Imagine, you’re pushing through your last few Gmail messages for the day and notice an email from “Carl Farbman”. Hmmm, it’s almost time to wrap-up, you ponder “can this one wait? Can Carl wait?" You decide that he shouldn't have to. You click on the Solve360 Gmail Gadget and BAM! Everything your team knows about this unfamiliar client is shown below the message - his contact info, who else they've talked to, what’s planned and any other special details your team likes to track. Whoa... You respond in seconds and earn some much needed client karma.

Welcome to the mashup of the millennium - having your valuable CRM information shown in context with your favorite email system, Gmail. Known as the “Solve360 Gmail Gadget” this feature represents an entirely new level of integration. The gadget not only shows you the related information but allows you to manage the CRM information right in context with the email message. Now how useful (cool) is that?! Reduce multi-tasking, deal with client interactions instantly and leverage team knowledge.

Vijay (who describes himself as “just an average Joe, making a living doing SAP consulting for IBM” and is not affiliated with Norada) makes a strong case for why it's important to understand the context of information streaming by (re-posted with permission).

Seeing only some of the information relating to a client or project creates a distorted view of what's really happening, causing missteps and passive engagements. When your team has all related information in front of them the context becomes obvious and will alter how they react to it. Simple, eh? Read on...

This happened in the year 2000. I am fairly new to USA, and sitting in my client’s IT offices in Colorado Springs,CO. It is close to lunch break – and my mobile rings. I pick it up – and it is my dear friend from India. A minute later I am telling him – in an exasperated voice - “Do not let that bitch on your bed, she won’t let you sleep one wink all night”. Next thing I know, 20 heads are staring at me with horror written large on their faces. Little did they know that I was actually talking about a dog – a female German Shepherd that I bought and sent to my friend in India to show there in dog shows. Despite me explaining to the best of my abilities, I am sure not all 20 believed me then, or ever after.

Finally I have time to write about something related to my work at RecycleMatch. First of all let me tell you a little bit about the company, then I'll go into what I've been working on the latest month.

RecycleMatch tries to divert large waste streams from landfill and connect them to companies that can use it to create value. Through an online marketplace and web 2.0 marketing, RecycleMatch is able to connect companies in an effective and cost-efficient manner in order to create value throughout the business ecosystem.

Over to my assignment, integrating Wufoo forms and Solve360. Let me start off by telling you shortly about these two Internet-based systems. Wufoo provides companies and persons the abilities to create complex html forms to post on a website for collecting information from their users. Solve360 is a easy-to-use, good looking hosted customer relationship management (CRM) system. They have a neath way of organizing the information you collect, into contacts and project blogs. For a company like RecycleMatch the organization makes it easier to handle the waste streams, and learn from historical data.

Solve360 Solution Providers are business application experts who deliver cloud-centric business computing solutions, ranging from basic consultation to migration, integration and ongoing support. Solution Providers have demonstrated expertise delivered with proven methodologies that ensure your success. What sets Solve360 Solution Providers apart is that they share our vision of making a massive improvement to your business.

From Gaetan Fraikin, Audacity's CEO

STOP LOOKING - YOU FOUND IT

Let me guess your situation: your small business needs some type of organization tool for contact management, shared calendar / tasks, and, if at all possible, shared project management. Well, I am sure you found more than enough of those, both client or web-based, with prices ranging from free, to...way too expensive. At this point, after spending hours of research and testing, you probably feel even more lost than before you started. Well, don't feel bad - we all experienced the same process and emotions.

The good news is that, just like us, you did find Solve360. I can't tell you how ecstatic we were when we discovered the solution and started playing with it. We tried all the big and small solutions and came back to what we consider a truly pioneering platform that puts at small businesses' disposal a set of tools that were believed to be reserved for large companies. Each of the three modules built into Solve360 exists with competing systems, but the dramatic value gap of this solution lies into its modules integration. Every piece of information is entered once, and usable across modules. There is no wasted time, and no risk from data duplication. It is also highly intuitive and fun to use, which increases the chances that your team will actually use it. And as you know, if the system is not used, it is worthless. It is web-based, which means that your geographic limitation vanish, and there is no need for hardware and software investment and maintenance.

At this point, you are probably thinking: “sounds great, I should definitely spend time on this to fully evaluate, and maybe ...move forward and select it!”. Well, if you are not there yet, this next reason will do it. Even though Solve360 is simple and intuitive, there will be times where you need help. And with Norada, the notion of service has been pushed to the pinnacle. Every time I email the company, I receive a response within minutes, with accurate, and usable information. Every time we make recommendations for improvement based on what we believe most clients could use, we are listened to, and in most cases, our requests are implemented in a next release. And that is worth a lot!

Our agency, Audacity, is a premier San Diego based branding, communications and advertising agency with global reach. We engineer ultimate brands for Fortune 1000 technology leaders. Our clients expect from our agency nothing less than excellence when it comes to our solutions. We are today able to deliver at that level thanks to Solve360. All projects are set-up in the blog section, they are connected to our activities/calendar, and to contacts. We now have true visibility. Look no further - and welcome to the next level of collaboration.

- Gaetan

AUDACITY PROFILE

Audacity is a premier San Diego based branding, communications and advertising agency with global reach. Audacity builds and delivers powerful brand experiences, unconventional product launches, and international market entries. Its core expertise lies in marketing strategy, international marketing and communications.

Current/past clients include Kodak, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens and Sony, plus a range of tech start-ups. We have client in Europe, Asia and the US.

www.audacitygroup.com

Uncle Ted forgets your name and was last seen passed out at your wedding. Aunt Katie was ecstatic to be at your graduation. She never misses a card for every birthday and Christmas. She calls you often just to see what is new. You like and trust Aunt Katie because it is obvious she cares about you. So you care about her.

Most businesses treat customer relationships like bumbling Uncle Ted, showing up and calling only when it's expected. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could be Aunt Katie to your clients?

Being able to easily share the same client contact information among your employees is a great benefit, but there are many other advantages to using a centralized CRM system:

So what’s it going to take to make CRM work? We were taught in kindergarten that sharing is good and the same principle applies in business, at least when it comes to managing customers. Share information between staff and departments so your team can provide feedback to each other and respond to your customers in a consistent and efficient way – your customers will notice. Have reasonable expectations – not everyone is going to use the system in exactly the same way or to its maximum potential. That’s still okay. In hindsight you'll notice you are much better off with it than without it.

Solve360 is an internet based application that helps teams plan, organize information and manage day-to-day projects according to your own company's processes and workflow.

Good up-front planning is essential to running a successful project, but let's be real, just because you want it to happen “this way” isn’t going to make it so. Requirements change, issues pop-up and people respond in unexpected ways. The secret to a successful project is managing the daily project activities. This is where most traditional tools like Microsoft Project let you down and where Solve360 becomes essential. Projects don’t fail all of a sudden; they succeed or fail one day at a time and hinge on your team’s ability to continually synchronize information, communicate and manage changes like a smooth running machine.

Mash-up of the Millennium