SugarCRM® For Dummies®

SugarCRM® For Dummies®

Released November 2008
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470384626

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Book description

SugarCRM is an innovative customer relationship management software solution that enhances your company’s marketing effectiveness, drives sales performance, improves customer satisfaction, and provides executive insight into business performance. SugarCRM For Dummies will show you to take advantage of this free, open source CRM application to boost your sales and please your customers.

This guide helps you choose the flavor of Sugar you need, acquire and deploy it, set up accounts and contacts, and organize your day. You’ll first learn how to install SugarCRM, customize user preferences, create databases, and import contacts from other software. Next, you’ll discover how to extend SugarCRM’s capabilities to meet needs unique to your business. You’ll also find out how to:

  • Schedule appointments, link them to records and notes, and organize your sales opportunities

  • Build campaigns, track their success, and grow your contact list with Web-to-lead forms

  • Manage customer issues and forums to exterminate software bugs

  • Send e-newsletters and automate customer e-mail communication with templates

  • Take advantage of a complete recipe book for SugarCRM administrators

  • Improve sales performance with SugarCRM

  • Provide great service to your customers

  • Develop searchable libraries and FAQs

  • Create and share documents

    • SugarCRM For Dummies will get you quickly up to speed on this customer relationship management software so you can enhance your business.

    Table of contents

    1. Cpoyright
    2. About the Author
    3. Acknowledgments
    4. Introduction
      1. About This Book
      2. Conventions Used in This Book
      3. What You Should Read
      4. What You Don't Have to Read
      5. Foolish Assumptions
      6. How This Book Is Organized
        1. Part I: Adding Sugar to Your Life
        2. Part II: Cooking with Sugar
        3. Part III: A Spoonful of Sugar Keeps Your Customers Happy
        4. Part IV: Sharing the Sugar Bowl
        5. Part V: Working with Extra-Strength Sugar
        6. Part VI: The Part of Tens
      7. Icons Used in This Book
      8. Where to Go from Here
    5. I. Adding Sugar to Your Life
      1. 1. Adding Sugar to Your Life
        1. 1.1. The History of Sugar
        2. 1.2. Getting Started with a Few Basic Concepts
          1. 1.2.1. What in the world is Open Source?
          2. 1.2.2. What in the world is CRM?
          3. 1.2.3. A few other terms to know
        3. 1.3. Sugar, Sugar!
        4. 1.4. Identifying the Typical SugarCRM User
        5. 1.5. Knowing the Basic SugarCRM Ground Rules
        6. 1.6. Looking at the Three Versions of SugarCRM
      2. 2. Acquiring a Sweet Tooth
        1. 2.1. Taking the Sugarland Express
          1. 2.1.1. Hosting SugarCRM On-Site
          2. 2.1.2. Demanding to have your Sugar hosted
          3. 2.1.3. Building a Sugar Cube
        2. 2.2. Preparing for Your Sugar Installation
          1. 2.2.1. Adding Sugar to your Web server
          2. 2.2.2. What's in an IP name?
          3. 2.2.3. Operating under the right operating system
          4. 2.2.4. BYOD (Bring Your Own Database)
          5. 2.2.5. No browser, no Sugar
          6. 2.2.6. Plugging in to a Plug-In
        3. 2.3. Ready, Set, Install!
          1. 2.3.1. How does this stack up for you?
          2. 2.3.2. It's typical to use the Typical install
          3. 2.3.3. Creating a second database
        4. 2.4. Logging in to SugarCRM
        5. 2.5. The Importance of Being Yourself
      3. 3. Finding Your Way Around Sugar
        1. 3.1. There's No Place Like Home
          1. 3.1.1. You can go Home again
          2. 3.1.2. Treading on the title bar
          3. 3.1.3. System links
        2. 3.2. Working With Colored Sugar
          1. 3.2.1. The Module tabs
          2. 3.2.2. The Last Vieuted bar
          3. 3.2.3. The Shortcuts menu
          4. 3.2.4. Quick Form
        3. 3.3. Giving Sugar the Preferential Treatment
        4. 3.4. Workinq With Passwords
      4. 4. Working with Accounts, Contacts, and Leads
        1. 4.1. Having a Record Is a Good Thing
        2. 4.2. Looking at the List View
        3. 4.3. Accounting for Your Accounts
          1. 4.3.1. Adding a new Accounts record
          2. 4.3.2. Accessing an existing Accounts record
          3. 4.3.3. Accounting for an Accounts record's subpanels
        4. 4.4. Contacting Your Contacts
          1. 4.4.1. Adding a Contacts record
          2. 4.4.2. The contacts they are a changing
          3. 4.4.3. Managing subscriptions
        5. 4.5. Leads Lead to Bigger Things
          1. 4.5.1. Adding a few Leads records to sweeten the deal
          2. 4.5.2. A promotion is a very sweet thing!
        6. 4.6. There's a Whole Lot of Updating Going On
        7. 4.7. Deleting Records
          1. 4.7.1. Thinking before deleting a record
          2. 4.7.2. Two warnings before deleting a record
        8. 4.8. Checking for Duplicate Records
        9. 4.9. Exporting Your Records
    6. II. Cooking with Sugar
      1. 5. Keeping Track of the Sweet Things in Life
        1. 5.1. Actively Working with Activities
          1. 5.1.1. Creating an activity
          2. 5.1.2. Scheduling a sweet rendezvous
        2. 5.2. Accessing Your Activities
          1. 5.2.1. Viewing the "Honey-Do" lists
          2. 5.2.2. Quickly printing an Activity List
          3. 5.2.3. Viewing the Activities tab
          4. 5.2.4. Editing your activities
          5. 5.2.5. Clearing activities
          6. 5.2.6. The miniature Task List
          7. 5.2.7. Viewing the various calendars
        3. 5.3. Creating Sweet Love Notes
          1. 5.3.1. Adding a note
        4. 5.4. Working with notes
          1. 5.4.1. Working with the Note List
      2. 6. Creating a Project Isn't a Major Project
        1. 6.1. Adding a Bit of Management to Your Projects
          1. 6.1.1. Creating a Projects record
          2. 6.1.2. Creating Project Tasks
        2. 6.2. Managing a Project
        3. 6.3. Adding a Professional Touch to Your Projects
          1. 6.3.1. Passing the project buck
          2. 6.3.2. Going, going, Gantt!
          3. 6.3.3. Creating Project Templates
          4. 6.3.4. Taking a holiday from your project
          5. 6.3.5. Taking a look at the big picture
      3. 7. Working with Opportunities
        1. 7.1. Creating Opportunities
          1. 7.1.1. Initiating the opportunity
          2. 7.1.2. Editing Opportunities records
        2. 7.2. Keeping an Eye on the Prize
          1. 7.2.1. Viewing the Opportunity List
          2. 7.2.2. Graphically viewing your Opportunities
          3. 7.2.3. Seeing what's changed in the Change Log
        3. 7.3. SugarCRM Professional Opportunities
          1. 7.3.1. Producing sugary products
          2. 7.3.2. You can quote me on that
      4. 8. Working with Documents
        1. 8.1. Creating Your Documents with the Documents Module
        2. 8.2. Dealing with Your Documents
          1. 8.2.1. Accessing your documents
          2. 8.2.2. Verifying your versions
        3. 8.3. I'll Take a Bit of Sugar with My Word
          1. 8.3.1. Installing the plug-in for Microsoft Word
          2. 8.3.2. Creating a mail merge template
          3. 8.3.3. We're off to see the Mail Merge Wizard
          4. 8.3.4. Performing a mail merge in Word
      5. 9. Watching Your Sugar Content
        1. 9.1. There's No Place Like Home
          1. 9.1.1. Honing in on the Home page
          2. 9.1.2. Changing the Home page dashlets info
          3. 9.1.3. Adding new dashlets to the Home page
        2. 9.2. You Can't Drive Your Business without a Dashboard
          1. 9.2.1. Basic dashboarding 101
          2. 9.2.2. Professional dashboarding
        3. 9.3. Seek and Ye Shall Find
          1. 9.3.1. Doing the Global Search
          2. 9.3.2. Getting back to basics
          3. 9.3.3. Advancing your way through the searches
    7. III. A Spoonful of Sugar Keeps Your Customers Happy
      1. 10. Adding a Bit of Case Management
        1. 10.1. I'm on the Case
        2. 10.2. Let's Make a Federal Case Out of It
        3. 10.3. I Rest My Case
        4. 10.4. It's a Case of Reporting
        5. 10.5. Building Your Base of Knowledge
          1. 10.5.1. Creating a KB
          2. 10.5.2. Playing tag with your KB articles
          3. 10.5.3. Being the KB Editor and Chief
          4. 10.5.4. Seek and ye shall find the article
      2. 11. Keeping Bugs Out of the Sugar Bowl
        1. 11.1. Learning to Fix What's Bugging You
          1. 11.1.1. Waiter! There's a bug in my software!
          2. 11.1.2. It's a case of too many bugs
        2. 11.2. Focusing on Forums
          1. 11.2.1. Creating a forum one topic at a time
          2. 11.2.2. Creating a forum
          3. 11.2.3. Threading your way through the forums
    8. IV. Sharing the Sugar Bowl
      1. 12. Adding Sugar to Your E-mail
        1. 12.1. Getting Started with Sugar E-mail
          1. 12.1.1. Setting up outbound e-mail accounts
          2. 12.1.2. Setting up inbound e-mail accounts
        2. 12.2. Working with the Emails Module
          1. 12.2.1. Setting up inbound e-mail accounts: Part 2
          2. 12.2.2. Personalizing your e-mail
          3. 12.2.3. Filing e-mail in e-mail folders
          4. 12.2.4. Creating an Address Book
        3. 12.3. Creating E-mail Templates
        4. 12.4. E-mailing Your Contacts
        5. 12.5. Viewing and Managing E-mails
          1. 12.5.1. Importing an e-mail message to Sugar
          2. 12.5.2. Creating a record from an e-mail
          3. 12.5.3. Working with group folders
        6. 12.6. Changing Your Outlook on Sugar
          1. 12.6.1. Archiving e-mail
          2. 12.6.2. Connecting contacts to Sugar
          3. 12.6.3. Synchronizing your Outlook calendar and tasks
      2. 13. Campaigning Doesn't Just Occur in an Election Year
        1. 13.1. Campaigns Module
        2. 13.2. We're Off to See the Campaign Wizard
        3. 13.3. Creating Web-to-Lead Forms
        4. 13.4. Targeting Your Targets
          1. 13.4.1. Keeping your eye on the Target List
          2. 13.4.2. Hitting the Target List with a few targets
        5. 13.5. Let the Campaigns Begin!
          1. 13.5.1. Look before you leap — or hit Send
          2. 13.5.2. Houston, we have a campaign problem
          3. 13.5.3. Managing your non-e-mail campaigns
          4. 13.5.4. Measuring the success of a campaign
    9. V. Working with Extra-Strength Sugar
      1. 14. Sweetening the Deal
        1. 14.1. Being a Team Player
          1. 14.1.1. Creating a team
          2. 14.1.2. Being noticed by the team
          3. 14.1.3. Knowing which team to root for
        2. 14.2. The Forecast Is Looking Good
          1. 14.2.1. Creating Time Periods
          2. 14.2.2. I'm forecasting that there's a schedule on the horizon
          3. 14.2.3. Setting Quotas
          4. 14.2.4. Working through the Forecast Worksheet
          5. 14.2.5. Viewing your Forecast Worksheet progress
        3. 14.3. Creating Reports 101
          1. 14.3.1. Running a Rows and Columns report
          2. 14.3.2. Creating a Summation report
          3. 14.3.3. Scheduling reports
        4. 14.4. Working with Workflow
          1. 14.4.1. Creating a Workflow Definition
          2. 14.4.2. What condition is your condition in?
          3. 14.4.3. Alert! There's an alert ahead!
          4. 14.4.4. Actions speak louder than words
          5. 14.4.5. Two optional but useful Workflow steps
      2. 15. Adding an Extra Lump of Sugar
        1. 15.1. Creating Your Own Unique Database
          1. 15.1.1. Doing your homework
          2. 15.1.2. Knowing your Developer Tools
        2. 15.2. Stepping into the Studio
          1. 15.2.1. Adding a field to the database
          2. 15.2.2. What you see is what you get
        3. 15.3. Working with Drop-down Lists
          1. 15.3.1. Creating a drop-down list
          2. 15.3.2. Adding the drop-down list to a field
        4. 15.4. Manufacturing a Module
          1. 15.4.1. Packing up a package
          2. 15.4.2. Making a module
          3. 15.4.3. Building a relationship
          4. 15.4.4. Deploying the module
        5. 15.5. Configuring Module Tabs
          1. 15.5.1. Renaming the module tabs
          2. 15.5.2. Playing hide and seek with the tabs
      3. 16. The Administrator's Recipe Book
        1. 16.1. Setting up the System
          1. 16.1.1. Fiddling with the System settings
          2. 16.1.2. Sticking to a Scheduler
          3. 16.1.3. Applying Sugar updates
          4. 16.1.4. Getting Locale with the locals
        2. 16.2. Dealing with Database Users
          1. 16.2.1. Adding a new user to the mix
          2. 16.2.2. Doing the rock 'n role
    10. VI. The Part of Tens
      1. 17. Ten Reasons to Upgrade to the Professional or Enterprise Version
        1. 17.1. Becoming a Team Player
        2. 17.2. I Want that Report on My Desk First Thing in the Morning!
        3. 17.3. You Can Quote Me on That
        4. 17.4. The Forecast Is Always Sunny
        5. 17.5. Becoming a Road Warrior
        6. 17.6. Keep Up with the Folks at Microsoft
          1. 17.6.1. A word about Word
          2. 17.6.2. Changing your Outlook on Sugar
        7. 17.7. Portals
        8. 17.8. Flow through Your Work with Ease
        9. 17.9. Access Control
        10. 17.10. Building a Bigger Database
      2. 18. Ten Ways to Make Your Life Even Sweeter
        1. 18.1. Parlez-vous Francais?
        2. 18.2. I Think I Need a Change of Theme
        3. 18.3. Have BlackBerry, Will Travel
        4. 18.4. Grabbing Tidbits of Information
        5. 18.5. Plugging in to Microsoft Office
          1. 18.5.1. Plugging in to Outlook
          2. 18.5.2. What's in a Word
        6. 18.6. Using a Talended Piece of Software
        7. 18.7. Connecting QuickBooks to Sugar
        8. 18.8. Getting Organized with Sales Folders
        9. 18.9. Being Alerted by SalesAlerts
      3. 19. Ten Ways to Become a Master Sugar Chef
        1. 19.1. Read this Book!
        2. 19.2. Visit the Help Menus
        3. 19.3. Download a Bit of Documentation
        4. 19.4. Adopting a New Sugar Baby
        5. 19.5. Attending Sugar University
        6. 19.6. Sharing Sweet Words of Love
          1. 19.6.1. Watching the Wiki
          2. 19.6.2. Thinking fondly of the Forums
          3. 19.6.3. Finding Bugs in the Sugar bowl
        7. 19.7. Taking a Honeymoon
          1. 19.7.1. Taking a trip to Silicon Valley
          2. 19.7.2. Coming soon to a location near you
        8. 19.8. Developing a Love for the Developers Page
        9. 19.9. Using a Portal Instead of a Door
        10. 19.10. Hire a Consultant

    Product information

    • Title: SugarCRM® For Dummies®
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: November 2008
    • Publisher(s): For Dummies
    • ISBN: 9780470384626