A CRM should provide at least the following as a part of its reporting capabilities to reduce friction in usage:

• Quick access to all CRM reports
• Real Time Availability of CRM reports
• “Live” Dashboards showing data from CRM reports
• Ability to save CRM reports in popular formats (PDF, Excel etc)
• Option to print the CRM reports directly from the application interface
• Ability to customize existing CRM reports
• Option to create new customized CRM reports

Deskera offers all of the above through the extensive reporting capabilities available in its CRM. Please go through the following video which demonstrates how to use the reporting features available in Deskera CRM.

Also, please go here to see how you may use Deskera to generate custom CRM reports.

We saw in this post how a CRM should incorporate lead management capabilities. Since a successful sales-force would convert many leads into accounts, account management is of paramount importance in the sales cycle.  It is accounts that generate revenue for any organisation. The logical next step therefore is to take a look at the account management capabilities that should be an integral part of any CRM.

Accounts are converted leads where business has been closed or an opportunity for business closure exists. Accounts will have details of existing (or prospective) products or services, expected and generated revenue, key contact details and existing opportunities. In addition, all customer cases, queries, complaints etc. should be tagged to the respective accounts and acted upon. It should also allow quick access to relevant documents (if any) associated with the account.

Consequently an effective CRM should have robust Account Management capabilities to help track and manage all accounts along with product, opportunity, activity, contacts and case details. Moreover, a document management system that allows you to upload, tag, store and search relevant documents is essential.

Deskera provides the complete account management solution with its CRM. Key benefits of using an account management through its CRM are:

• Maintain Comprehensive Account Details
• Provide Extensive Account Support and Customer Service
• Add an Activity, Opportunity, Contact or Case to any Account
• Add Documents to any Account
• Easy spreadsheet functionality

Please go through the following short video demonstrating how to use Deskera CRM to manage accounts:

Tracking time of employees on various projects could be a painful task for organizations. If not managed properly, it could lead to anything from widespread confusion to inaccurate financial accounting. Errors in adding time, projects, WBS elements etc. could lead to issues as stated above. In addition, delays could happen if timesheets are not filled or approved on time, or are rejected but not acted on by the employee. Thankfully, Deskera provides, as part of its HRMS , a timesheet software that does away with all the problems.

In our December ‘11 release, new features have been added to timesheets that allow an organization greater control over how time is tracked and provide them more flexibility in setting up timesheets. Let us take a look at these new features in detail-

Configure Projects & Default Durations

Now you can pre-configure job/project details like name, default duration etc. in Master Configuration. Also, an option can be provided to the employees to add/edit job/projects manually from the timesheets. This is useful if a large chunk of employees have similar projects with default duration that need to be tracked.

This can be easily done by going to Master Configuration, selecting Timesheet Job and adding/editing sub-fields there. Please refer to the image for details.

Notifications for Approval/ Rejections

Now immediate notifications would go to the employee upon approval or rejection of  timesheets by the supervisor. This is in addition to the existing alerts for employees to fill timesheets and for supervisors to approve timesheets.

To know more about how to use timesheets for your business, please visit Deskera.

We are pleased to announce the latest enhancements to Deskera HRMS, the human resource management system of choice for many. The new features provide greater control over tracking & maintaining timesheets for all employees.

New Enhancements:

• Option to configure jobs/projects/ WBS elements through Master Configuration
• Option to define default duration of projects/WBS elements
• Send alert notifications to employees when action taken on timesheet

You may read more about these updates to the timesheet system here.

Please visit Deskera to know more.

Lead management is an important activity and often differentiates an ordinary CRM application from an excellent CRM application.

The Lead Management module in Deskera allows the CRM to make leads simple to qualify, distribute, and follow-up on. Using Lead Management in Deskera CRM, you can:

Here is a short video on how to manage leads using Lead Management in CRM:

Please visit Deskera to know more.

We have come a long way from the time when a Rolodex was considered the “last word” in contact management! Fortunately – we have software tools available to manage contacts now. Imagine managing all your contacts from the phone-book, Google, Facebook, Yahoo etc with a Rolodex!

A Contact Management tool should allow you to capture, monitor, store and track all critical information on your key stakeholders i.e. customers, prospects and partners. Furthermore, it should enable you to maintain up–to–date data on all activities happening for each of your contact, keep you updated on each of your account via real-time alerts and notifications, and give you a quick overview of all your contacts through customized reports and views.

In a nutshell, a Contact Management tool should enable you to segment available customer data and gain knowledge about your customers so that you can deliver the right value proposition to them.

Deskera CRM has an integrated Contact Management application. You may add new contact directly, or get them from existing leads or accounts. Moreover, campaign managers can access the data from the contacts directly to add them to target lists, due to integration with the Campaign Management module.

Key features of Deskera CRM – Contact Management are –

• Efficiently record and track complete contact details including lead source and account name.
• Click and Type functionality allows you to select, edit, add in three clicks or less
• Import contacts easily in convenient file formats from MS Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN and more
• Define contact activities – Tasks, Events and more – for accurately carrying out sales process and get regular updates
• Add/Update documents for each contact and maintain a central repository of documents for all your contacts
• Export your Contact list in multiple file formats like .pdf, .csv and more
• Integration with all Deskera CRM modules

Here is a short video on how to use Deskera CRM for Contact Management.

Please visit Deskera to know more.

Sometime ago, we had written about designing effective email campaigns. Today we will take a look at how we can use Deskera CRM to not only design and manage email campaigns, but also to track and manage all  kind of campaigns.

Campaign Management is an important feature of Deskera CRM. It allows you to reach out to your audience, identify people who respond, and close business with them. Key advantages of Deskera CRM – Campaign Management include:

• Easy to build and manage marketing campaigns.
• Build targeted marketing campaigns that address each customer segment with the products and services they need.
• Provides quick access to campaign status and updates.
• Allows you to build campaigns and update prospective customers about new offers within no time.
• Maintain easy-to-manage target lists for selective targeting of prospective customers.

The following videos demonstrate how Deskera makes your campaign management better, easier, faster.

Managing Campaigns

Manage Email Campaigns

Please visit Deskera to know more.

Studies show that the an ergonomic user interface can increase efficiency multiple times over. There is a lot of research that has gone into it as well – as can be viewed here.

Deskera CRM has a Mashboard (the next generation of dashboards with new, and hybrid dashboard design techniques, incorporating all the features of the previous generation dashboards in a real time customizable format) that is designed keeping only one thing in mind – you. It can be customized to look the way you want it to and displays relevant and real-time information. The widgets could be moved around and arranged in any order you want. Users can choose the information displayed within widgets and can be toggled between reports, alerts, updates and charts.

Here is a short video highlighting how Deskera CRM  makes your business better, easier, faster.

Please visit Deskera CRM to know more.

Configuring any software for the first time could be a daunting task. The user at times may feel like Alice in Wonderland – confused in a whole new world. Tech Support forums are full of highly intelligent people who find it impossible to comprehend the setup and configuration of a new software application.

Fortunately for Deskera users, this has never been a problem. In addition to the help available through our 24×7 email support, telephone support, and the support website, we also have a product that has been consistently rated by our users as one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use software applications.

If you find that hard to believe then let us demonstrate, with the help the following video, the ease with which user and company details can be added during first time setup of Deskera CRM.

The following video shows us how to configure users and provide role based access in Deskera CRM as well as configuring Company details.

Please visit Deskera CRM to know more.

Competence is generally defined as – a combination of awareness, skills, knowledge and attitude that enables an individual to perform a job to the standards required for successful job performance.

Essentially, “Competence” is what enables people to be better at what they do. It is not just skills picked up to enhance one’s knowledge. e.g. – A salesperson who learns to play the guitar is picking up a skill, but a salesperson who learns to play the guitar, so she can converse knowledgeably with her clients while trying to sell them a guitar, is picking up a competency. The difference between a skill and a competency lies in the purpose.

Competency based training is a methodology which involves mapping the current competency levels against desired competency levels, identifying the resulting gaps, and creating a training plan to bridge those gaps. This is an extremely powerful tool if used correctly. Which is one of the primary reasons that most organisations across the globe, including Fortune 500 companies, are investing in setting up competence based training for their workforce.

Before deciding to invest in competence based training though, one needs to have the following in place:

• Process to determine correct competencies (with required skill levels) for each role
• Process to measure and benchmark skill levels for any given competency
• Training programs to improve or develop competencies
• Follow up programs to monitor progress

Word of Caution – Do not let the HR department handle it all by themselves.

The entire exercise is a huge task for Human Resources alone, even for a small size company of say 200 employees. The best way to go about this is to create a task force with representation from senior executives, line managers, HR personnel, and the employees themselves.

Competence based training approach helps with the learning & development of employees, and can also be used as the spine of performance appraisal and career progression processes.e.g. if an assistant manager has to be promoted to be the manager, then the competencies and skill levels of the individual (assistant manager) should match at least the minimum competencies and skill levels of the desired position (manager).

Not only does this help create a transparent environment in the workplace, but also motivates employees by giving them adequate support to achieve their aspirations. A win-win for everyone.

If you do not have a tool to utilize the advantages of competence based training in your organisation as yet, then you might want to take a look at Deskera eTraining. It is a comprehensive, award winning corporate learning solution.

To know more about us, please visit Deskera.

We always strive to bring the best to our partners. The Deskera philosophy of “Better, Easier Faster” extends to our partners. The various features which we have put in our partner portal allow them to conduct their business in just that way.

In our earlier post, we had taken a look at customizing the sign-up page. Today, we will take a look at how our partners can easily manage the subscription plans through the partner portal.

• Click on Plan Settings in the left hand side menu of the Partner Portal
• Update the application names as desired on the sign-up page
• Update the subscription fee for each application as desired on the sign-up page
• Update all changes
• Get the ready to use sign-up page which can be linked to your website

Please visit Deskera Partners to know more about our partner program.

To know more about our products, please visit Deskera.

We are pleased to announce the update to our initial post about the October release of Deskera HRMS. Please read on to know more.

• Option added to Master Configuration to allow email-id being saved as default fields
• Multiple employee id prefixes can be customized through a simple interface, just like the job-id prefixes. Earlier you were only able to maintain one prefix for employee id
• The payslips are now displayed in reverse chronological order, with the latest payslip being the first one

In addition, 5+ bugs have been fixed as part of the latest release.

To know more, please visit Deskera HRMS.

Please sign up for our free demo at Deskera to know how we can make your business better, easier, faster.

A purchase management software can bring numerous benefits. Let us take a look at the three most beneficial outcomes of deploying a purchase management software.

Speeds Up the Purchasing Process
Say there is a regular requirement of certain products, like stationary. Once an entry is made, it could be cycled by the purchase management software without the need for a user to recreate them. Hence recurring purchases could be handled with minimal human interaction.

Eliminate Confusion
How often does it happen that “X” places an order, but then has to go on leave? In “X”’s absence, “Y” takes over, but doesn’t know where the PO is filed, and everything leads to confusion, causing a drain on resources and time. Such situations can be easily avoided if everyone uses a centralized system where all relevant data is available to everyone. Chances of duplication of orders would be next to nothing.  The system could be integrated with other accounting systems, eliminating further confusion. Consequently, with appropriate role based access, and system integration, a central system like the purchase management software would lead to increased efficiency.

Provide Meaningful Insights
A purchase management system that tracks all relevant data could provide relevant reports and meaningful insights. It could be used for supplier comparisons, or monitoring the health of the supply chain. Such insights can be invaluable and lead to direct cost savings.

As one can observe, all the above would lead to significant cost savings, improve efficiency and create a robust, people independent system. Deskera ERP provides powerful purchase management capabilities which are further integrated with the entire accounting flow. This creates seamless information flow between different departments, enhancing the efficiency by an order of magnitude.

Please visit Deskera ERP to learn more.

You may also want to visit Deskera and sign up for a free demo to experience the Deskera advantage.

Click on the link below to view a small presentation which demonstrates the relative ease with which anyone can use Deskera ERP for purchase management.

We are pleased to share with you the new enhancements to Deskera CRM in the October release. Let us take a quick look at the new features:

• Import existing Product Lists. No need to spend time in creating the product list from scratch
• Permissions can be granted at “user level” for accessing custom reports builder. This ensures greater control and security while also allowing relevant access based on roles and responsibilities
• Quotations can be created directly from CRM. There is support for templates which can be configured within the system, which means that you can prepare and send quotations in your own format

In addition to the above, tool-tips have been added in various positions based on your feedback and 15+ bugs have been fixed.

Feel free to try the free demo, and get a hands-on experience of the new features, by going to Deskera. To know more about the application, please go to Deskera CRM.

October kick-starts the festive season across the world. And Deskera is kick starting the festive season for all users with new enhancements that are happening across the board, starting with Deskera HRMS.

Let us take a look at the new features that are now a part of the HRM system.

• Advance Search added to Job Search. One can search with all parameters that go into defining a job, like Job-ID, Position, Department etc. And as with Deskera Search – its search-as-you-type, which translates into faster search
• Export to CSV option has been added to the “All Applications Module”. This ensures that a CSV dump can be taken of all the applications that have come in through HRMS and can be easily shared
• Option to edit Job-ID has been added while creating new job postings, providing more flexibility and easy tracking
• Deskera HRMS has had issues in the past with non-English characters. We’ve added better support for UTF-8 characters now.

In addition, 10+ bugs have been fixed in the latest release.

Please visit Deskera to know more and sign up for a free demo.

[Update] – The HRMS team is going great guns. Please read about the second release here.