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GoldMine 9 - Unleash
the power of the dashboard!
GoldMine 9 is now
available
This release is set to make people sit up and take notice as it will
contain the long awaited Goldmine dashboards. The dashboards will
enable managers to have an up to the minute view of whatever metrics
they deem really important for their business. E.g. “Number of calls
made that day – by user”, “who’s the top sales person – month to
date”, “What are the outstanding unresolved cases that are in danger
of breaching” Dashboards can be pretty much set up to show you
whatever you want to see. GoldMine 9 will come with a few
pre-defined dashboards, but it also has a Dashboard designer that
allows the user to create their own dashboards. I have many years
SQL and Crystal reports background so I found the dashboard designer
tool fairly easy to work with, but new users may find it a bit
daunting at first that’s why I have created a series of training
videos showing you how to use the designer to create your own
dashboards. The videos are easy to follow and will walk you through
the different parts of the designer and take you step by step
through the creation of a sales performance dashboard. The videos
are available as part of a set of three videos. (User training,
Systems Administrator Training and GoldMine 8.5 and GoldMine 9
additions)
Also in GoldMine
9 will be a tighter integration with Microsoft Outlook. Whereas
previously you had the ability to link an email message and then
click a button to launch the contact record in GoldMine. In GoldMine
9 you can see the contact information directly in Outlook. You can
see key GoldMine fields at a glance in, you can see the notes tab,
the forecasted sales, any outstanding support tickets right there in
Outlook. The integration adds a new GoldMine pane in to outlook with
a configurable view so you can choose the information you want to
see.
There are also
one or two other enhancements, like the ability to schedule
recurring activities with no end date. A new, easy, way to add and
remove contacts from an activity such as an appointment (useful for
seminar attendance)
GoldMine 9 is the
only version of GoldMine that supports Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
on the server side Windows 2008 Server (R2) is now also supported
with GoldMine 9
GoldMine Premium
Edition 8.5 - What's the big deal?
GoldMine Premium Edition has now been
released (on both sides of the pond)
Is it worth the upgrade? Well I've had a chance to have a good look
at GoldMine PE 8.5 now and I've made a quick list of new features.
(If you're still using Corporate Edition then there are many more
changes that were included with the earlier releases of Premium
Edition) This list is going to primarily benefit people who already
have GoldMine PE and are curious about 8.5
Universal Search
This one is a biggie - This is like
the Contact Search Center on steroids. It searches Contacts,
History, emails and even the contents of documents for whatever text
you type in. It's like having a "Google" tool for GoldMine.
It means that even if you don't keep all your files and folders in
an orderly manner you can still easily find things in GoldMine (and
other folders too)
Extra Detail fields
I like this addition. You can now
have an extra 4 fields in your extended details.
Validated lookup lists
At last! - You can now have one
lookup list based on the contents of another lookup list. e.g. I
choose "I choose "Cheese" in field1, the lookup list for field 2
will contain "Cheddar, Stilton, Mozarella" If I had chosen "Yoghurt"
in field1 then field2 would offer me "Strawberry, Banana or
Pineapple"
New Email Center UI enhancements
Enhancements to make the Email Center
a little more like "outlook"
Opportunity Manager facelift -
View a short
video on this new feature (3 mins 33 secs)
This shows all the fields from an
opportunity on the screen without you having to right-click and
choose "Edit". It also displays any custom fields you create in the
main Opportunity manager view rather than hidden in a tab
Create cases from an Automated process
I think this one speaks for itself.
There are also other enhancements to the cases feature such as
associated a case with multiple contacts, such as theh creation of a
history item when a case is reassigned, escaleted abandoned
etc
Default Relationships Tree Builder
No more messing about with 3rd party
products to create simple Trees based on Company name or Department
or City or combinations of fields. You can even run it on a filter
Notes Tab Security
You can now set security for users on
contact notes. By the way the Notes are now all stored in a separate
table - which is great for synchronising systems.
Search Center Enhancements
About time this one made it through -
You can choose email as a field in your search center and export it
- I know a lot of people will be happy with this one! You can also
do a single search for Primary and Additional contacts
Preview Activities and Links
This nice new feature allows you to
preview history, calendar or detail items without having to double
click. You can even preview files in the links tab.
There are a few other features but I consider these to be the main
ones. I must say that I really approve of this latest edition of
GoldMine. I think it's still a very strong product with a really
quick ROI when compared to other CRM's. Let's hope Frontrange
continue to invest in this product (all the signs are good that they
will).
Iain Wicks 18th May 2009
Note - Videos on all of these new features and many more are
available - Just click on the
CD training link
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