I was recently sitting with a client who was trying to understand why he should go out and spend extra money and invest additional time to have us or someone else take care of his sales reporting needs. This company has been around for over 10 years, they are, for the most part, what I would consider a great company and their financials are very solid. However, they have always had an inventory problem. It seems that they have difficulty having enough inventory during their busy season, and when they are slow they have tons of product just sitting around on the shelf. I asked the owner what he has done to fix this. The answer basically came down to: “I do what my gut tells me to do.” I asked him how long he has been doing that. Answer: he’s always done it. I asked him what it’s cost him over the years. He squirmed a bit at that question but he felt it was legitimately something that costs him $15,000 a year conservatively. It seemed to me that he had given up and just accepted that this was “part of doing business.”

I asked him how he ran his forecasting reports and if they were accurate. Could he show me what was in his pipeline 30-60-90 days in the future? Was there a better way to measure what his demand for product was? Could we fix this inventory problem with some reports or was he really “OK” with losing $15,000 a year for the rest of his life?

Luckily this company has been using a contact management system to keep track of their sales activities for the past decade. The sales reps on their own have actually done a pretty good job of tracking sales opportunities inside the software. They had never ran reports out of the system though. Just for fun, we decided to run some of the canned or out-of-the-box reports to see if they could shed any light on what was going to happen in the next quarter. To the owner’s surprise he was able to see details on a sale in the final stages that he did not have enough inventory to cover. In the past, he had really only asked for dollar amounts from his sales department. I think the light bulb went one. He realized he could accurately track the progression of his sales leads through their pipeline process. I was quick to point out that the pipeline will never be 100% accurate, but what if we could reduce his $15,000 a year headache down to $5,000 a year? Would it be worth spending a little bit of time and money if we could show him how to do that?

We ended up creating a few custom reports so that he could track things to his liking. It turned out it only took a few hours to modify the reports that were already included with his software to do what he wanted. We then spent a few hours training his sales team to adjust the way they were entering opportunity information and within 8 weeks his inventory headache was reduced significantly.

What stories do you have to share? We would love to hear how a report or dashboard has changed the way you do business.

DesignR1 Software

Here is the link to our old ACT! by Sage Tip Archive.

ACT! by Sage Tips Archive

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UCSC Testimonial
DesignR1 Software - CRM Software, Consulting and Add-ons

DesignR1 Software

Brown & Sharpe worked with DesignR1 to link ACT! with its ERP system and create an automated response process that generates a contact and follow-up activity in ACT! when customers log on to the company’s Web site.  This was vital to the success of our project.

Tom DiBiasio – Project Manager

DesignR1 Software

Welcome to the new website for DesignR1! We hope you enjoy your visit and find the content useful and engaging.

I’d like to tell you how this new website came to fruition: Strategic Partnerships.

Simply put that is the reason for our new and greatly improved site. These partnerships are nothing new to DesignR1, but the way we look at them has completely changed. I believe I can now honestly say they are actually strategic. In the past they were often one sided or too structured. We now have a Win-Win attitude when it comes to these powerful alignments. This new perspective has allowed us to look for positive opportunities that ultimately end up benefiting DesignR1, the strategic partner and best of all, the customer.

I have had the opportunity of strengthening several key relationships over the past 6 months to the point where I believe I can now, without hesitation, call my partnership with them as strategic. This new found power has enabled us with the following benefits:

• Stronger Customer Loyalty
• Increased Residual Income
• Better Market Position
• Reduced Time Between Projects

We now actively search for partnerships that will be mutually beneficial for all parties involved. It has truly been an eye opening experience that I believe will lead us to be a better business.

DesignR1 Software

This documentation describes Hot Fix 1 for ACT! 2010 SP1 for the following versions:

• ACT! by Sage 2010 SP1
• ACT! by Sage Premium 2010 SP1
• ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2010 SP1

You do not apply this hot fix to any other versions or if your database is hosted by DesignR1.

Note: To determine the version of the product you are using, see the version number in the Help > About box. After the hot fix has been installed, the version number will read “12.1.181.0, Hot Fix 1″ depending on the version you originally had installed.

This hot fix applies to all international English locales.

Note: This hotfix (including any software and related documentation) is provided “AS IS.” Sage Software, Inc. disclaims all express or implied warranties of any kind with respect to the utility, including but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose

Who Should Install This Hot Fix?

Note: Apply this hot fix to all machines that are involved in database synchronization to avoid issues surrounding renaming layouts, queries, and reports. This includes all machines that contain the Main Synchronization Database, Main Remote Database, and machines that have the ACT! Network or ACT! Internet Sync Services applied.

Hot Fix 1 for ACT! 2010 SP1 may resolve your issues if:

• You are an ACT! user who shares an ACT! 2010 database, have upgraded your client to  ACT! 2010 SP1, and now see the following error message: “Cannot find database supplemental  files folder Shared-database files in this location UNUPDATED. This could be problem with the share, or the folder may not exist. Please contact the administrator of  your database.”
• You have upgraded to ACT! 2010 SP1, and notice that several Web Info tab links are no longer functioning. These links may include Google® Driving Directions, Google  Maps, Google News Search, Google Search, LinkedIn®, and Plaxo®.
• You have multiple or heavily-formatted notes and notice a decrease in performance and/or ACT! stops responding for several minutes.
• You are unable to add folders to the Documents tab by adding shortcuts to the folder  and opening the entire directory.
• You have upgraded to ACT! 2010 SP1 and are now unable to save items to drop-down lists.

The following tables list the area affected by the hot fix, the description, and the effect of the hot fix for each known issue.

New in Hot Fix 1

Applying Hot Fix 1 for ACT! 2010 SP1

This hot fix is for 2010 SP1. Do not apply this hot fix to any other version of ACT! To determine the version of the product you are using, see the version number in the Help About box. After the hot fix has been installed, the version number will read “12.1.181.0, Hot Fix 1″.

Apply this hot fix to all client machines.

Applying the Hot Fix

• Log onto to your computer as an Administrator.
• Click the HERE to download the ACT1210HotFix.exe file.
• Close ACT!.
• When the download dialog box comes up, choose Save and save to your Desktop.
• After the download completes, close ACT!, Internet Explorer® and all Microsoft Office applications.
• Locate the ACT1210HotFix.exe that you downloaded to your desktop and double-click it to begin the installation.
• The Unpacking ACT! progress indicator briefly appears followed by the Disclaimer dialog box.
• Review the disclaimer, and then click Apply.
• The installer verifies your Windows® rights and ensures that no open programs will conflict with the hot fix installation. If any of these conditions exist, the appropriate message will appear. Please follow the on screen instructions.
• The ACT! – Applying Updates window appears while the hot fix is being installed.
• When finished the ACT! dialog box appears.
• Click Ok to complete the installation.
• For all Windows Vista® users with UAC enabled, you will see a Program Compatibility Assistant dialog box. Click This program installed correctly to complete the installation.
• Start ACT!
• From the Help menu, select About. The version number will “12.1.181.0, Hot Fix 1″.

Changes To Your Installation

Installing the hot fix applies the following files:

• Act.Data.Resources.dll
• Act.Framework.dll
• Act.UI.Designer.Controls.dll
• Act.UI.TabPage.dll

DesignR1 Software

What good is a software product that doesn’t meet all of your needs and can’t be customized to fit them? If you’ve got needs and they aren’t being filled we’ve got solutions that fit nicely.

DesignR1 Software

You have a lot of choices when it comes to CRM products. We spend all day everyday working with and evaluating the industries best CRM software. If you would like to see how green the grass can be – just take a peak over the fence.

DesignR1 Software

One of the great keys to optimizing your business is to find repetition and automate it. Repetition is a black hole in which you sink thousands of dollars of human capital into each month. Let us show you how software can save your employees from burnout and boredom.

DesignR1 Software

If you realize that the money is in the data, then you must also know you must protect and recover it at any cost. If your database won’t open in ACT! and your backups won’t restore fear not we are the guys that the manufacturers even turn to for help!

DesignR1 Software