Barking

Lots of people write about launching a new web application from different perspectives/view points and at Senokian we are no different; with the pending launch of Tactile CRM (you can sign up with the code APPROVED) we are going to write about the various promotion, pitfalls and successes that we achieve over the launch of our new product.

We hope that this will add to some of the excellent writing that is already available (such as Bare Naked App) and add another useful perspective to those that are thinking of building/launching an application.

I had a chance to chat with Chris yesterday about Tactile and what we are planning to do, he has written a great article (the first in their new beta section) on the @bar website about Tactile CRM. Check out the app and what he has to say.

We have launched the new website for the Tactile CRM. If you are interested, feel free to sign up (you will need to use the case sensitive code APPROVED) to try the free beta.

Please sign up and let us have any feedback you may have on the system.

The Tactile CRM private beta is now underway and we have already had a good number of people sign up. For those of you that would still like to join in, visit the Tactile CRM website and follow the instructions there.Today’s post is the first preview of the new system that beta testers are using online and will hopefully begin to let people see how Tactile will be of use to them.

1. The top left hand side of the Tactile system tells you which company you are logged into (Demo in this screenshot) and gives you easy navigation to the modules within:
   • Your Dashboard - an easy overview of everything going on within the system
   • Clients - Organisations with which you have a working relationship
   • Leads - Organisations you are currently talking with
   • People - Contacts within Clients & Leads
   • Opportunities - Potential, Won & Lost sales opportunities
   • Activities - Things you need to do
2. The main area of the screen (with the white background) is where all the key information regarding what you are looking at is kept. In this case it is a client and is Senokian Solutions Ltd. You can also easily tag clients from here to make searching easier.
3. For those of you with several members of your team we also show you who added the client and when it was last updated. This helps easily identify who last made changes etc.
4. Clients can have as many bits of contact information as you like (Phone, Fax & Email Addresses) and we display them to the right of the page. They can also be edited and added from here and as with all of the boxes of information you can open and close them to ensure you are not overloaded with unnecessary information. For example, your tech team may not be interested in the opportunities with this particular client so closes those off to make it easier to find the information in which they are interested - contact details and notes.
5. Address details are also readily visible so these can easily be pulled off without cluttering the screen.
6. Notes - this area of the page shows you all of the notes related to the client including those pulled through from people, activities and opportunities
7. Notes - a note shows you what it is attached to, who wrote it and when it was last updated. Notes also have a title and are a darker shade of yellow if they were written by you. You can edit and delete your own notes and view everyone elses.
8. The client information allows you to store further information about the client, from account number and credit limit through to website and number of employees. In addition to these standard fields all of the fields in the right hand column (Status, Source, Classification, Rating, Industry & Type) can be setup and configured by the admin account to allow you to customise Tactile to your needs.

More to Come

• Tags
• Inline editing
• Leads, People, Opportunities, Activities
• The Dashboard

Sorry for the delay in posting - what with the summer holidays and the build up for the Tactile beta, time has been at a premium!

For those of you interested in the Tactile beta, we are just sending out details for the first round of the beta for those who have already signed up. If you haven’t we are still looking for people to join.

What we are looking for though is people that use Outlook! We want your CSV files (and for you to join the beta too). Basically we want your Outlook CSV files to test out import routine - please email me if you are interested in helping out - all data sent will be treated confidentially.

The new site for Tactile is now available at http://www.tactilecrm.com/.

At the moment it is the application for the private beta, so feel free to visit and sign up now!

Tactile is our new product based upon our award winning Open Source EGS software.

What is Tactile?

A web-based CRM product, Tactile is aimed at businesses looking to easily manage their customer contacts, opportunities, activities and sales team. Using Tactile you can easily manage the interactions and sales processes that various teams within your organisations are involved in. Tactile offers:

• Clients - organisations you work with
• Leads - organisations you would like to work with or are currently negotiating new work with
• People - the all important people who work within the organisations
• Contact Details - addresses, phone/fax/mobile numbers, email addresses
• Opportunities - easily track new or exisiting sales opportunities with clients and leads
• Activities - manage your day to day activities on clients, leads, people or opportunities
• Notes - store, track and manage information on clients, leads, people, opportunities and activities
• Sales Pipelines and Reports - graphical dashboard with graphs and pipelines to easily see what is going on
• and much more…

The Plan

Over the next few weeks we will be releasing previews of Tactile and are looking for people to join our private beta.

The Previews

10 previews, 4 weeks. Each preview will reveal a little more about the product, its structure and how you can use it.

Can’t Wait?

Sign-up for our private beta by emailing beta@tactilecrm.com - help shape a new software product with your ideas and feedback, and be first to use one of the hottest new products.

There are a limited number of spaces so apply now to avoid disapointment and don’t worry if you don’t make it first time, we will be opening more places on a weekly basis to people during the beta/preview period.

Interested? If you could include the following in your email it will greatly increase your chances of making it onto the beta:

• Name
• Email address
• Company name (if applicable)
• A brief description of why you think you would be a good beta user

As a thank you to all of those joining the beta we will be giving away a free three month pass to all beta users after the trial has finished. In addition to that, those who make an outstanding contribution on the beta will be given an extension to the free trial above the first three months and entered into our prize draw to win a special prize!