What does a CRM Cost? (or, the price of not buying local)

I received a white-paper from SugarCRM today entitled: “CRM’s Dirty Little Secret: How to Avoid CRM Sticker Shock, An Analysis of Fees, Subscriptions and Hidden Costs”

Now, that’s a heck of a title.  It is filled with lots of good information.  Obviously, it is biased towards SugarCRM, just as you could logically expect this post to be biased towards haloDASH {the best CRM and Project Management tool on the planet :) }.  It compares the costs of Microsoft Dynamics (on-premise and cloud), SalesForce, and SugarCRM.  All of these products have their virtues, however, none of their virtues is price or simplicity.  I have provided the grid below to display how haloDASH stacks up in terms of pricing.  A full pricing grid with options can be found here.

It is key to realize that in this paper there is no mention made of necessary setup fees, training, or ongoing support, which tend to add multiple thousands of dollars to a CRM deployment.  This omission seems convenient, as getting these products to a usable state for your business can be time intensive. However, here are some uselful snippets from the afore-mentioned paper (I make no claims to the veracity of their information, I’m just sourcing their whitepaper):

In regards to Dynamics:

“Pricing and licensing of Microsoft Dynamics is complex and can vary based on the existing Enterprise Agreement (EA) a company may have in place with Microsoft…”

In regards to SalesForce:

“…some (but not all) of the editions include full mobile access, a Microsoft Outlook Plugin, reporting as well as customization and integration capabilities.”  “While many CRM systems are sold via a subscription model, customers of Salesforce.com often pay significantly more than the quoted monthly subscription fee due to hidden fees and other limitations that can increase the total cost of ownership.”

In regards to SugarCRM, they actually provide a graph showcasing that in 3 years, Sugar Ultimate is actually the 2nd most expensive option of the 3 platforms.  If they are trying to make the case that SugarCRM is a cost effective option, they don’t seem to be making their point.

How haloDASH compares

Platform	Monthly Subscription per User	Additional Fees
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online	$65	Storage $9.99 per GB
SalesForce Professional	$65	Complete Mobile Access $50 per user per month
Sugar Enterprise	$60	(none listed)
haloDASH Premiere	$29.95

We don’t make it a habit to compete on price; we would rather talk about how haloDASH fits your business with simple elegance. But, when our price and product puts others to shame, what are we to do?  Ask yourself if you’re getting more value for your additional investment.  If you feel that you are, then you’re spending your money wisely.  

CRM is not a mystery, however.  At its core, it is easy to understand: at the end of the day we want to keep track of leads, opportunities, and customer information.  Is it worth it to you to purchase a CRM product that is so feature-bloated with bells and whistles that, if unused, those features actually become detrimental to your productivity?  Or would it be more beneficial for you to use a local vendor who knows you and your goals; a local product that provides the CRM functions that you’ll actually use, and at a price-point that is hard to match?  haloDASH doesn’t require add-on fees for additional contacts, usage fees, or mobile access.  We don’t charge you more money for actually using the product you purchased.  When you need enhancements, you talk directly to the manufacturer.  When you need support, you talk to a developer in your own town.  When you need somebody to make a decision, you speak directly to the owners.

haloDASH is here to provide you with:

1. A great local product that keeps simple things SIMPLE
2. Local support
3. A price that some clients have called “too good to be true.”

I assure you, haloDASH is that good, and Halo is Louisville’s only Local CRM provider.

bwatson@halodash.com

502-276-6352

www.halodash.com

Top 5 Reasons Your CRM is Unused

Having been a project manager and sales lead on numerous CRM deployments, I often hear similar comments across all segments of the marketplace about why companies are less than pleased with the acceptance or usage of their current CRM.  Not even substantial upfront investments guarantee an across the board “buy-in.”  Everyone knows the potential benefits of CRM, so why is yours going unused?

Here are the top five reasons I personally have run across.

1. Big Brother Paranoia:  Too many reps have no idea why a CRM has been introduced.  Without clear messaging from management, the natural inclination is to assume that Big Brother wants to micromanage their every step.  The reality is, at the end of the day, what matters is the numbers.  An abundance of tracking data won’t mask poor sales.  The CRM, it should be communicated, is a tool to help your reps exceed their goals.  A sale is the end result of activity, and the CRM helps you stay on top of your activities
   
2. No selling value:  If the tool doesn’t help you close more sales, then, using it is an exercise in data entry.   Does the CRM reduce redundant tasks?  Does it proactively alert you to significant milestones?  Does it make the completion of a weekly call log a thing of the past?  The CRM should work for you, not you for it.
   
3. Costly Upkeep: Business needs change.  What was great for you six months ago doesn’t necessarily cut the mustard today.  Unfortunately, smaller CRM implementations typically lack the ability to create functionality unique to your business as you grow.  Enterprise level CRM solutions typically provide the ability to create these customizations, but each feature request can require a scope development fee and significant development costs, pushing the ROI of your CRM further down the road.  So, necessary feature enhancements often go un-created, which leads to time-sapping work-arounds, which leads to poor acceptance.  I’ve heard from multiple prospects that are afraid to call their current provider for fear that they’ll receive a bill.
   
   The solution is to find a CRM that provides the best of both worlds: powerful and useful off the shelf CRM functionality, with the ability to make cost effective modifications when necessary as the business needs change.
   
4. Nobody knows how to use it:  Did you do a “do it yourself” CRM implementation?  Did you leave the training of your staff up to YouTube and a user manual?  If you’re going to invest in a CRM, invest a few hours to make sure your team knows how to use it.  It’ll pay you back sooner rather than later.
   
5. No mobility:  Not all sales happen in the office.  Many reps go for days at a time without ever stepping foot in a cubicle.  Because of a lack of mobile access, or painfully slow remote desktop sessions, reps often trick themselves into believing that they’ll enter their data when they are back in front of their computers.  But, when the time comes, nobody wants to dedicate an hour to put in a week’s worth of data.  Your CRM needs to work on that little computer in your pocket without any feature limited apps or proprietary software.  Your CRM needs to help you extend your office, not chain you to it.

What’s your experience been like?  What are reasons your CRM isn’t being used?

Five Metrics Your CRM and Project Management Software Should be Tracking

Every business has a CRM “system.”  Not every business has CRM “software.”  The difference between the two is the level of efficiency and insight that can be gained with proper tracking and measurement. Whether you have created a spreadsheet specific for your daily tasks, are using a free CRM tool, or have implemented an entire ERP solution, the best CRM for your business is one that will make your life easier and transition you from “gut feelings” to “actionable items.”

The following five metrics will help you target the right prospects for your business and identify areas for improvement.  A slight increase in any of these metrics can dramatically improve your bottom line. 

1. Number of leads required:  How do you know if your marketing is working?  It is working if it is generating the required number of leads at the top of the sales funnel.  If you don’t know how many leads you need, you can identify this number by working the math backwards based upon the variables below.  Start by identifying a revenue number that you believe will be profitable to you.  If you have a 50% conversion rate, simply adding 2 more leads will land you a new customer!
2. Average Sales Cycle:  From the initial opportunity until the deal is signed, using your CRM to track how long your average sales cycle is open will allow you to identify the types of prospects or projects which are most likely to close “now.”  Using this data, you can create a few more prequalification steps to eliminate meetings today that would best be held in 30 days.  This would allow you to focus your energy on opportunities that will make an impact on your business today.  A small decrease in time to close can have a big impact on your cash flow.
3. Average dollar sale:  Every business is different; whether you target 100 $1 sales or 1 $100 sale, you need to know which type of opportunity is best for you.  Time spent closing deals that aren’t in your best interest could otherwise be spent landing sales that were.   Additionally, if you could “up” your average dollar sale by only 10%, you could essentially add a “free” client on every 10th sale. 
4. Conversion Rate:  Do different reps have different close ratios?  Of course, but why is that? There are a multitude of factors that can play into the company’s conversion rate, be it better target qualification, less competition for the needed product or service, or the particular skill of the sales rep.  CRM tools can help identify the factors that lead to higher or lower conversion rates.  Enhance your advantages and eliminate the obstacles.  A small improvement in conversion rates will mean less time swinging and missing and more money in the bank.
5. Margins: Have you ever wondered how you could hit your quotas and the P&L still lag behind?  Perhaps it is your margins.  Material and labor costs have risen dramatically.  Have your prices kept pace?  You can close a million dollar sale and be worse off if it costs you two million dollars to deliver the product.  Remember, margins are a factor of profit.  Markups are only a factor relative to cost.  Never forget to keep an eye on the profits.   If you run a service based business, in a perfect scenario, your Project Management system would tie into your CRM, so that you could get a true indicator of a clients profitability based upon not only the sale, but also on the delivery and service of the product.

If you would like to learn more about how you can track these valuable datapoints quickly and easily, please contact me today to schedule a conversation.

Brad Watson

haloDASH.com

CRM and Project Management Solutions

bwatson@halodash.com

Top 5 Reasons Your Current CRM isn’t Working for You! (

We've just uploaded our latest, greatest white paper to help you make the best of your CRM resources.

I wanted to name it, "Top 5 reasons your CRM Sucks,"  but, I decided to keep it professional.

Click the link below, and let us know what you think.

Top 5 Reasons Your Current CRM isn’t Working for You! 

(and what you can do about it)

Keep BOTH New and Existing Clients Happy--with one simple tool!

The quest to gain new business is never-ending.  Most of our sales efforts are geared to get customers into the fold.  If you are utilizing a CRM solution, most of your opportunities and activities are probably focused in that direction.  However, the candidates most likely to purchase your goods or services are those who have already purchased from you in the past.  Existing customers are arguably more important to the future of your business than new customers.  So, it is in your best interest to keep them happy and well serviced.  But, this is often easier said than done.

However, one simple way to treat your existing customers with the same level of follow-up and service that you extend to prospects is to utilize a CRM tool that will manage your customer service as well.  Keeping ongoing service histories and conversations alongside sales opportunities in a centralized database provides the account rep with a holistic view of all the current needs of their contacts.  All too often, a sales call has been torpedoed by the customer asking about the status of their current issue, only to have the account rep have no idea there even was an issue.  Likewise, having your CRM inform you of any completed service requests provides the account rep with another opportunity to follow-up: during which an offer for extended service plans or updated hardware would not seem ill-timed.

haloDASH, the CRM and Project Management solution from Halo Applications, takes customer service to an entirely new level by providing a unique customer service portal for each contact in your database for no additional monthly fee.  This portal allows the customer the opportunity to submit new support requests directly into your customer service queue, while also providing the ability to view the status and history of all completed and in progress requests.  This extra level of transparency can reduce the amount of incoming, "Where is this at...."  calls and keep your team on task.  These submitted requests are also integrated directly with your Sales Dashboard...no double entering of data.

If you would be interested in integrating your customer support and sales functions, visit halodash.com and register for a free no obligation demo, or call us at 502-276-6352.

Avoid the Summer Sales Slowdown

As we near our annual steady stream of 90 degree days, we can be tempted to believe that summertime sadness is upon us.  Summer can be the 2 month stretch where nobody buys anything and where every meeting is delayed, or it can be the season where you turn your frown upside down.  Here are 10 simple ways to avoid the summertime blues.

1. Use vacations as a motivator.  Don't blindly accept the tired, "I'll have to get back with you after vacation" mantra.  The truth is, the decision maker can eliminate one more pain point before they head of town, which means they can truly enjoy their vacation without a nagging perception that a purchasing decision awaits them when they return.  Try to cajole your way onto their calendar before they go.  They may be eager to get it over with.
2. Get out of the office.  Your customers look out the window too, so give them an excuse.  Take them fishing, or golfing.  The allure of a late afternoon meeting that's close to home or that's over by 4:30 may be too much to resist. 
3. Add sprinkles and Gummy Bears.  Here's an stretch, let's make frozen yogurt the new "meet me for coffee."   It just takes one of us to push this idea across the finish line.  
4. Reward your team.  A summer promotion or contest can take advantage of your local area's activities like professional sports, gardening, or music festivals.  One or two extra sales in the summer can move the needle, and staying motivated is the key.
5. Have a  BBQ.  Everybody likes BBQ.  People who don't like BBQ are probably un-American or your worst customers anyway.  Nothing draws more people outside of the office than ribs, so...eat and meet.
6. Don't stop marketing. A slow summer can turn into a bad autumn if you don't stay the course.
7. Don't waste your downtime!  If you do get slow, work on improving your products, marketing, or social media.  You'll kick yourself if you don't.
8. Refuse to lose touch with your hot leads!  Work the process.  Don't stop following-up.  If you do, you'll lose out to the interloper who will marry the woman you've been dating for a year.
9. Don't buy the hype!  If you believe nobody's doing business in the summer, you're deluding yourself. This isn't Greece.
10. Do something!  Anything.  Activity begets activity.  Meet with strategic partners.  Go to networking events.  Call up existing customers.  Just make a commitment to keep moving.  Momentum, once lost, is hard to regain.  

A Special Announcement from your Friends at Halo!

Firstly, we want to thank all of our friends for the excitement we're feeling at Halo.  Many of you have been with us since we started; others are just now starting their relationships with us.  It's because of you that we are where we are today.  So, again we say thank you.

As you may know, late last year we soft-launched our CRM, Project Management, and dashboarding solution, HaloDash.  We have been amazed at the positive reception you've given us.  More importantly, HaloDash is helping new companies every day improve their sales and project execution.  The feedback we've received keeps us rolling out new and powerful features on a monthly basis, and this product has taken on a life of it's own.  We're excited about where HaloDash is taking us.

To that end, we wanted to announce to you the launch of our new HaloDash.com website before our marketing starts rolling out next month.  Check out our amazing product info-video.  If you say to yourself, "Who is that stunning young man with the excellent TV delivery," I urge you to double-check your address bar because you're probably at the wrong website.  If you say, "Who is this incredibly excited, pale, sickly looking person and has he taken his medication," you're probably at the correct location.  It's genetics folks.  I am what I am.

In any case, check out the all new HaloDash.com and send us your feedback.  Like us on Facebook, and if we've done right by you in the past, share us with your friends.  We're anxious to share HaloDash with the world, and we wanted you to be the first to know about it.

Again, many thanks, and we look forward to what the future has in store for all of us.

--Brad

Your Logo and You: A love hate relationship

Do you like your logo?  Do you know how it came to be or what it says about you?  The truth is, I haven't the foggiest idea what makes a good logo better than a bad one.  I have creative people around me that make those kinds of decisions.  I couldn't tell you why the McDonald's yoga french fry works..but it does.

What I do know is that getting consensus on a logo change is about as pleasant as brushing your cat's teeth. (Full disclosure, I don't have a cat, but I can imagine that's an unpleasant thing. If there is such a thing as mouse flavored tooth-paste and your cat loves it, please leave your comments for a follow-up post).  We recently redesigned our HaloDash Logo to coincide with a marketing push coming out in about a month.  The process rewards patience; like waxing on and waxing off.

At the beginning of the process I made a strategic error by telling our marketing folks, "I don't think anybody will buy HaloDash because of the logo."  That's a nice way of saying, "I will never appreciate your work or dedication to your craft.  Now please, scamper off to create something meaningless with the next two weeks of your life."  They gently reminded me that although I may not think I buy a Starbucks coffee because of the green lady, I may one day be in the mood for coffee and see her smiling face and think, "Hey, they have coffee."  That was a nice way of saying, "Shut up, idiot.  We do this for a living.  Go sit in the car until we're done."

So, team Halo had a few requirements.  The new logo had to convey simplicity and speed, because HaloDash is simple to use and it is fast.  Actually, those were initially our only two requirements.  Then came the comps.  The first batch was OK, but before passing judgment I asked for a little explanation of what the artist was going for.  (That's not entirely true; I had already passed judgement.)  A few looked like a malformed eye, with an irritating blurry splinter in it.  They said, "We were going for a "dashboard" feel, like a car dashboard."  Since HaloDash is all about dashboarding your CRM and PM metrics, I immediately liked the comps better and thought the designers geniuses.  But, alas the first impressions were too hard to overcome.

Then, one by one, we meticulously disqualified one logo after the next for reasons that became increasingly bizarre:  "That won't look good on a coffee cup."  "No symbols, only letters I can type with pica or elite."  "Too small, too inverted, too close to being exactly what you want and I can't concede."  I think we just wanted to one-up each other. "Take this part of this one and connect it to that part of that one and see what happens."  On and on.  It was devolving into madness.

So, we did what all indecisive decision makers do; we asked for opinions:  wives, brothers, office workers, men on the street.  I contemplated making a Facebook poll.  By this time we had settled into two camps: one for the good logo, and the other for the ridiculous logo.  Of course, we immediately ignored the opinions of those who did not agree with us.  But, finally, through some miraculous shift of the wind, somebody, I forget who but let's say it was me, said, "I kind of like this one too."  The elusive third option that was there in the original set of comps.  It was offensive to no one.  In fact, everyone kinda liked it.  It met not only our original requirements and but also most of the ad hoc ones we threw in to make the other team mad.  There it was, a thing of, if not beauty, let's say good-looking enough-ness.  The dessert table was closing and tough choices had to be made.  Alas, we had consensus, and it was there staring at us all along.  Truth is, we really do like it.  Hat tip www.mediamarketers.com.

So, when will our baby be revealed?  Soon, young ones, soon.  I guarantee you when you see it you will say, "HaloDash has a logo," and all will be right with the world.  

If you have your own logo creation war-story, tell us about it in the comments.

Brad Watson
www.halogrouponline.com/halo-dash
502-276-6352

So, who do we yell at?

It has been a very trying afternoon.  We appreciate your patience with today's large scale network outage.

So, what happened?  The truth is, the details are still coming in and as yet we don't know the root cause, but we do know the results.

We first noticed that connections to the server were disrupted at 12:52pm EST.

 

Everything at the data center was online, there were no hardware or software issues with any of the servers or networking hardware, though, the fiber coming into the building went totally dark.

 

Calls to the fiber providers and other providers in the Chicago area (where our data center is located) reported that a very large fiber interconnect on the Southside of Chicago, one of the absolute worst place to have a problem, had a problem.

 

We have yet to be notified of what the exact nature of the problem was, either a hardware outage at the provider’s level, a physical disruption in the fiber lines, or what.

 

We do know that we were not the only data center affected by the outage, and that also a number of hospitals in the area relying on the same fiber lines were also completely down.

 

We are currently awaiting a report from the providers of the fiber lines as to what was the cause of the outage.

 

Connectivity was restored at approximately 3:39pm EST, so, ultimately, we were down for less than 3 hour(s), and we are continuing to monitor things on our end (though, again, there was no issue with your data or your servers).

 

We advertise 99.9% uptime, and across the 8760 hour(s) in a year, we are still keeping good on that promise.  We continue to review our policies and procedures and look for areas of improvement.  We do have the resources to bring another data center online and with offsite backups, we have the data to do so. However, in this instance, the time to update DNS records to point at the second data center would have taken more time to communicate, make, and then filter out than it took for the fiber providers to restore the damaged connections.

 

Though, had the outage persisted into the evening hours, we would have put this plan into action to minimize downtime to our customers.

 

Again, we will be following up with additional information as to the exact cause of the fiber outage in Chicago as soon as we receive the information ourselves, and we look forward to continuing to service you for all of your hosting needs, and if you ever have any questions about anything, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Brad Watson

President 

Halo Applications

Reduce Hiring Costs Now! Like, Today!

Hiring is expensive.  And, let's be honest, you're probably not great at it.

Food for thought:

• The cost to replace a qualified manager may be as much as 150% of the position’s salary.  –Dun and Bradstreet

• The average cost to recruit an employee in any category is $4,000.
  --The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California at Berkely

• Mid-Level managers require over 6 months to reach their break even potential.
  --Harvard Business School

• Not every new hire will demand the entire process, but even an $8/hour employee can end up costing a company around $3,500 in turnover costs, both direct and indirect.  --Investopedia

• 40 per cent of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. They cite the lack of skills training and development as the principal reason for moving on. -–GO2

Luckily, the answer may be right in front of you.

The solution is simple.  Instead of the traditional and expensive reactive approach to filling positions, take control of your organization by developing the resources you already have.  The Leadership Excelerator System was designed to help you develop your workforce and to help you retain your high potential candidates.  The LEXs is composed of three unique processes that are central to reducing costs and increasing productivity: 

• Succession Planning
• Executive Coaching
• Cloud-based learning

"When I arrived at Winterwood, we had already outgrown our current training platforms, which were basically a mix of un-customized, off the shelf consumer products with limited features and poor tracking and reporting functions. Halo worked with us to identify areas of improvement, and customized a tremendously powerful system that will greatly improve the effectiveness of our employee development going forward."

Ron Dillard

Winterwood Inc. 

Training Manager

http://www.winterwoodonline.com

Contact us to learn about how you can reduce your hiring costs by developing your #1 resource.

www.halogrouponline.com
502.276.6352

Your First Sales Hire

You've got your products and systems ready to go and now you're looking to make your first sales hire.  What would your ideal candidate look like?  There's an interesting discussion going on over on LinkedIn.  Check it out here.

What do you look for in a sales candidate?  Experience?  Aptitude?  A big contacts list?  Share your thoughts.

Another Weekend....Another Round of HaloDash upgrades

We are excited to announce even more new features have been rolled out to your halo DASH.  The list is nowhere near as exhaustive as the previous upgrade notification, as a number of these features were planned for in the previous release, though, had yet to make it out of development and testing in time.

 

New "Breadcrumb" Navigation

The title bar at the top of every screen is now even more useful.  It is still your “You are here” indicator in the system, but it is now interactive!  For example, if you are currently looking at an Opportunity, you can click on the Contact or Company to navigate directly there or even Dashboard to quickly get back home.  The “breadcrumb” navigation is available on every screen.

 

Activity Analytics By User

Activity Analytics by Type were already included on your Analytics dashboard, and you could also pull Activity Analytics by User by clicking on each individual user in your Users area of the system (to review their individual analytics), though, there wasn’t a single “table” that had analytics broken down by all of your sales users, until now.  Just like with Types, we break down Activity counts by User according to those currently Scheduled for the current day/week/month/year, as well as those currently Completed in that same day/week/month/year range in addition to those Completed in the previous day/week/month range (so you get a snapshot of what’s planned, what’s completed that was planned and what was previously completed as a comparison).  We also even included a link directly to the users specific Analytics area if you want to see their individual numbers broken down by Type as well.

 

Opportunity Competitors

You now have the ability at the Opportunity level to define any competitors that you may have for that specific opportunity.  Look for this in the upper right of the Opportunity Detail screen.

 

Vendor Product Commission Structures

Do you remember the Vendor and Product system rolled out last week?  You can now define commission structures at the Product level, broken down by year.  For example, on a specific Product, you can define that the first year commission is a flat fee, and each subsequent year is a percentage, or perhaps even both (a flat fee and a percentage).  Just as how utilizing the Vendor and Product system for Opportunities isn’t required, if you choose to use the Product system, the Commission system is also not required.  It’s simply there to use if you see value in using it.

 

Opportunity Commission Report

What’s the point of defining Product Commission Structures if there’s no Commission Report?  Available in your Reports area is the new Commission report.  Do you recall the new Opportunity fields rolled out last week for Effective Date and Term Date, as well as Payment Schedule?  These were the groundwork for the Commission report.  Commissions are calculated from the Effective Date to the Term Date, distributed according to the Payment Schedule and at a rate according to the Commission Structure of the Products assigned to the Opportunity.

 

As always, if you have any questions or run into any issues or need assistance with any of the new features, please let us know.

502-276-6352

www.halogrouponline.com

Are you in the 34% club?

How many businesses fail in the first year?  90%?  How many last 5 years or more?  How many 10 years?  People have come up to me this week congratulating Halo Applications for making it 10 years, and they've quoted me survival rates that are all over the board.  The  the typical compliment contains a nugget something along the lines of, "Most business fail to make it 10 years.  So, you must be doing something right."  I guess that could be true, but I looked it up anyways, just to make sure we weren't patting ourselves on the back too hard.

As it turns out, businesses have a pretty good shot at making it.  Data from the Census Bureau shows that 69 percent of new firms with employees survive at least two years, and that 51 percent survive at least five years. An independent analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 49 percent of new businesses survive for at least five years.
34 percent of new businesses cruise ten years or more, and 26 percent are still trucking after 15 years.  So, it's not all doom and gloom now, is it?  If you only hit the ball 34% of the time, you're a lock for the hall of fame.  The reality is, in my opinion, based upon my experience, if we can make it...anybody can make it.

But, still, a decade has gone by in a flash, and I feel like we are only now just beginning to hit our stride.  So if you dream of starting your own business, give it a shot!  It only takes a few things:  

1. Faith:  If God doesn't want you doing this, you're not going to be doing it.  And if God wants you doing it, you're going to survive whether you're a bonehead or not.  But, through all things by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God.  He'll answer and bless.  In fact, there's not another logical reason we should still be operating.  So, thanks and credit to whom it is due.
2. Great clients:  If you don't have great clients, people who you enjoy working with, then hang it up.  It's not worth it.  Great clients are happy for your success, and understand that we all screw up from time to time.  So, thanks to all our clients, many of whom have been with us since day one. 
3. Great team:  Not everybody who started with us in 2004 is still with us, but everybody has brought value to the table at one point in time (except that one guy...and he knows who he is).  In any case, thank you Team Halo.

I'm sure I could name a few more, but those are the most important to me.  

What are the most important to you.

Thank you all again for making this possible.

www.halogrouponline.com

 
 

Time Warner Blacks Out Chicago--Halo Gets Resolution

How the Internet Works

It has been an interesting morning.  Around 10:00am, our clients started calling us reporting that their websites were down.  However, a quick analysis proved that all web traffic for clients other than Time Warner customers was functioning as normal.  All websites were up and accounted for.

So, we called Time Warner, which in typical fashion was slow to acknowledge an issue. Team Halo rushed into action.  Our data center team in Chicago remotely logged in to workstations in the Louisville area and began running traceroutes.  We were able to conclusively prove that all web traffic was being incorrectly looped by Time Warner.

So, what happened? According to our data center techs:

"The issues this morning were due to a Tier 2 network incorrectly routing traffic from 10am until about 11:30am.

So, if you happened to be using an ISP (such as Insight/TWC) that used that specific Tier 2 network (RoadRunner) for handshaking/routing, you were basically blocked from all of Chicago, since the Tier 2 network wasn’t routing connections up to the Tier 1 networks properly."--see image above

Around 11:30am Time Warner officially confirmed what we already knew, that a routing loop on their end caused all traffic to be delayed.  All of our traceroutes that were dying showed it was traffic they were connecting through Road Runner.  Time Warner took this information and resolved the problem.

Thank you for reporting your issues.  We resolved them to the best of our ability regarding the national behemoths that caused the problem.  We apologize for any inconvenience this caused you.

The name is Freeze. Learn it well---epilogue

 :) Cleared  :)

As of today, our auditor said we were cleared, and that she was sending the results on to Frankfort.  Of course, a final resolution letter will take 90 days to receive.  So, here's to holding our breath.

As a note, Kentucky is one of the few states that files sales tax in this bass-akwards way.  Most states, you take your taxable sales, multiplied by your sale tax rate, and voila.  Send the check.  But, Kentucky likes to be cumbersome, I guess.  Our process is akin to using a full blog post, when a tweet would have sufficed.

Oh..wait...

www.halogrouponline.com
502-276-6352

New HaloDash features give you even more ways to improve your performance.

Please take a few minutes to review this post to get up to speed on all of the new features available (and to learn where your navigation went).  If you find yourself thinking, “I already knew about that feature,” then more than likely, it was your company that requested the feature :)

 

New Navigation Menu

The large toolbar buttons have been replaced by an expandable navigation menu in the upper left.  Think of this just like your Windows Start Menu that expands to show you everything available.  This gives us even more room to add future modules (and the new ones mentioned in this email) and also reduces scrolling on mobile devices.

 

New Opportunity Vendors & Products Modules

You now have the ability to add your possible Vendors that may be supplying any Products and/or Services that you resell.  Simply click on the new Navigation Menu, and under the Opportunity heading, select Vendors.  Once you have added your first Vendor, you can add Products that this Vendor supplies.  Then, the next time you create an Opportunity, when adding an Item to the Opportunity, you’ll have the ability to select an optional Product, and it will pre-populate all of your Item fields based upon the Product information (with the ability to change).

 

The Vendors/Products system is entirely optional, there is no requirement to use it, but if you find yourself constantly typing in the same Item information over and over again, you may find value in using it to save yourself some data entry.

 

New Fields for Current Modules

See the list at the bottom of this email for the over 30 new fields available for you in the Company, Contact, Secondary Contact, Opportunity, Opportunity Items, Projects and Project Task modules. 

 

New SSL Upgrades

The halo DASH system now forces SSL on all connections to ensure that all of your information is kept secure in transmission from your computer/phone/tablet to our server.  Any non-SSL links you may have (such as your auto-login links) will be automatically redirected for you, there is nothing that you need to update.

 

90 Day “Out of Contact” Alert

When you have a Contact that has not been updated in over 90 day(s) (such as a new phone call or meeting or opportunity), they will be displayed in this new Alert.  As a reminder, the Alerts display on your Dashboard in the expandable “gold” bar area.  This area only displays if there is any alert data to display.

 

Printable Summaries

Pull up any Contact and/or Project and above the details you will find new “Print” buttons to print off a quick summary of just that Contact or Project.  Projects also offer a detail print view that will line item out everything about the Project.

 

Update Contacts from Company

Have a company that changed their address?  Don’t want to have to update every single contact at the company with the new address?  Simply click the new “Update Linked Contacts” button from the Company Detail screen to “push” out the updates to all contacts at the company.

 

Title “Auto-fill” from Types

When creating a new Opportunity and/or Project, when selecting the Type, the Title field will now be auto-filled with the Type value.  For example, if you have an Opportunity Type of “Learning Management System,” simply selecting that Type when creating your Opportunity will automatically enter that in as the title to reduce the amount of data entry required.  This also occurs at the Opportunity Item/Project Task level.

 

Are all of your Type dropdowns still set to “Unassigned”?  Remember to contact us to have us update your account with your Type values.

 

Opportunity Analytics By Type

Remember the Type fields mentioned above?  The Opportunity Types are now being used on the Opportunity Analytics to break down Win/Loss/Margin not only across all Opportunities, but also broken down by Opportunity Type.  Even more reason to let us know the Type of Opportunities you have to have us setup your account!

 

Workflow Usability Improvements

When completing an Activity, are you tired of having to scroll all the way down to the bottom to select your Result?  How about when editing your Opportunities or Projects to update their Stage, Probabilities or Status?  Or when your resources are entering in their Project time, having to scroll down to the Hours field?  All of these fields have now been relocated to the top of the screen on their “Edit” views to ensure that the fields you are needing to edit are easily accessible.  Now when you close that next Opportunity, simply click to Edit, change the Status up top and click Save in the lower right, without ever having to scroll.

 

Also, in regards to resources entering time, there is now also the ability to “Save and Enter Additional Time” so they can quickly enter their timesheets with even less clicks.

 

Additional New Features Launching This Week

Some items unfortunately didn’t make the cutoff for launch over the weekend, but are dangerously close to completion and will be launching this week!  The Opportunity Module will no longer be left out and will be getting its own Printable Summary (think of this almost as a printable quote).  You will also be able to link Documents to Activities, Histories, and/or Notes, so you can easily see what documents you uploaded pertain to a specific phone call or meeting.  Also be on the lookout for new Activity Calendar views, where you will be able to toggle between the current monthly calendar view to a new work week and/or day view.

 

If you have any questions, or run into any issues with the upgrades, please let us know ASAP and we will get them addressed.

support@halogrouponline.com

http://www.halogrouponline.com/halo-dash

Is your CRM too big?

"I'll grow into these in 30 years."

Having a CRM solution that is too big to be useful is a very common complaint.  I ran into an old friend earlier this week whose business is a Microsoft Service Provider. As such they use Microsoft Dynamics...and buy "use" I mean they "ignore 80% of the features". Dynamics is a heck of a program. However, most small to medium sized businesses don't need a full blown ERP Solution.  The entire system gets bloated down and most features go unused. We've all heard the phrase "killing a fly with a sledgehammer."  That's what they're doing.

But it's not just the enterprise products like Dynamics, SAP, and SalesLogix that overpack the suitcase; even smaller scale applications such as SalesForce and ACT can get packed to the gills with features that many companies never use.  This is commonly known as feature bloat.  If there are buttons in your CRM that you've never clicked and have no intention of clicking, then you've probably asked yourself one of the following questions:

• Am I missing out on something?  
• Could I be doing something better? 
• Why am I paying for features I never use?

The reality is that most businesses need their CRM to provide a few core functions:

1. Keep track of contacts
2. Keep track of your sales pipeline
3. Keep track of your customer communications, follow-ups, and activities

Halo Applications' custom CRM solution HaloDash was designed to deliver the most basic CRM functions first, without unnecessary feature bloat.   We applied the same philosophy to post sale/delivery functions with a complete Project Management solution.  Finally, the HaloDash combines the data and provides valuable metrics from both sides of your business (Sales and Projects) in a simple to understand dashboard.

If you are experiencing feature bloat or suspect that your productivity is being drained by over-complicated software solutions, I encourage you to contact us about what HaloDash can do for you.

http://halogrouponline.com/contact-us

502-276-6352