SalesOutlook,
Inc. Announces New Versions - 3.5f and 3.6
May 9, 2003 - Roswell, Georgia, USA --
For Immediate Release
Today, SalesOutlook, Inc. announced the
pending release of version 3.5f of its flagship product,
SalesOutlook, the application that pioneered the whole Outlook
CRM movement when it was first released in 1998. The new
version, SalesOutlook 3.5f, is an incremental upgrade and
is the last planned update to the SalesOutlook 3.5x generation
of the product since the development work on the next generation
of the software -- SalesOutlook 3.6 -- is nearly complete
and is preparing to enter its pre-beta testing and documentation
processes.
New for SalesOutlook 3.5f
SalesOutlook extends Microsoft Outlook and Office by adding
a set of easy-to-use CRM / SFA tools that help the user
manage customer-related information and interactions within
the Outlook and Office interface. SalesOutlook 3.5f, an
incremental release, incorporates a new ODBC-compliant reporting
engine into its common sense CRM solution for reporting
capabilities that are rivaled only by the top name CRM systems
excelling in the Fortune 1000 market.
Since every individual and organization
has unique reporting needs and requirements, SalesOutlook
empowers them with the ability to get the information they
need, when they want it, using any tool capable of consuming
data via an ODBC data source. SalesOutlook provides several
pre-defined sample reports to help SalesOutlook users and
administrators get started, but the intention and design
of this reporting technology is to empower organizations
to create their own reports, customized to meet their precise
needs, without the need for outside assistance. This helps
to lower the up-front cost of implementing CRM technology
and it helps to reduce long term TCO of the CRM system.
This new reporting engine further strengthens
SalesOutlook's already tight integration with Microsoft's
Office suite of applications. Now users and system administrators
can build "canned" or "ad-hoc" reports using Microsoft Office
tools like Excel and Access. Mail merges can easily be produced
through Microsoft Word or Publisher. Data can be displayed
geographically using Microsoft MapPoint, and data can be
easily extracted and exported into other systems or databases
via ODBC-compliant technology. And, since an ODBC Data Source
Name is used to access the SalesOutlook data, any tool that
can use an ODBC Data Source Name can easily extract data
from SalesOutlook. One industry-standard report writer that
is natively supported by SalesOutlook 3.5f is Crystal Reports
by Crystal Decisions.
Although the new reporting engine is by
far the most significant update found in 3.5f, there are
also several other features included that are designed to
provide CRM users with powerful, easy to use tools that
enable them to identify, cultivate and expand profitable
business relationships using Microsoft Outlook and Office
applications. SalesOutlook 3.6 will expand on these capabilities
even more.
Introducing SalesOutlook 3.6
SalesOutlook 3.6 is the next generation in the series of
Common Sense CRM Tools for Microsoft Outlook, Office and
Exchange Server. SalesOutlook 3.6, a major upgrade to the
SalesOutlook Common Sense CRM family, will incorporate much
more than just the new turbo-charged reporting engine.
In addition to the new ODBC-compliant
SalesOutlook Data Accessor Technology (D.A.R.T.)™,
the new features found in SalesOutlook 3.6 are sure to please.
They are the result of listening to the requests and suggestions
of customers, partners and prospects. Some of these new
features and capabilities include:
Improved Performance. Several programming
changes were made to improve the overall speed of the system
while simplifying its configuration and administration at
the same time. For instance, support for enabling SalesOutlook
to leverage Exchange 2000's full text indexing is as simple
as checking a box in the SalesOutlook Setup form once full-text
indexing is configured on Exchange 2000.
Enhance Marketing Effectiveness. SalesOutlook
3.6 offers new business objects that enable organizations
to plan, execute and analyze the results of their marketing
activities. Now organizations can plan and manage Marketing
Campaigns, Projects and Events and easily track the responses
and follow up activities. Even importing a list of Booth
Visitors from a trade show is a simple process.
Simplify Lead Management. To compliment
the new marketing functionality and to aid in helping organizations
track the effectiveness of their marketing activities, new
Lead Management tools were developed. These tools enable
an organization to segregate their Leads from their Prospects
and active Accounts until they are qualified and identified
as a Prospect and manage all interactions and activities
from the moment the Lead was initially created in the system.
Multiple Line Item Opportunities.
In previous versions of SalesOutlook, an Opportunity was
tracked at a high-level. SalesOutlook 3.6 offers a redesigned
Opportunity and Products form that enables organizations
to effectively manage Opportunities and the multiple components
that make up the Sales Opportunity and the follow on Delivery
Project once the Opportunity is won. With SalesOutlook 3.6,
organizations can define Products from multiple vendors,
partners, affiliates and customers that are for sale and
then add them as line items on any Opportunity. Producing
a Quote in SalesOutlook 3.6 is as easy as clicking a couple
of buttons.
Improved Navigation. SalesOutlook
3.6 enables the user to quickly navigate between related
items by adding buttons that open the related item. Now
the Contact record for the individual following up on a
Customer Service Inquiry can be displayed with the click
of a button. The same is true for the Account. In fact,
the related Contact and Account records can be quickly opened
from every major form inside the system. This is sure to
give your worker productivity a boost.
Upgraded Document Management Engine.
SalesOutlook first introduced Document Management capabilities
in SalesOutlook 3.5. In SalesOutlook 3.6 the Document Management
Engine is more robust, more flexible, more customizable,
and it's even easier to use. With version 3.6, SalesOutlook
is now able to integrate documents and spreadsheets that
contain custom macros and code modules. Administrators can
easily define the fields they wish to expose to and use
in their templates without having to add or modify any source
code.
More Powerful On-Screen Outlook Views.
SalesOutlook 3.6 incorporates a new feature to cascade updates
made to Accounts and reflect the updated information in
related items. This feature gives Outlook's Define Views
functionality a whole new capability. Now users and managers
can easily define private views, or administrators can define
system-wide views, that aggregate and filter based on Account-level
data. Now users can view Mailings by Account Type, Account
Status, Account SIC or any other of 25 Account-level fields.
Imagine viewing Opportunities by Country, State and then
by Client to plan your next sales trip. With SalesOutlook
3.6 it is possible to do so with just a few clicks of the
mouse.
Why SalesOutlook is the "Common Sense" CRM Solution
SalesOutlook is the Common Sense choice for CRM because
it is designed around the "common sense" answers to several
key issues that greatly impact the overall success (ROI)
of implementing a CRM business strategy: Infrastructure,
Learning Curve, Offline Availability, Cost (both short term
and long term), Manageability and User Acceptance.
"SalesOutlook is designed from the ground
up to extensively leverage Microsoft's platform." states
Craig Woirhaye, Vice President of Business Development for
SalesOutlook, Inc. He continues, "Nearly every organization
already uses Exchange and Outlook for email and scheduling.
Nearly every organization uses Windows, Office and other
Microsoft products. They already own, support and use these
technologies so the 'common sense' approach to implementing
a successful CRM strategy based on low risk / high return
requirements is to create the CRM capabilities by extending
the Microsoft technologies the organization already has
deployed to its knowledge workers' desktops. This simplifies
everything start to finish and further leverages existing
investments to drive ROI even higher."
David Asta, a Senior Vice President with
SalesOutlook, Inc. and one of SalesOutlook's senior software
engineers adds, "By making SalesOutlook highly customizable
and tightly integrated into other key Microsoft technologies
organizations are able to deploy CRM capabilities more quickly
and at lower costs. SalesOutlook customers see their CRM
users become productive very quickly since the CRM tools
are available right inside of the desktop products they
already use each day. It's not that big of a leap for them
to make, so they make it more willingly than with external
CRM applications that merely interface with Outlook and
Office. Users hate to jump back and forth between applications
for information and it also impacts personal productivity
in a negative way. Users expect a seamless interface and
process when it comes to CRM. We've designed SalesOutlook
to give them that experience within the Microsoft Outlook,
Office and Exchange environment."
SalesOutlook 3.5f and SalesOutlook 3.6 Availability
SalesOutlook 3.5f is currently in its beta process and should
be available to existing customers and retail purchase later
this month. The release of SalesOutlook 3.6 is planned for
later this year.
About SalesOutlook, Inc.
SalesOutlook, Inc. is a privately held International Software
Vendor (ISV) headquartered in the high tech corridor northeast
of Atlanta, Georgia and serves organizations of various
sizes in diverse geographies. SalesOutlook, the simple,
affordable, and effective CRM solution that runs within
Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server, is its
flagship product. SalesOutlook is ideal for installations
ranging in size from one to more than ten thousand (10,000)
users, and it is especially well suited for organizations
with large numbers of mobile executives and field professionals.
More than 2500 customers on six of the seven continents
rely on SalesOutlook each day to help them build more fruitful
relationships with their customers. More information about
SalesOutlook, including demonstrations of SalesOutlook's
Common Sense CRM suite, is available on the world wide web
at www.salesoutlook.net.
Trademarks
SalesOutlook, SalesOutlook Family, Common Sense CRM, SalesOutlook
Web Access, SalesOutlook Active Security, Data Accessor
Reporting Technology (D.A.R.T.), Pocket SalesOutlook, Active
Security for Exchange Server and the phrase “Simple, Affordable
and Effective CRM for Microsoft Outlook, Office and Exchange
Server” are either trademarks or registered trademarks of
SalesOutlook, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
All other product names or company names
herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
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