We do most of our work within Project Blogs. When we create a new Blog there is a 50/50 chance that we (so far)forget to pull down the Activity options and choose “add a view for linked emails”. The reason we create the Project Blog is that it acts as a repository for notes, tasks, emails etc on a particular project. We will be busily sending emails to the blog and then, when we check up on the project, we will notice that there have been no emails logged….oops, we forgot to add this activity.
Why not have this as an automatic feature as it is for Contacts. I can understand not having it automated for companies but for Projects and Contacts it seems like it should be a given.
Thoughts?
Why do I have to add “Add a view for linked emails” in Project blogs?
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The starting position for the system is that there are no activities on the pages. For contacts we took the chance that you would want to almost always see emails there and so the system adds the activity automatically for you (this is not always the case, but far more times it is and there is strong linking criteria e.g. email address, unique name—so it seems to work well). An example where you probably don’t want this activity is when the contact is a team member - you’ll see far to many emails - in this case you just delete the one automatically added for you. With project blogs and companies we don’t make that assumption, there are far more cases where clients don’t want to see emails on the pages. Also, since the linking criteria for project blogs starts only with “Title” there is a better chance that without some knowledge of this they’ll see messages they didn’t expect. So we leave it to the client to add the activity and customize the filter etc. The good news is that is does not matter when the activity is added. All the messages will be shown when it is. |
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Like I said, I understand for companies but Projects…not so much, at least for the way we manage our project names. For us, as mentioned earlier, we use pretty unique project names so if the Project name is in the email, it is definitely meant to be tracked in the Blog. I can see this being a problem though if someone is using a generic company name for a project name. The Project could get inundated with unwanted emails. |
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OK, I have to bring this one up again because it is a huge pain. And when I say pain, you probably can imagine where. We use Solve PRIMARILY FOR TRACKING PROJECTS. We use Solve to call up contacts but more importantly, Solve is a great tool for linking contacts and companies to Projects. Our main source of communication with our clients, vendors etc on a project is email. Our main tool for tracking these emails is by linking them with the Project. We use the Project Number (the unique ID# supplied by Solve for every project) as the linking criteria. In the subject line of the email we will write, for example “Pricing for 100M units” followed by the 7 digit Project number so the entire subject line will read “Pricing for 100M units 1234567”. The email gets directed to the Project and it is secure. Our vendors (and customers) only see the project number - not the name of the project which is more descriptive. We create a lot of projects on the fly and it is a pain to have to constantly choose the “add a view for linked emails” option and then choose Project name as one of the criteria. It is a lot of added key strokes and it is an even larger pain in the butt when we forget this step. There has to be something you can do for us poor souls that live in the Project Blogs. If you are concerned about unwanted emails, as noted above, then give us the option to default to allow linked emails to show up in Project Blog activities. (Also, provide the default to choose the criteria. We do not use the name but rather, as mentioned, the unique ID #) Sorry to be so verbose on this but we are getting real frustrated with this. I’m not certain what other folks are using for Project Names but if they are concerned about too many emails showing up in their blogs then use a more unique Project Blog name. Or is this a real concern? Is ESO assuming that this is an issue? |
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Considering all the options, and the value it the feature provides, and the way it works, I’ll take the unusual position of saying it’s pretty darn good as it is and although you may find it “a huge pain” and “real frustrating” I that’s overstating it. It’s a hover and one click to add a view to each project. People reading this probably think we’re sticking pins in your eyes. It’s not so. That said, lets explore if we can help. Have you considered using a template to save the linked-email activity with the criteria selected i.e. the field selected? Productivity, easy of use, keeping the system unobstructed, preventing errors—all critical, but there are also mountains to move into place that could do even more for you and your team. We’d like to keep a focus on that. Cut us a bit of slack, please? |
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Hey, we love the product so don’t get me wrong. We have been using heavily (daily, hourly, every minute :) ) so we have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t…at least for us. |
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Cool. You probably sensed we sweat the details here; we do appreciate the feedback, but only up until it’s soul robbing LOL. It’s been the worst summer in recent memory here in Calgary, we’re thinking of packing the wagons and setting up shop in more to the West! Intended just for a laugh and along the lines of “people often overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what we can do in a decade” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk Have a great weekend… |
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Yeah Steve…com on back to Cali’ and some In-N-Out Burgers and perfect weather! |
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My kids are still talking about In-N-Out Burger. Surprisingly very good thing you have going there. CA was very kind to us and we LOVE it there. |
