BCM 2007 - Usage strategies

[bandrews]

Hi,

First I would like to know if anyone has any reading recommendations
for us with respect to our 2007 BCM installation. We have it set up
with the DB shared on a SQL 2005 remote server and all is good... we
are just trying to figure out the best strategies for usage:

1. We have 3 divisions (each with potentially different customers --
some shared) so we need to consider that each major type of data may
need to be filtered depending on the user. We added a custom field
called "Division" but are also considering just using categories.
Either way - each user will want to see opps, leads, reports, etc
specific to his / her jobs. Any advice (or other experience /
strategies) on this is appreciated.

2. Is it possible to modify the content views of the home page tabs to
display to all users in a specific view (like define views)? It does
not seem to stick. I cannot seem to figure this out yet if so...

3. Are there any good communities for BCM that we should visit?

4. How are you all handling leads and the BCM sales process in general.
It would be great to hear a "day in the life" type scenarios for
someone using BCM for sales (in shared mode would be even more helpful
as there are no doubt more tweaks to leverage).

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[bryan andrews]

No takers?

 

[Ed Marmon]

I would love for you to have some takers, because I would be a reader of
your takers, too....

 

[Lon Orenstein]

I'm foolish enough to jump into this...

I don't have real world experience running a business like yours on BCM but
I do know BCM and have consulted with businesses like yours with ACT! since
1990, so I do think I have some street 'cred.

1. Your first request will be a big problem with BCM -- when you share the
database, everyone is either all in or all out. You can't have Bob see just
his contacts, Carol see only hers, and so on. That said, Yes, you could
create views to filter each person's data so as long as they used that view,
they would only see their own data.

2. For the views on the home page, if you right click on the column
headers, choose Customize Current View, go to the SQL tab and uncheck the
box at the bottom (Edit these criteria directly), then you "should" be able
to customize the view to your desires. I'm not next to my test PC so I
can't verify this now...

3. This is the best community for BCM...

4. I think the sales opportunity track is the answer to following a sale
through from start to finish. Can you give me some better idea of your
business and how the process works? Have you used opportunities yet?

Hope that helps,
Lon



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_________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools
(e-mail address removed)
www.pinpointtools.com