Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Jacques, No, I hadn't come around to that. I looked at it from a business perspective. But will look at the technical side as soon as possible. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/25 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, I think I understand now. You are not speaking about OFBiz Entities right ? Have you had a look at CustRequest... and SalesOpportunity... entities and their relations ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, I guess that I was a bit off Like I said, an opportunity and a request (by a customers/account) are two of the same.That are the entities that I meant. Each request (RFI, RFQ, RFSup, etc) can be regarded as an opportunity that can be fulfilled by the company. So, in my opinion these two types of entities could be combined and both fill the pipeline. Until they result in an order, or are lost, they can be regarded as one and the same. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/24 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, You stated below that these two entities should be combined. But which Entities ? :o) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, My apologies, but what are you relating your question to? It's a bit vague for me at the moment. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/23 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Pierre, I think I understand now. You are not speaking about OFBiz Entities right ? Have you had a look at CustRequest... and SalesOpportunity... entities and their relations ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, I guess that I was a bit off Like I said, an opportunity and a request (by a customers/account) are two of the same.That are the entities that I meant. Each request (RFI, RFQ, RFSup, etc) can be regarded as an opportunity that can be fulfilled by the company. So, in my opinion these two types of entities could be combined and both fill the pipeline. Until they result in an order, or are lost, they can be regarded as one and the same. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/24 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, You stated below that these two entities should be combined. But which Entities ? :o) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, My apologies, but what are you relating your question to? It's a bit vague for me at the moment. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/23 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Jacques, My apologies, but what are you relating your question to? It's a bit vague for me at the moment. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/23 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Pierre, You stated below that these two entities should be combined. But which Entities ? :o) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, My apologies, but what are you relating your question to? It's a bit vague for me at the moment. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/23 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Jacques, I guess that I was a bit off Like I said, an opportunity and a request (by a customers/account) are two of the same.That are the entities that I meant. Each request (RFI, RFQ, RFSup, etc) can be regarded as an opportunity that can be fulfilled by the company. So, in my opinion these two types of entities could be combined and both fill the pipeline. Until they result in an order, or are lost, they can be regarded as one and the same. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/24 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, You stated below that these two entities should be combined. But which Entities ? :o) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, My apologies, but what are you relating your question to? It's a bit vague for me at the moment. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/23 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Pierre, What is the name of your Request entity ? Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Just share when you have the time. 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Thanks Pierre, I have no time at the moment, but I'd like to share also some ideas (mostly picked from SugarCRM) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I agree. That's why I will not include the removal of the payment screenlet in the patch. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I will create the JIRA and upload stuff. The payment method screenlet is just removed from CommonScreens.xml in Marketing. I was trying out some stuff in my development environment (where I created the image from. In my opinion not everything related to parties should be shown in SFA. SFA officers should be focusing on registering sales, opportunities, request and such. Banking info should not be displayed to them, as I regard it a AR/AP/Accounting data element. Maybe, but this needs discussion because if it was added there chances are that someone needed it and use it Jacques Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index . At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Yes, something like openCRX will be good in CRM/SFA module, I have worked on openCRX, not much, but found it good, and almost all the things there are exposed and have CRUD operations using REST. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 11:20 AM, Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.comwrote: Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Pondering on opportunities and request I think that any type of request is an opportunity. Otherwise they were orders, no? So these two entities should be combined. 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
I will create the JIRA and upload stuff. The payment method screenlet is just removed from CommonScreens.xml in Marketing. I was trying out some stuff in my development environment (where I created the image from. In my opinion not everything related to parties should be shown in SFA. SFA officers should be focusing on registering sales, opportunities, request and such. Banking info should not be displayed to them, as I regard it a AR/AP/Accounting data element. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I will create the JIRA and upload stuff. The payment method screenlet is just removed from CommonScreens.xml in Marketing. I was trying out some stuff in my development environment (where I created the image from. In my opinion not everything related to parties should be shown in SFA. SFA officers should be focusing on registering sales, opportunities, request and such. Banking info should not be displayed to them, as I regard it a AR/AP/Accounting data element. Maybe, but this needs discussion because if it was added there chances are that someone needed it and use it Jacques Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index. At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
I agree. That's why I will not include the removal of the payment screenlet in the patch. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I will create the JIRA and upload stuff. The payment method screenlet is just removed from CommonScreens.xml in Marketing. I was trying out some stuff in my development environment (where I created the image from. In my opinion not everything related to parties should be shown in SFA. SFA officers should be focusing on registering sales, opportunities, request and such. Banking info should not be displayed to them, as I regard it a AR/AP/Accounting data element. Maybe, but this needs discussion because if it was added there chances are that someone needed it and use it Jacques Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index . At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Thanks Pierre, I have no time at the moment, but I'd like to share also some ideas (mostly picked from SugarCRM) Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I agree. That's why I will not include the removal of the payment screenlet in the patch. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com I will create the JIRA and upload stuff. The payment method screenlet is just removed from CommonScreens.xml in Marketing. I was trying out some stuff in my development environment (where I created the image from. In my opinion not everything related to parties should be shown in SFA. SFA officers should be focusing on registering sales, opportunities, request and such. Banking info should not be displayed to them, as I regard it a AR/AP/Accounting data element. Maybe, but this needs discussion because if it was added there chances are that someone needed it and use it Jacques Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Pierre, OFBiz ML (and Apache at large) don't let attachment get through. Fortunately I received an email copy with the screen copy. It looks good to me, I suggest that you create a Jira, attache the screen copy and a patch, but what did you do with the payment method screenlet ? Jacques - Original Message - From: Pierre Smits To: user@ofbiz.apache.org ; Jacques Le Roux Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager For my own purposes I have rearranged the layout of the Account Profile a bit. See attached image. If this is liked and should be included in the application I can create patched and upload them. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Keeping it simple often works. I agree that clear requierements should be outlined before we start heading of in any direction. With regards to SugarCRM: they have kept it simple visavis their overviews and actions. Having looked at openCRX (as Abdullah mentioned it earlier) I would say that it looks a lot like SugarCRM (with some complexities like OfBIZ). So yeah. Bringing overviews of details together on the profile of an account should be easy to do and enhance the workability for an SFA-officer. I would like to see that the 'create new'-functions to a nemu section on each SFA-screen (we already have quick add for contacts and leads). But adding new accounts, opportunities and forecasts requires going to their respective overviews. I will look at the business process library. Regards, Pierre 2009/10/21 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, At this stage I wonder if we should not begin by providing clear requirements using stories as it's done at http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+Index . At least having a look there should not hurt... On the other hand, a simpler way would be to simply mimic SugarCRM UI. I have done a quick analysis for such a work, it seems not hard to do. IIRW, the only really missing things are the ticket feature and graphics. Most of the work is about linking things together. For instance tasks (workefforts), other accounts associated to an account (we have already related contacts). Or tasks, contacts relates to an opportunity (we have already lead but only one it seems), etc. Of course with its daslet feature SugarCRM is a bit easier to use than our portlets, but it's not so far. Also SugarCRM has some convenient lookups and actions on each screen. For instance I found their information icon showing address, telephone number, etc. on each line of a lookup result, interesting... My 2 cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
Re: Requests and Quotes SFA Manager
Hi Jacques, You are on the money there. I think that the ecommerce solution in OfBIZ can be regarded as Best in Class. And with a little effort the CRM/SFA module can be the same. Most of the functionalities, as you pointed out, are already in place. It is just bringing it together. Having that it will drive the acceptance of a good CRM/SFA solution for customers and can/will lead to having a better acceptance of OfBIZ as a whole (both from customer and developer (SI) point of view). Therefore I would also advice to split up the Marketing module in a MARCOM application (which is more about marketing and communication - with their own business processes) and a CRM application (which is by most perceived as SFA). In my opinion the CRM/SFA should be the starting point for getting all the info of an account/prospect/customer regarding: Opportunities, Request Orders Contacts etc. When the page of an account is shown the focus should also be on how to contact the account (contact mechs) and the associated contacts (showing phone and email contact mechs). The SFA officials should be able to create, read, update and delete from there. But also security solutions should be up to specs. I also think that the starterpage of SFA should have some charts showing the pipeline of all account opportunities (maybe that is some BI-functionality). This functionality could then also be shown on the profile of the account., including showing total value of sales of YtD, and last year. It's the simple things that make it (life also) better to bear. Regards, Pierre PS Could you (and others) also comment on my email regarding Market Segment Sales Segment? 2009/10/20 Jacques Le Roux jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com Hi Pierre, Yes it sounds like a reasonnable requirement to me. Some of the problems we get when trying to convince prospects to use OFBiz is that they want something like SugarCRM. Almost all is there, but not as easy as in SugarCRM... I guess that's why Opentaps was created in the 1st place, because Si quickly identified the need and filled it. BTW, I think we miss after sales features in OFBiz (like tokens in SugarCRM). This could certainly be implemented using what exists already in OFBiz (ie we don't need much changes in the data model if any, using workeffort for instance) but has still to be done at the UI level. A prospective customer (French international enterprise of middle size) told me recently that he would prefer to have an easier to use SFA/CRM than an accounting module, because he has already his own accouting system and do not want to change. Also he wondered how much changes would be implied if ever he would like to change, because he think the accouting module is formated to US practices. I don't think so (I think it's general enough and may be quickly adapted) but as I have not worked much with the OFBiz accouting system yet, I had not much arguments to expose, and was not even quite sure of them. So I ask accouting specialists : what is your point of view on this aspect ? My 2cts Jacques From: Pierre Smits pierre.sm...@gmail.com Hi All, Shouldn't requests, quotes and the like be visible from the SFA Manager? And should users be also able to create new requests, quotes e.a. from there? Regards, Pierre
