Customer Databases

cormie

Hi,
Trying to come up with a good system for keeping customer info.

At the moment, I'm giving them all their own code, so Joe Smith may be given the code, VTA083, then the next customer added could be Sally Mcnamara and have VTA084. The problem with this is because I want to keep the details in my phone, if I want to search for Sally, I'll need to know her code because I've named her in my phone as VTA084-Sally Mcnamara so it would take quite a while to scan through all the names looking for a Sally.

There's also the problem of once I reach more than 1,000 customers, my phones phonebook can only hold 1,000 contacts, so what do I do then?

I want to be able to sync the phone with a database on my computer. I was looking for an opensource program and found one called Citrus, but it's a MYSQL one, which I think means it works from a website basically, not stored on my computer?

If anyone has had to deal with the same problem, I'd really appreciate some advice on the best system to go with

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

cormie

netsuite looks a bit overkill and a price on the site isn't mentioned so I'm guessing it's not going to be pretty:(

Would anyone who's had a similar problem have any suggestions on how to organise the names and everything? How would you keep track in a phone etc?

Teamhar

I recommend Microsoft CRM- it has a nice function which integrates with Outlook so keeping all your info in one place. Customer data, leads, marketing campaigns, service scheduling, reports etc.

If its just installed on one machine thats fine, but if you're putting it onto a server and you or several other people are accessing through a web browser from say a laptop, the Outlook integration can be configured to an "Offline" mode. This means a copy of the CRM database is stored locally on your machine so you can work with it anywhere when not connected to the CRM server.

T.

maperoo

Hi Cormie,
In relation to that software you are thinking of using (Citrus), I am not familiar with the software. However, if is it MYSQL, that does not mean that it has to be on a website.

MYSQL is the leading open source database software... you can download it from here :http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/
The MySQL Community Server will be fine, so it's free.

Download it
Install it
Create a new database with a new user and a new password


Then I imagine one of the install requirements of the Citrus, will be to provide that new user and password and it will simply connect to your database.


You were saying about it being web based... if it is a web based application, there is actually a web server on your own computer.... try clicking this link:
http://localhost/
This is your local machine... which points to the physical location "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot".
So if for example you put a file here:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\test\example.html, you should be able to see it at
http://localhost/test/example.html.

Same applies for your Citrus install... the files will prob have to go in "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot" and you can work from there.

Best of luck!
Regards

cormie

Thanks very much for that info. Will try figure it out sometime

Sordini

Cormie,

New nokia phones search the entire name. So if you have VT 115 John, you can type 115 or John and you will get it.

I have spaces in my phone however not sure if they are stuck together.

Zascar

take a look at www.sugarcrm.com - better than Microsoft i think, and free!

cormie

Thanks for the suggestion Have you used it yourself?

WebExpert

cormie wrote: »

Hi,
Trying to come up with a good system for keeping customer info.

At the moment, I'm giving them all their own code, so Joe Smith may be given the code, VTA083, then the next customer added could be Sally Mcnamara and have VTA084. The problem with this is because I want to keep the details in my phone, if I want to search for Sally, I'll need to know her code because I've named her in my phone as VTA084-Sally Mcnamara so it would take quite a while to scan through all the names looking for a Sally.

There's also the problem of once I reach more than 1,000 customers, my phones phonebook can only hold 1,000 contacts, so what do I do then?

I want to be able to sync the phone with a database on my computer. I was looking for an opensource program and found one called Citrus, but it's a MYSQL one, which I think means it works from a website basically, not stored on my computer?

If anyone has had to deal with the same problem, I'd really appreciate some advice on the best system to go with

That post should be in the Technical forums