Network Contact Management for the Nineties
by Jon V. Ferrara, Vice President
ELAN Software Corp.

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Jon V. Ferrara has over 13 years of experience in the development of dealer
channels and a background in sales, marketing and product development in
the local area network (LAN) and software markets. Equipped with the
foresight of the technologist and the single-mindedness of the
salesperson, Ferrara saw the immense potential for networked contact
management. As vice president of ELAN Software Corp., a leader of LAN- and
workgroup-based contact management software development for PCs, Ferrara
is committed to the development of high performance software programs for
the growing workgroup automation market.

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Today, few managers enjoy the luxury of a personal secretary, and support
staff is spread thin. According to the U. S. Department of Labor, during
the second half of the eighties, the number of managerial positions
increased sharply, while the number of secretarial jobs declined.

Cast adrift, today's manager or executive is handed a PC, a telephone, and
a Rolodex and left to his or her own devices. To handle and manage the
onslaught of incoming data, managers and executives are turning to network
contact management.

Network contact management is the integration of contact management, sales
forecasting/management, telemarketing, network scheduling, e-mail, word
processing and more all in one package. Workgroup automation's advantage
is the integration of these tools. Rather than relying on separate and
distinct systems, network contact management provides a single, truly
integrated system to manage all of a workgroup's communication and
business needs. Networks and remote synchronization features then provide
the pathways by which these communications travel between offices and
staff.

Most offices use three separate programs on a network -- a scheduler, an
e-mail program, and a contact manager. Because these programs are distinct
and disparate, none of the meetings, messages or activities are cohesively
linked together. This reduces office productivity by forcing users to
switch back and forth between programs and not allowing for a common link
between meetings, messages and activities. GoldMine effectively integrates
network scheduling, e-mail and contact management which links together
meetings, messages and activities to one source -- the contact. By linking
these activities to the contact, productivity is enhanced and information
is tied together in a cohesive manner.

Network contact management empowers people to work faster, smarter and more
efficiently by relating communications between employees and customers.
GoldMine was conceived and designed to pull islands of information and
their associated users together, integrating separate entities into an
efficient, team-based workgroup. GoldMine's integration facilitates,
tracks and manages the inter- and intra-communications of individuals in
the work environment, connecting people within a single office, across
multiple office sites or at remote sites. This integration saves time and
promotes greater usage.

Once users try a system that measurably benefits them and their company,
the advantages of scheduling and completing activities electronically will
lead to the standardization of everyday business routines. These routines
will in turn promote efficiency and productivity by increasing information
flow and communication.

GoldMine's collection of powerful features centralizes all communication
issues w company. Its key features include network scheduling, contact
management, e-mail, sales forecasting, telemarketing, task delegation,
database design/modification, word processing, and fax/mail merging.
GoldMine also allows users to quickly and easily link to their favorite
external spreadsheet or word processing programs. This integration is
essential to any successful contact management package.

When a network contact management program is used to enhance the
productivity of an office, it's be used primarily as a tactical asset. The
troops are being armed with a powerful weapon in the battle for greater
sales and better customer relations. A good network contact management
program can also deliver management better intelligence on the current
status of sales efforts and on advertising and promotional effectiveness
in generating queries and sales.

Employed in this way, the program becomes a strategic asset. It helps
managers make better decisions on deploying their resources by giving them
timely, accurate information.

One way GoldMine provides valuable intelligence is with graphical,
statistical and real-time analysis functions. Another way is using the
source field of each lead to analyze the effectiveness of the source
(advertising, public relations, direct mail campaigns). This source
information is invaluable in determining the profitability of individual
lead sources or groups of lead sources.

For instance, GoldMine will calculate the total number of leads generated
from each lead source, the total sales volume generated from each lead
source, and the potential sales pending from each source. This allows easy
identification of the most effective lead sources in terms of total leads
generated or total sales volume -- graphically and statistically.

Further, the program also automatically calculates the cost of each lead
and the profit for each lead. This allows users to easily locate the most
profitable lead source. If this lead source was an advertisement in a
particular publication, it would definitely be considered an ad worth
running again in that same publication. The program also has a print
option, which allows users to compile this information for reports.

A good network contact management program, such as GoldMine, allows users
to create and maintain more than one database and store information in any
additional databases. Users should be able to have an unlimited number of
records in any one database and create as many databases as needed.

Although records can be maintained in multiple databases, a good sales
automation program will still allow users to schedule and complete
activities from a single calendar. Regardless of which database is active,
scheduled activities should display, as well as other calendar functions,
and should remain the same. These databases should be user definable and
subject to security levels, if need be.

Users should also be able to import existing databases into the new sales
automation program and be able to make any additions and updates between
databases in the program. Look for an import/export/transfer feature in
the program. The ability to quickly and easily transfer records from one
database to another is instrumental in the management of multiple
databases.

GoldMine has an attractive, balanced and consistent "look" to it and is
flexible with modifiable fields and screens. GoldMine allows users to
"customize" it for their specific purpose, permitting users to move around
the system and use it quickly and intuitively. A good intuitive program
will also decrease training and support issues for the network
administrator and management. Functions are neatly layered within the
program's menus so that beginning users won't stumble over advanced
functions.

To address the needs of remote users, such as communication data exchange,
GoldMine provides synchronization via modem, communications server or LAN
adapter. This allows users to carry over information updates or changes to
all site locations, whether remote sites are laptop users or distinct and
separate offices. The synchronization is comprehensive and provides a link
in the overall chain of events that define the function and operation of a
field sales force. GoldMine allows users to update and merge notes,
history, messages and any scheduled items on the field level utilizing a
date stamp to prevent overwriting of data.

With all of this data floating around, it's important to have some security
levels built into the program. GoldMine has varying levels of security,
based on user name confirmation. These security levels are transparent to
the end user, yet easy to maintain and define by the network
administrator.

GoldMine also supports record ownership, record viewing curtaining and last
change stamping by user log-on ID. These security measures further
restrict users' access to specific menu options and/or limit access to
private or sensitive contact records. And of course, each GoldMine user
has a log-on password.

Network contact management's greatest impact will be its effect on the way
people communicate -- similar to voice mail's recent impact. This involves
change -- something most people consciously or subconsciously resist. But
once the benefits are realized in the very short term, people will adapt
readily, just as they did with voice mail.

Network contact management software provides the necessary pathway for
communication to pull distinct working units such as departments, groups
and users together, allowing different groups of people to operate as a
linked, integrated and cohesive unit. Users can then interact quickly and
efficiently, using task delegation, sales forecasting, tracking and
management tools and communication functions to process various issues and
concerns quickly and efficiently.

Successful network contact management will relate all communications about
a given customer, tying in all users that have somehow touched that
customer's account. E-mail messages can be viewed in the customer's
electronic "history file," allowing for a more comprehensive, organized
and productive way of conducting sales transactions.

Network contact management will literally change the way you do business,
but in a positive way. The corporate structure and support for this
technology must be in place before it is implemented.

Organizations usually make their biggest mistake by not being committed to
implementing the technology. Key to the success of network contact
management is that management support for the new technology should be
clear from the beginning. Users will need to quickly grasp and understand
the new basic structure and flow of information processing -- the "new"
way of doing business -- and will be more inclined to do so when
management strongly backs the new technology.

By establishing simple patterns and processes for the workgroup
environment, cumbersome, slow, wasteful and inefficient paper systems will
eventually go the way of the punch card reader.

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