As with every individually run business, e-mail, contacts, and calendar are imperative to its operations.  Retrieving even a portion of this lost information quickly is critical to continuing its operations.
• Due to scheduling conflicts, on-site assistance was not possible for at least 2 days.
• There was no back-up of the Outlook information to revert back to.

Solution:

• We scheduled a time to initiate a remote session by which we could access our client's computer remotely.  We coached our client through the installation process of our remote software that allowed us to control their computer (Our remote access software installs within minutes, but allows us access to the computer for only that session).
• Once connected, we had access to our client's computer as if we were on-site.  We quickly found all the missing Outlook information and restored it.

Benefits:

• Our client was able to continue their operations with only a few hours of down-time
• Our client did not waste additional time taking their computer off-site to have the information restored

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Situation:
High volume real estate agent needed to access his contacts' information while out in the field

Constraints:

• The Agent's contacts' information was stored in an ACT database hosted on their office computer systems.  His support staff regularly accessed, updated, and changed the database in the course of daily business operations.  Taking the database files with him on his laptop would hinder his support staff's operations.
• Accessing the database remotely was not an option due to unique networking constraints

Solution:

• Utilize ACT's built in ability to create a copy of the main database and install it on the agent's laptop. 
• Provide instruction to synchronize the laptop database with the main database when returned to the office (just 3 steps)

Benefits:

• The agent has immediate access to his contacts while in the field.
• His support staff can continue to access the Act database as they would normally
• Updates, changes, additions, etc. to contacts' information is reflected in both the copy and the main database upon synchronization

Situation:
Our client, a large law firm, was upgrading their e-mail system from GroupWise to Outlook 2003.  The change to Outlook 2003 was to happen without a transition period - basically the firm would have Groupwise Friday and Outlook on Monday.  They had an immediate need for training on Outlook 2003 to help everyone with the transition.

Constraints:
• Training had to accommodate the fragmented schedule of all employees, paralegals, and attorneys
• Training objectives had to focus on the daily tasks the firm was accustomed to completing in Groupwise
• Training sessions had to be concise and pragmatic

Solution:
• Schedule a series of 2-hour training sessions in the days before the change to Outlook 2003
• Tailor each session to providing the step-by-step instructions to complete the daily tasks previously completed in Groupwise, in Outlook 2003
• Provide hand-outs including screen-shot depictions and step-by-step instruction

Benefits:
• Anyone in the firm could sign-up for any of the quick 2 hour training sessions available in the days before the upgrade
• Everyone was able to quickly adapt to Outlook 2003 due to the pragmatic training sessions
• Hand-outs supplemented the transition by providing easy to understand instructions after the training sessions

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Situation:
Our client was using QuickBooks Enterprise to track Expenses for each custom homes including custom expense categories and using another Industry Specific software to create and manage estimated Budgets for each custom home.  Client was manually reconciling Expense Reports generated in QuickBooks with the Budget Reports created in the Industry Specific software.  Tracking Budgets and Expenses using these disparate software programs led to wasted time and paying vendors more than once for work already completed in several occasions.

Constraints:

• QuickBooks resided at the corporate office
• The Industry Specific software resided at the local office
• The ability to easily create and print Budgets for new Custom Homes
• Real-time reports providing Budgeted Expenses versus Actual expenses including with over/under total amounts of the Budget was critical
• Reports must provide break-down for each Expense Category for each Custom Home

Solution:
Design and deploy a custom Access database with an easy to use interface that:

• Creates a budget for each Custom Home including selected expenses
• Automatically imports the payments made to vendors for each Expense Category for each custom home in QuickBooks
• Provides instant Budget reports for presentation to investors and home buyers
• Provides instant Budget vs. Actual expenses for each property and expense category including over/under total amounts
• Resides on corporate server but can be access as if installed on the local office's computer

Benefits

• Time saved versus trying to reconcile reports sent from the Corporate Office with reports generated from Industry Specific software on local computers
• Money saved since reports can be run real-time ensuring vendors are not paid twice for work completed

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Situation:
Our client was attempting to complete mail merge using Word^® and Excel^® using instructions provided by help & on-line support. The process was not producing the desired mail merge result.

Solution:
Assessed the process client was following and provided assistance including additional detail not identified by the help & on-line support. The process then completed successfully.

Benefits:
  • Time saved from attempting to remedy the situation through trial & error
  • Provided a proven step-by-step process that can be used to complete future mail merge processes

Situation:
Our client needed to regularly send training schedules and announcements to its client and prospect ACT! database by fax. Approximately 200-300 faxes per iteration.

Constraints:

• Faxing process must be easy to execute
• Each contact must be noted when the fax is sent in order to prevent the same fax from being sent multiple times

Solution:
Sourced and installed automated fax software that:

• Integrated with their ACT! database
• Captures the contact name, company, and fax number of the individuals marked to receive faxes
• Creates a personal fax based on the above information
• Queues up the faxes for immediate or delayed transmission (for additional savings)
• Automatically records and date/time stamps each fax sent under each contact record in the contact database

Benefits:

• Time saved verses manually printing then faxing
• Each fax includes the intended recipient’s name and contact information producing a high level of personalization
• The possibility of sending duplicated faxes to an individual is eliminated since each sent fax is recorded automatically in the contact database

Situation:
Tracking candidates, open positions, interviews, and updated contact information had become overwhelming for this fast-expanding placement services company. They needed a way to efficiently to manage the all the vital elements necessary to match qualified candidates with open positions.

Solution:
For their situation Outlook was not enough to manage all the information. Instead we built and deployed a custom database in ACT! that captured all relevant information to their recruiting and placement process. The ACT! database centralized all information including:

• Candidates, their qualifications, and their contact information
• Clients, their open positions, and the required skills
• All scheduled and completed interviews complete with notes and follow-up action items

Benefits:

• All employees have access to up-to-date information for all clients, candidates, and open positions
• Faster searches for qualified candidates
• Elimination of duplicated efforts in managing and fulfilling positions
• Quicker turn-around time for providing qualified Candidates to Clients

Situation:
The president/operations manager works from his desktop computer at the office and his desktop computer at his home office almost equally and needs to access his Outlook Contacts, E-mails, QuickBooks, Documents, etc. while on either computer.  In addition, any changes on one computer need to be reflected on the other.

Constraints:

• Synchronizing the Outlook contacts with his PDA would only provide access to his Outlook Contacts, but not his E-mails, QuickBooks or Documents
• Their current needs of the company did not merit installing Microsoft Small Business Server/Outlook Exchange server which would provide access to Outlook, QuickBooks, and all Documents

Solution:

• Setup his office computer to be accessed remotely using the Windows XP Pro utility Remote Desktop Connection
• Create a Desktop short-cut icon on his home computer to log-in to his office computer with a double-click

Benefits:

• Secure remote access to his office computer from his home office
• Using his office computer was no different than being physically in front of it (all icons, files, short-cuts etc appear the same)
• No monthly fees
• Ability to print files on his office computer on his home printer

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Situation:
Our client had tracked their business expenses in Microsoft Money for several years.  They needed to upgrade to a software better geared for managing their growing business - QuickBooks, but they thought moving to QuickBooks meant hours of time spent re-entering all clients, vendors, accounts, as well as loosing years of accumulated financial data.

Solution:
We devised a way to migrate all of our client's Microsoft Money's data into QuickBooks without the need to re-enter any data.  Completion took just a few hours.

Benefits:
• All data including; customers, vendors, accounts, and accumulated data was imported into QuickBooks
• Our client was able to continue their operations with 0 downtime

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Situation:
Our client’s sales force enters customer information into their ACT! database when an order is placed.  The same information is re-entered into a collection of Excel spreadsheets that generates the order acknowledgement, packing slips, invoices, and other order forms.  Errors from this duplicated work resulted in lost acknowledgements, inaccurate invoices, and incorrect shipping addresses.

Constraints:

• Solution must work with their ACT! database and integrate with their customized Excel Spreadsheets
• It must also be easy to use and require minimum or no training as well as ensure 100% accuracy when copying information from their ACT! database to the spreadsheets.

Solution:
Sourced and installed a specialized software that copies the appropriate customer information from their ACT! database into all the spreadsheets with the push of an on-screen button.

Benefits:

• Time saved verses re-entering the same information multiple times
• Elimination of errors vs. manually re-entering the same information
• Higher level of customer satisfaction due to accurate shipments and invoicing

Situation:
Our client's administrator works in a virtual office and schedule three crews for the next day's work.  The schedule is constantly revised, but when finalized it needs to be sent to the Crew Chief at the Main Office before the start of the next work day.  The Crew Chief also makes adjustments to the schedule and the two schedules need to be reconciled in the morning before the crews are dispatched.

Constraints:

• Must be economical
• Setup of a VPN between the Administrator and the Main Office not an option

Solution:

• Install and setup client database using ACT 6.0 on both the Administrators and Main Office computers.
• Setup ACT 6.0 to synchronize changes between the two locations at 3am each work day.

Benefits: 

• No need to purchase or setup expensive VPN or Networking service since synchronization updates take place by email
• Administrator can continue to manage scheduling while manager can focus on customer contacts and crew operations

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Situation:
Our client was using Caylx Point to manage mortgage activities. They were using ACT! to manage their marketing activities and manually entering the Borrower information from Point into ACT!.  This method was inevitably creating incorrect or incomplete email and mailing addresses which led to wasted money when sending e-mail and direct marketing campaigns.

Constraints:
Must be economical and easy for the support staff to use

Solution:
Sourced and installed software that would export the identified individuals from Caylx Point into ACT! with the click of a button!

Benefits:
• 100% accuracy when transferring Contact information
• Time saved verses manually re-entering the same information into ACT!
• Minimize errors in names, addresses, and other information due to manual re-entry

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Situation:
Client accumulated numerous business cards at various trade-shows and networking events. Each represented a potential client, but the time-consuming process of manually typing each contact's information into a spreadsheet was time-consuming and ineffective.

Constraints:
• Time savings, ease-of-use, and economical

Solution:
• Install ACT! contact management database
• Install & configure a business card scanner device automating the contact's information input process
• Provide appropriate training for database and scanner

Benefits:
• Significant time-savings verses entering contact information from each business card manually
• Easily enter additional contacts into database directly from business cards
• Easily track progression of each contact from prospect to client using contact management database
• Ability to prepare and launch personalized e-mail and direct mail campaigns using contact management database software

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Situation:
Client using previously constructed Access database to track vendors, customers, orders, shipments, but manually created spreadsheets to track sales by vendor, client, and month.

Solution:
Created custom reports that provided sales totals for vendors, clients, and months.

Benefits:
• Hours saved verses compiling the sales information into spreadsheets
• Up-to-date Sales Reports can be viewed instantly verses waiting for manual reports

Situation:
Administrative assistant for a Financial Planner had procured a new computer to replace her old one

Constraints:
• Install multiple proprietary programs and supporting data onto the new computer
• Install several Windows 98 ONLY compatible software programs on the new computer's Windows XP system without upgrading them
• The end result should have the new computer appear like the old one minimizing downtime

Solution:
• Install all software programs, migrate all data and files into relative folders, and setup desktop icons to match old computer
• Use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to install Windows 98, then install all Windows 98 software and data within the Virtual PC - the end result is a window running Window 98 within Windows XP

Benefits:
• Administrative assistant was able to start using the new computer without any down-time due to lost information, hidden data or programs