A look at iExtensions 5.2.5 - CRM Made Simple!

Some of the finest software in the world is available at OpenNTF but I wanted to check out some of the high-end, commercial software available in the marketplace today. Since customer relationship management (CRM) applications tend to be complex and generally have a very broad user base, they are easily considered among Domino’s most encompassing applications. That being said, I decided to start there.

I wanted to find a company that continues to invest heavily in Domino technology, in order to see all the latest stuff. Recently, there’s been an industry consolidation in this market and ostensibly, many of the remaining vendors are either focused on development for non-Domino environments or simply not investing heavily in their solutions. So I was happy to find iEnterprises was adding tons of new functionality to iExtensions CRM and pacing its’ releases with Lotus’ to take advantage of the latest and greatest new functionally with each release of Domino.

I know a little about CRM and I one thing I know is that CRM is no small undertaking. But after going through the installation and some of the configuration process for iExtensions CRM, I’d begun to believe that there is at least one solution that can be implemented simply and cost-effectively. I guess that’s why iEnterprises uses the tag line “CRM Made Simple”.

The installation process is wizard-driven and surprisingly, straightforward. The setup file is a Notes database that I simply launched and I followed the on screen prompts to install the collection of databases locally. There is an option during installation that can be selected to add CRM functionality to your existing Notes mail template. I decided to install it into the OpenNTF template. It worked like a champ and installed the CRM functionality into my template thus, proving compatibility with the OpenNTF template.

Once iExtensions was installed, I opened one of the databases and began using the product right away. I assumed it would be difficult to navigate so many databases but the tabbed interface is very intuitive (see figure 1). In fact, the tab-driven navigation was one of the features I particularly liked. Even though the product comprises several integrated databases, the accessibility of all of the databases via the tabs at the top of every screen helped make the product cohesive, seamless and very easily navigable.

Click to view larger screen capture!

Figure 1 - Navigating the databases is as easy as clicking the tabs at the top of the application. Tabs can be personalized by user or department.

The issue with most pre-packaged CRM solutions is that they usually fall into one of two categories — either the product requires specialized programming skills and a significant investment in dollars, time and resources to customize, or the product simply isn’t flexible enough to allow for needed customization. Once customized, it becomes impossible to upgrade. I went directly to the Settings database to try to configure the system. Through the configuration database, I could set up hundreds of user-defined fields to track just about anything. Additionally, I found that every label in the application is configurable, so if you like the word “Client” instead of “Company”, you can configure this as well.

Throughout the application, I was also able to configure the tabs, the portal and other aspects of the system on a user-by-user or departmental basis. Aside from providing a means to manage user access to certain data, presenting end-users with only the information and functionality that is relevant to them, is always preferred. Even though I like the idea of having so much flexibility built into the system settings, this is an open-source Domino application and I’m confident there’s a thing or two that could add to it. So I was especially happy to discover that virtually all forms include protected custom tabs you can enable. This allows you to put your own custom design elements in the application without risk of those modifications being impacted by system upgrades. The combined extensive system settings and intelligent customizability makes for an application that is both extremely flexible and upgradeable.

With the system configured to my liking, I opened the Contacts database, selected a contact and started interacting (figure 1). I was able to send e-mail from Notes mail, schedule events on my calendar and the application was able to capture and share all that information automatically.

Also, very impressive is iExtensions built-in MS Office integration and document management. It allowed me to create MS Word documents or Excel spreadsheets from pre-configured templates and easily merge contact and related data into those documents – even the merge fields are totally configurable. Any documents I created could then be stored in the document library and linked to customers or projects, and categorized for quick retrieval enterprise-wide.

A feature I found particularly useful in the document management system is the ability to generate and email PDFs from any document stored in the system. This functionality is native to the application and doesn’t require the Adobe Acrobat distiller to be pre-load on your computer. Since Acrobat costs over $200 a seat, this feature adds quite a bit of value to the document management component.

Another area that potentially offers quite a bit of savings is related to the iExtensions Sales Orders module. Frequently, porting sales order information from your ERP involves the use of costly integration software such as LEI. Don’t get me wrong, LEI is great, but if you don’t own it, it will add a hefty sum to the cost of your CRM implementation. iEnterprises will integrate your ERP using their own database connection manager — providing a huge savings.

There is also extensive reporting in the solution through integration with the ubiquitous Crystal Reports. The Crystal runtime is supplied with iExtensions, which allows you to run Crystal Reports within the application with no additional licensing costs. You can even store the output of the reports in the document management system and send notifications prompting others in your organization to view the completed reports via the notification engine built into the product.

Integration is a common theme with iExtensions. MS Office, Crystal Reports, your ERP – there’s even out of the box support for Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime) and Lotus Team WorkPlace (QuickPlace). But perhaps most importantly, iExtensions is integrated with Notes and Domino. CRM is about collaboration with your customers. So it is extremely important that a CRM system be integrated with the way you collaborate. Therefore, the tight integration with Notes and Domino is the key factor. So much emphasis is placed on integration with other external systems, but it is often forgotten that integration with the primary collaborative platform is of the utmost importance. Really, this is the case for using Domino and the CRM platform.

Finally, I launched the browser and found that the browser-based application is virtually the same as the Notes client. The browser interface is very sophisticated. Often, I find that it is difficult to traverse volumes of data using a web-based application (figure 2). iExtensions has implemented a feature similar to type ahead in Notes. This is very useful because you can easily navigate through a large number of documents just as you would in Notes. Also, everything worked on the web – even the MS Office Integration, PDF functionality and Crystal reporting.

Click to view larger screen capture!

Figure 2 - iExtensions CRM Web interface

The CRM functionality worked great inside my OpenNTF template. It has what iEnterprises calls “email caller ID.” This means that it can automatically recognize the person sending the email and store the message in the CRM application without any work. It also allows you to take an attachment from an email message and store it in the iExtensions CRM document management system. This is very useful.

There are lots more goodies in the mail template features. What I found very impressive is that only a couple of forms were added to the mail to achieve this. There are definitely no issues putting this functionality in future version of the OpenNTF template. And if you happen to use the regular notes mail template you can easily install these few design elements there too.

iExtensions CRM Notes is feature packed – so much so that, it is impossible to go into all the features in detail for the purposes of this review but here are some of the things iExtensions can do.

• Portal Database – Allows users to create personalized portlets looking into the system and to view and interact with the summarized data.
• Contact and Account Management – Provides a fully compliant Domino directory to store and securely share contact and account information.
• Business Process Management – Allows you to set up pre-defined business processes that help guide the user through the customer relationship process.
• Correspondence Management – Captures day-to-day e-mail and allows mass personalized correspondence via e-mail, print or fax.
• Sales Forecasting and Opportunity Management – Tracks and forecasts sales opportunities.
• Help Desk – Tracks problems and inquiries complete with escalation and automatic e-mail notifications.
• Matter Tracking – The legal configuration allows tracking of client matters and provides the ability to link documents, e-mail and other activities to client matters.
• Service Tracking – For the other professional services organizations – allows tracking of services and provides the ability to link documents, e-mails and other activities to services.
• Project Tracking – Allows you to link documents, e-mail and other activities to projects. Also allows you to set up tasks and track the completion of the tasks and success of the projects.
• Document Management – The fully integrated document management system allows you to store and track documents.
• Campaign Management - Manage and measure the success of sales and marketing campaigns with the new Campaign Management database. Define campaign goals and objectives, then link leads, contacts and opportunities to measure actual performance. Assign campaign tactics (tasks) to different people within your organization to manage and track. Keep staff informed using built-in reporting tools and workflow notifications.
• Sales Database - Get a true 360-degree view of your customers right from within iExtensions CRM by integrating sales orders from your ERP into the new Sales Order Tracking database. Easily link related email, documents, activities, contacts, opportunities, campaigns, projects and more.
• Call Reports - Sales organizations can more easily track sales calls, prospects and customers with the new Call Tracking database. Use the database tools to plan, execute and follow up on sales calls. Easily link all related emails, to dos, calendar entries, documents and other activities, including any resultant Opportunities. Management can stay up to date thanks to integrated reporting and workflow notifications.
• Custom Database - The new Custom database will allow you to customize iExtensions CRM to track and manage anything. Use the custom database to tailor the solution to satisfy your most unique organizational requirements easily and cost effectively. Built-in functionality allows for association of all activities, use of shared actions, and creation of an unlimited number of custom subforms.
• MS Office Integration – Allows you to create single documents, perform mail merges and generate Excel reports. All the mail merge and Excel reporting fields are configurable so you create your own reports and mail merge templates with whatever data is appropriate.
• Crystal Reports

iExtensions CRM is a remarkably powerful solution, yet simple to deploy and configure. This product's strength lies in its’ ability to capture and associate with your contacts all of the activities you normally use Notes to accomplish (email messages, calendaring and scheduling, and tasks), while extending Notes' capabilities to include document management, project tracking, help desk and opportunity management. As Notes-based applications go, I think iExtensions is the clear leader.

Product Review: RATING A

For more information about iExtensions CRM:

iEnterprises, Inc.
172 South Street
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
800-741-5597 (in the U.S.)
908-679-0000
http://www.ienterprises.com
info@ienterprises.com

About the author

Bruce Elgort is co-founder of OpenNTF.org and a Domino professional. You can read about Bruce at http://www.bruceelgort.com