O
OldFaithful
I'm working for a company that over the years has built a very
dis-integrated hodge-podge of processes and applications to
perform their basic business functions. There is no central
database. Data is frequently duplicated and this causes errors
and inefficiencies and lots of paper. Quotes and Contracts are
generated manually in Word. These Word documents are e-mailed
around the company and to prospects and customers alike. Signed
contracts are kept in hardcopy form in a filing cabinet. Product
Sheets and Pricing are stored as Word documents on a Sharepoint-
based Intranet. Sales is using Goldmine for CRM. Finance is using
Intuit QuickBooks for order tracking and billing. Customer Support
is using a home-grown SQL Server application.
In the long run, a total MS solution seems to be the ideal answer,
but for now we are looking at a multi-phase approach to start getting
things cleaned up. To get there, the working plan - with questions
for you - is:
1. First we want to develop a SQL Server database to store product and
pricing information. We would like to be able to generate nice Product
Sheets from this database (into Word documents, which we could
convert to PDF if/when needed). Is Infopath a good choice to
use database information to generate Word product sheets?
2. Develop a "quote engine" that combines boilerplate language
with database elements and "Quantity" and "Discount" options
to produce a Sales Quote in Word. Our Contracts department would
edit/review the Word document and then PDF it and post the PDF on
the Sharepoint intranet to "distribute" it. That eliminates e-mail
distribution
and it's attendant version control issues, gives us a quote log, and
eliminates
the risk of unapproved changes being made to the document (if it's in
Word
form). Can Infopath generate Word documents in this fashion?
Thanks!
(e-mail address removed)
dis-integrated hodge-podge of processes and applications to
perform their basic business functions. There is no central
database. Data is frequently duplicated and this causes errors
and inefficiencies and lots of paper. Quotes and Contracts are
generated manually in Word. These Word documents are e-mailed
around the company and to prospects and customers alike. Signed
contracts are kept in hardcopy form in a filing cabinet. Product
Sheets and Pricing are stored as Word documents on a Sharepoint-
based Intranet. Sales is using Goldmine for CRM. Finance is using
Intuit QuickBooks for order tracking and billing. Customer Support
is using a home-grown SQL Server application.
In the long run, a total MS solution seems to be the ideal answer,
but for now we are looking at a multi-phase approach to start getting
things cleaned up. To get there, the working plan - with questions
for you - is:
1. First we want to develop a SQL Server database to store product and
pricing information. We would like to be able to generate nice Product
Sheets from this database (into Word documents, which we could
convert to PDF if/when needed). Is Infopath a good choice to
use database information to generate Word product sheets?
2. Develop a "quote engine" that combines boilerplate language
with database elements and "Quantity" and "Discount" options
to produce a Sales Quote in Word. Our Contracts department would
edit/review the Word document and then PDF it and post the PDF on
the Sharepoint intranet to "distribute" it. That eliminates e-mail
distribution
and it's attendant version control issues, gives us a quote log, and
eliminates
the risk of unapproved changes being made to the document (if it's in
Word
form). Can Infopath generate Word documents in this fashion?
Thanks!
(e-mail address removed)