Thursday, April 26, 2012
Sage CRM is loaded with new features

Sage CRM v7.1 SP2 coming soon

The latest service pack release from Sage CRM is loaded with new features and functionality delivering further flexibility and an enhanced user experience for customers to better manage their CRM solution for critical sales, marketing and customer service activities. The new release sees a host of new features including cross browser compatibility with Firefox, Chrome and Safari in addition to the standard Internet Explorer compatibility, enhancements to Mail Merge and Document Filing features and a new Library Management functionality.

With Sage CRM v7.1 SP2 fully tested and ready to go, we’re proud to announce that the theme of our SP2 release is Cross Browser Compatibility. We have been aware for some time that Cross Browser compatibility is a major customer requirement in all of the Sage Regions globally (with different regions requiring different browser priorities for different reasons). This is reflected on our ideas hub and is one of the top requested features. In an effort to deliver Cross Browser Compatibility to our customers as soon as possible, we have included it in SP2 rather than asking customers to wait until our end of year v7.2 release.

Cross Browser Compatibility - what are the end user browser options in SP2?

Previous versions of Sage CRM were optimised for Internet Explorer but the latest release of SP2 sees cross browser compatibility with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. The options listed below will be available to end users in v7.1 SP2. Cross browser compatibility is focused on the end user experience, i.e. the ‘Main Menu’ area. The user experience and functionality throughout the Main Menu will be consistent across Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE.

 

	End User Supported Browsers in 7.1 SP2
	ü  Internet Explorer – versions 7, 8 and 9 (as per 7.1 SP1)
	ü  Safari – latest version (Safari browser on Windows OS, Safari browser on OSX. Note that the Tablet theme is recommended for use with iPad – IOS is not in scope)
	ü  Chrome – latest version
	ü  Firefox – latest version

 

Mail Merge and Document Filing

The Mail Merge and Document Filing features required special attention when it came to making them work across different browsers. Both features depended on an Active X plugin, which meant that the features only worked on IE and that end users needed to install the plugins themselves. Focusing on these features meant that we could make them work effectively across different browsers and also enhance their feature sets.

New Mail Merge Feature

Mail Merge has been completely overhauled and it is now a server side feature. With this new update Microsoft Word does not need to be installed on the client machine and an Active X plugin (or any other plugin for that matter) is not required. Regardless of whether a user is working in IE, Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, customers can create HTML templates from within the Sage CRM UI. Of course, customers can continue to use existing Microsoft Word templates to merge CRM data if they so wish. Users can create new merge templates in Word, upload them and merge them as well. The new release will give customers access to new HTML templates out of the box – including an example of how much easier it is to merge Quotes & Orders Line Items.

 

Mail Merge for Custom Entities

Mail Merge for Custom Entities is one of the top requested features on our Ideas Hub. The good news is that it is now possible to merge data from any entity (including custom entities) that has a Documents tab.

Document Filing

With the release of SP2 customers can now file documents in Sage CRM from an IE, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome browser. The dependency on Document Drop ActiveX control has been removed (although one can switch it back on for IE if they wish to file emails or drag-and-drop files). In addition to making the feature work across other browsers, we have addressed the top enhancement requests in the area, such as:

·         the ability to add multiple documents in one shot (possible in Chrome and Firefox using the new ‘Add File’ button or by dragging and dropping)

·         a new quick ‘View Attachment’ drill down directly from a grid

·         the ability to add files to tasks

·         the ability to exclude specific document extensions

·         and the ability to limit files by size

 

Library Management

This feature was designed with Sage CRM Cloud Administrators in mind, but it is also useful for administrators working in On-premise environments. In the Cloud environment, administrators do not have access to the file system so cannot manage their file storage allocations. Even in On-premise environments, Administrators may not have access to the file server. The new Library Management Option gives you an overview of your storage limit and the space currently being used by library items (documents, templates, and the global library) and the Sage CRM database. You can select files from the Library Items list, and use the Delete button to help free up more space in the Library.

For a more detailed overview of the Sage CRM v7.1 SP2 features, please refer to the Sage CRM Community.

Launching a new low cost Sage E-marketing for Sage CRM solution

E-marketing is one of the most popular marketing communication methods favoured by companies today. However, the load and blast approach to e-marketing does not achieve the best results. Sage E-marketing for Sage CRM gives users the opportunity to gain new customers and get closer to existing customers without ever having to leave Sage CRM.

Email Marketing continues to grow and according to a recent report by the Direct Marketing Association email marketing's ROI for 2011 sits at $40.56 for every $1 invested. This is compared to catalogs’ ROI of $7.30, search’s return of $22.24, Internet display advertising’s return of $19.72 and mobile’s return of $10.51.

Recognizing the need for Sage CRM customers to adopt e-marketing we have introduced a new affordable, powerful, entry level solution with a lower subscription cost of $99.95 per month. With this package customers get a two user licence with 2,000 emails per day. It provides easy to use functionality to enable users to execute high-quality, targeted e-marketing campaigns to generate leads. Users can benefit from a simple 3-step wizard to easily create new e-marketing campaigns and a choice of over 90 templates to get started immediately.

 

Need to send more than 1,000 emails per day?

Each additional 1,000 emails per day costs $4.99 per month.

 

Need more Swiftpage users?
Each additional user added to your account costs $7.99 per month.