Getting Started

Getting Started with OnContact CRM Training Part 1

This is a great place to start if you’re new to OnContact CRM software. This video tutorial will give you a high-level overview of the OnContact workspace, including the main menus, tabs, pages and records.

We will explore how to perform searches, add new records, view company or contact details, navigate popular pages like the daily planner and use dashboards to drill into your data.

OTHER VIDEOS IN THIS SERIES INCLUDE:

• Getting Started Part 2: Adding & Managing New Records

Hello and Welcome to WorkWise OnContact CRM training. This training is titled Getting Started Part 1 and is a high-level overview of the workspace area of OnContact Crm version 8.1. This is a great place to start if you’re new to CRM.

Workspace Menu

At the top of the application you’ll find the workspace menu. All users by default start in the workspace area which contains the most used features in CRM. In addition to workspace you will also have access to marketing, reports and knowledge. Access to administrative areas such as setup and system is based on group assignment which is set by your CRM administrator.

• Daily planner:
• The default startup page in the workspace is called the daily planner. This page shows open activity and alert data. The screen is divided into four sections or panels, which can be resized or filtered to your individual liking.
• Calendar:
  1. The first panel is the calendar which shows scheduled meetings and other events with specific start and end times. These are typically meetings or scheduled calls that should be done at a certain time of the day and they appear both in the calendar and your to-do list.
• To-Do Lists:
  1. The to-do list shows all open activities that have been assigned to you that should be completed today. Click any activity to open and maintain it. As you enter results for the activities, they will become closed and will be removed from the daily planner. The goal is to have an empty to-do list at the end of the day. The activity aging graph displays your open activities by date, which helps keep track of any activities that have been left open for a long period of time.
• Alerts:
  1. The last panel is called alerts. These are used to notify yourself and others about important information or events related to contacts, companies, opportunities and incidents. Each workspace area contains a navigation menu on the left hand side. This accordion-style menu contains features pertaining to the selected workspace. Common features include search, recently opened, favorite items and new.

Quick Search

Quick search inside the workspace is designed to locate records quickly by typing some or all of the name you’re looking for and then press Enter or click the magnifying glass.

• You can also type part of the name and use the star symbol as a wild-card.
• Click records in the search results to open them in a new tab.
• By default quick search is set to look at all types of records. if you’d like you can change it to search for only company, only contact, only opportunity or only incident records.

Items such as contacts and companies are open and tabbed pages in the middle section of the workspace. In this area, items may be viewed and edited. A tab menu is available to the right to, help navigate through open pages. a tab is closed by pressing the X or close on the tab header. Pages that open and tabs come in a variety of types such as edit, list and dashboard. When you select an item such as a company or contact from search results, it opens in an edit page.

Edit Pages

Edit pages have a common format and are used to view details about an item, modify data and perform operations that are particular to that items type. Company is an example of an edit page. On this page you can view details about the company such as the contacts connected with the company, address and phone information, activity history, notes and so on. The tab control contains additional pages of data related to the company.

Click more to view available tabs and click any option in the tab list to display its page. Note that data displayed in tab controls often provide hyperlinks to underlying details. For example, on the activity tab page, click on the description to open the activity.

Detail Columns

Detail columns are those which may have more than one value or role like address, phone and rep for example.

• Click on the column to see a drop down list with all rows in it.
• Press the plus or new’ button to add a new row.
• To remove a row, press the trashcan or remove icon.
• Some detail columns like address allow editing the green pencil or edit icon opens that record for updating.
• Another type of page is called the list page, new search and saved searches are examples of list pages.
• For more in-depth searches the new search offers additional criteria columns plus results are displayed in a grid rather than simple lists.
• There is also a tool bar that offers features like mail merge, email merge, export to Excel, workflows and others.
• Create your own customized query called saved search which returns data automatically based on preset criteria.

Recently Opened

The next option on the navigation menu is called recently opened, which shows the last 20 items you open in the workspace. Similar to recently open, the favorite item section of the navigation menu displays a list of items you have bookmarked because you use them often, placing items such as contacts, companies, incidents and opportunities in the favorites list eliminates the need to search for them. Click the add to favorites button on most edit pages such as company or contact to add them to the list.

Dashboard Pages

Dashboard pages are another type of page that provide analytical views of data in a graphical format. A dashboard is made up of a series of panels, which consolidate data and present results an easy-to-understand visual controls such as charts, gauges and lists. Panels may be changed size and arranged according to personal preference.

Available dashboards are listed in the dashboard section of the navigation menu. Click on a dashboard name in the menu to open it in the workspace.

The new section of the navigation menu contains options to create items that are frequently added such as companies, contacts, opportunities and incidents. New pages contain only the most commonly used and required columns so that data entry is quick and simple.

When adding records it’s best to add related items directly from main edit pages:

• For example, suppose you want to add a new contact to a company, first open the company record, then click on the new button above the contact tree.
• The new contact will automatically be populated with the company data saving time.
• Activities added from various pages are similarly related items. They may be added from the contact company opportunity and incident pages.
• Activities may also be added from contact trees on these pages.
• Select the contacts row to display the options icon. Choose new activity to create a new activity related to the company and the selected contact.

This concludes our getting started with CRM 8 part 1 video. Today we learned about navigating in the workspace area, what the major features of the workspace are and the recommended order of adding new records.