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Moving Act! CRM Contact data to Opportunities
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One of the great things that the Act! link for Sage 50 accounting (AL4A) gives the Act! user, is the ability to query Sage 50 fields created in AL4A including the building of dynamic GROUPS to report on or use in Marketing Automation.
A fundamental design aspect of Act! is that if you are using a field (created in Act!), in Groups in a dynamic query, you cannot then delete the Act! field or Custom table until you remove it from the query. The program within AL4A to remove the Sage data (for whatever reason), will fail to remove the fields or custom tables.
If you have an AL4A field in the Contact or Company entities that you have used, then it will fail to remove it. This is more straightforward to resolve, because you can remove it manually with the standard tools “Define Fields” function.
With the standard Act! Custom tables function, you will not be allowed to delete the fields or whole custom table if a field is used in the dynamic group query until you have removed it from the query.
If you use a field from AL4A custom tables (Invoices or SOP) and then remove the Sage data using the AL4A program, it will fail and the custom table will remain in “limbo” and cannot be removed by the program. You will need to follow the following process.
Vlog #1 Transcript – view the video.
I’m Donald Page from Seamless CRM and I’m really out of my comfort zone. This is something new for me. It’s my first vlog. But being in a disrupted, unfamiliar space is now the new normal, and I wanted to share how I see it providing the impetus for novel solutions, even for me in my small business.
I’ve just read Matthew Syed’s article for the BBC in which he talks about the good that can emerge from an upside-down world. His premise is that when there are periods of upheaval and distress, we can emerge from them with a new mindset and novel solutions. Disruption is a force for innovation, and we should run with it to find our next generation of ideas.
And putting crazy and bizarre on the menu might just lead to something viable. Suppose you think about starting a restaurant without any menus – what might that look like? The chef might come out and announce what ingredients are available and you could design your own dish for them to cook. We used to have a great restaurant near us where the dishes were announced and paraded around by the chefs; so you got to pick from sight rather than from a menu – the theatre of it was all part of the experience; the food was scrumptious too.
The point is not that every idea is a workable but that by disrupting conventional thought patterns you may discover a few workable, profitable gems. Imagine setting up a taxi firm without owning any vehicles? Bonkers right? But isn’t that what Uber has done?
Disruption in the education system due to Covid-19 special measures is no doubt pushing parents and children to find new ways of learning and entertaining. And perhaps challenging us to wonder how education might be delivered differently in the future, if it is proved that effective learning can take place online.
One Mother challenged her 8-year old child to think – she was asked to go into a room and talk for a minute about the topic on the paper left for her. It took two or three goes but having dried up on the first attempt she was gradually able to build her confidence and competence to speak about tennis fluently for one minute. A new way of learning for her in a disrupted way and testament to the fact that practice and persistence in that space can be fruitful.
All this is a challenge to me. I find it so easy to work with my clients; to think through how they can do things differently with their CRM tools to build their business, but I encounter the big, hairy, doubting imposter when I step along the path to change. So, in this disrupted world I must sidestep the naysayer and learn to explore new ideas and new ways of working.
The first new solution for me is simple: broadcast what I have to share. I am a storyteller and I love to share those stories (about life, work, business) with my contacts, but I tend to do it one-to-one by phone. Whilst many of my clients, partners and potential customers are not working I don’t have the opportunity to speak to them, but they are probably on social media. And I know that video is a powerful medium for engagement. It’s just been one of those uncomfortable places I would not go and sit in.
So, this Vlog marks the first tempt to sit in that disruptive space and see what happens! If I can help you do that in your small business with my CRM expertise and as an Act! Software developer give me shout.
If you want to read Matthew Syed’s article here’s the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52094332. Matthew Syed is the author of Rebel Ideas: the Power of Diverse Thinking.
And a big shout out to Pam Jones of Eight Interactive (www.eightinteractive.com) for supporting me in learning how to vlog and to my fellow director and wife, Carolyn, for booking me on Pam’s course and then telling me I was going!
Vlog #1 Transcript – view the video.
I’ve just had a customer ring me to ask about deactivating one Seamless Opportunities user and activating another. A simple process of three steps.
Microsoft launched their much heralded new operating system back in the summer and caught most of the developer community, not to mention the hardware manufacturers, on the hop, having said that they wouldn’t launch until the autumn. Well autumn days are giving way to winter, and many of the glitches have been identified, by the early adopters, software and hardware developers. A couple of weeks ago or so, Microsoft also did a hefty upgrade. So is it safe for Act! users to upgrade yet? Read more
I started my career as a cabinet maker. I’d always wanted to work with wood – tree surgeon and musical instrument making were the other professions I’d considered as a teenager. I still love wood and spend whatever time I can in my workshop ‘creating.’ My wife will tell you I am also obsessed with tools. Top of my wish list right now is an adze.