As you browse the sessions at Sage Summit this year, make sure to take a look at Driving Toward Success: Selecting, Monitoring, and Analyzing Metrics in Sage SalesLogix.

If you are asked to report on pipeline status, health of the customer base, types of service calls, or marketing campaign ROI, you may want to attend. This session will be focusing on Sage SalesLogix Advanced Analytics and all of the reporting and analytics tools Sage SalesLogix has to offer.

Ok, do I have your interest now?  If you need more reasons to attend, you will look at how to define, measure, monitor, and analyze the all-important key performance indicators (KPIs).  Plus, we will demonstrate how to define KPIs that measure either past or future performance. Who hasn’t been asked to report on historical performance or forecast?

I know I am asked to do objectives and report on them. Wouldn’t it be nice to get those metrics a little easier? You are in luck, we will also demonstrate how metrics can help employees to understand and improve their performance.

Still not sure if this is the session for you, take a look at two recorded webcasts. They will give you a high-level understanding of Sage SalesLogix Advanced Analytics.

Sage SalesLogix Advanced Analytics

Become a Data Detective--Analytics for the 21st Century

This is a hot topic! Make sure to register early so you don’t miss this opportunity for in-person instruction on reporting and analytics in Sage SalesLogix.

Register today – http://www.sagesummit.com/!

With SupportOnline no longer available, I would like to take the opportunity to revisit some of the Sage SalesLogix self-service offerings that are available within the Customer Portal (https://customers.sagenorthamerica.com):

1. Sage SalesLogix Knowledgebase

The Sage SalesLogix Knowledgebase provides access to over 5,000 articles that can assist you with troubleshooting and training with Sage SalesLogix and its integrated applications. When searching it is best to use concise phrasing and use of operators, such as AND, OR, NOT.

2. Product Documentation & Downloads

Product Documentation and Product Downloads can be accessed through two different methods. First, in the Download product updates section of the Resource page, you may use the Sage SalesLogix Product Documentation or the Product and Service Release Updates links to browse to the desired product information. Or, you may search within the Sage SalesLogix Knowledgebase for specific documentation and/or downloads. Hint: When searching enter a "v" before the desired version, for example if you are searching for a 7.5.4 update, enter v7.5.4 update or v7.5 update

3. Sage SalesLogix Community

While it is obvious that you are aware of the Sage SalesLogix Community if you are reading this post, but I believe there is still some value in stating that there are other forums within the Community that provide different support focuses, such as development. This is a wonderful place for you to share your experiences and provide feedback regarding products and services.

4. Sage University

Sage University is available for you to gain training on Sage SalesLogix. There are different levels of training, as well as different platforms in which this training is delivered. For more information, see the Sage SalesLogix at Sage University link on your Resource page or email training.crm@sage.com.

5. Web Case Submittal

For convenience you can always submit a web case to contact Sage SalesLogix Support. To submit a web case for technical support, click Cases on the menu bar, then in the Question Category drop down select Technical Product Question. This is a quick and efficient way to contact Support without initially using the phone system.

6. Service Request Submittal

For convenience you can always submit a Service Request to answer general non-support questions. To submit a Service Request, click Cases on the menu bar, then in the Question Category drop down select General Question. This is a quick and efficient way to contact Sage SalesLogix Customer Teams without initially using the phone system.

This was a brief overview of what self-service offerings we have available through the Customer Portal, and we do encourage you to investigate these offerings as a way to improve your customer experience with Sage SalesLogix.

Thank You,

Matthew Campbell
Knowledge Management Lead, Sage SalesLogix
Sage CRM Solutions

slxkb@sage.com

Hello Community Members,

Our community software service provider, Lithium, has announced that they will be moving their services infrastructure to anew facility.  As part of this migration, they anticipate scheduled community service downtimes of up to two hours will occur on Friday April 27, 2012 between 12:01am and 4:00am PDT (GMT – 7:00). They have ensured us they are working to minimize service interruption during this event.

Our apologies in advance for the interruption.

Thanks,

Tawny

Before March 2012: You what to check the current status of a support case. You log into Sage Software Online, find the case and review the notes. You have an urge to add a comment and a screen print to the case right then and there - while you're looking at it. But you can't. The case is read-only, so you choose between emailing the analyst or calling in.

Now: You want to check the status of a support case. You log into the new Sage Customer Portal and select Cases>Case History from the menu bar. You find the case and click a link to display details. You read the notes and have an urge to add a comment and screen print. You click the Update button, enter your comment in the Additional Info field and add an attachment. You click Submit and an update confirmation displays showing your case status as "Updated by Customer".

And what happens next? The "employee responsible", AKA the assigned support analyst, receives an email alert that the case has been updated. Also, we have staff assigned to monitor web case activity throughout the day. Cases with "Updated by Customer" status are reviewed and follow up assigned based on a number of factors, such as issue severity, follow-up commitments made by Sage and availability of the right resource.

Why update the case online instead of emailing send comments and attachments directly to the analyst?

• Whether the assigned analyst is available or not, someone will see the update - possibly sooner than the assigned person does. For example, you can update a case after hours and someone here will review it shortly after business hours start the next day, even before the assigned analyst's shift starts..
• Your update is stored in the case, so you don't have to archive and organize your sent email
• You know for certain that your comments and attachments are in your case immediately

Not sure if you want to give up email communication with us? You don't have to, but I encourage you to give online case updates a try. Post comments about your experience here or send me an email at melanie.lewis@sage.com. I'll do what I can to act on your feedback right away.

My young son was recently playing with his puzzles and to my delight; he decided it would be great fun to throw them all over his room. I am sure you can see how this story ends. My two year old became very distraught that we couldn’t find all of his pieces, and we now had an incomplete puzzle.

It made me realize even as adults we can share some of those frustrations when it comes not having a complete picture of your business. Just missing one piece of information could skew your view on results for a report or like my hunt for the missing piece; you end up spending valuable time searching not completing projects.

To learn more about extending your business solutions and finding your missing piece, join Sage for an interactive webcast on April 19, 2012 at 10:00AM PDT / 1:00PM EDT.

In the webcast, 5 Tips to Extend the Value of ERP and Meet the Needs of your Business, learn how a fully integrated business management solution can help you reduce inefficiencies and improve productivity across departments and functions. Get valuable tips on how to evaluate current business processes and conduct a full ERP functionality review to ensure no valuable features of functions remain untapped, including CRM, Payment, Human Resource Management, and Fixed Asset solutions.

Find out how a comprehensive ERP solution can help you:

• Realize the highest ROI for your IT investment.
• Achieve greater insight into your customer base and ensure expenditures are targeting your most valuable customers and prospects.
• Reduce process inefficiencies and mistakes with an accurate and fully integrated payment processing solution.
• Automate HR and compliance activities, easily process and track payroll and take better care of your employees
• Gain control over your entire fixed asset lifecycle

Register Now

Since its launch in June of 2010, our Sage SalesLogix Cloud service has been growing steadily and we couldn’t be more pleased with its success.  Kudos to the Sage Cloud Operations and R&D teams for all their work in building it, launching it, and keeping it running 24 x 7.

A Look Behind the Curtain

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”  Well, here at Sage there are actually teams of people pushing buttons and pulling levers that make Sage SalesLogix Cloud work.  The cloud factory in our Scottsdale, Arizona office involves dozens of people testing and refining SalesLogix to work efficiently and reliably.  After the primary software is built and tested, the teams build a special Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that works perfectly in the Amazon EC2 cloud.   In fact, a considerable amount of our quality process uses Sage SalesLogix Cloud to find and fix issues as well as monitor overall performance.  Once our application meets our extremely rigorous quality metrics, it becomes available for customers to purchase either on premise, or in the cloud.

Launching Sage SalesLogix in the Cloud

As you might imagine, there is a lot of excitement on the factory floor when a customer chooses to launch their new cloud service.  The Sage Cloud Operations team receives the order, and using our own CloudLogix control platform, issues a new customer launch command.  Within minutes, the following actions occur:

• A brand new Sage SalesLogix image is selected off the shelf and put into service
• The image is configured to suit the customer request, in the exact size and color (!) requested
• The image is connected to over 50 monitoring sensors and attached to our alerting and monitoring platform (also in the Cloud)
• Accounts, ID’s, and passwords are created
• The entire system goes through a final testing process prior to handing it over to the customer

And presto, the new system is alive and ready for use!  What is fantastic about this process is that each customer receives their very own cloud system.  It’s fully independent and customizable for their individual needs, and not shared by anyone else.  And even with that extensibility, it’s fully operational and ready to use right away.  Customers can use it to improve their business processes, drive sales, and manage their customer relationships, using the world class features of Sage SalesLogix right out of the box.

Where Is The Cloud Exactly?

Although in today’s connected world, it doesn’t matter a great deal, you may be interested to know where the Cloud actually lives.   Sage uses Amazon’s Web Services (EC2) for our cloud offering.  So for customers in North America, we place their systems on massive virtual server farms on either the East Coast or the West Coast, depending on disaster recovery distribution planning.  For customers in Europe, we deploy to Amazon’s Dublin data center.   As we serve customers in other parts of the world, data center locations exist in Singapore and Brazil as well.

We hope you will consider putting your head in the clouds and trying out Sage SalesLogix.   We’re ready to build one especially for you!

You may have heard that Sage Summit will take Nashville, TN by storm August 12 – 17, 2012. If you haven’t, you can learn more about the activities and sessions here. For this blog, I’d like to on the city of Nashville itself.

Prior to my first visit to Nashville, I had my concerns of being on country music overload since I am not a big country music fan.  Granted, you are welcomed with sounds of live music as you walk through Nashville airport, but there is something unique to Nashville. I am not sure if it is the excitement or hope of being discovered but, it definitely brings a higher quality of talent that I had ever experienced.  As you walk from honky-tonk to honky-tonk, you hear a band just as good as the band before, and the band before was good!

I found some “Did you know” fun facts about Nashville, and they not all related to music!

Did you know…?

The 7^th president, Andrew Jackson, and 11th president, James K. Polk, lived in the Nashville area.

President Andrew Jackson's home Hermitage had a drive-way in the shape of a guitar.

The WSM Barn Dance was the original name of the Grand Ole Opry.

Portions of 16th and 17th Avenue South in Nashville are known as Music Row.

Jimmy Dean and George Jones are country music entertainers that went into the sausage business.

The Maxwell House Hotel served its now famous coffee for the last time at the hotel on December 25, 1961.

After drinking a cup of locally produced coffee in Nashville, US. President Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase "good to the last drop!”

A famous Nashville candy made of chocolate, caramel, marshmallows and peanuts is the Goo Goo's.

Nashville Gaylord Opryland Resort will be the home of Sage Summit 2012.

Learn more about Sage Summit visit www.sagesummit.com. Make sure to mark your calendar for early bird pricing starting April 19^th.

As everyone becomes familiar with the new Sage Customer Portal, your navigation and understanding of the site will continue to improve. One of the most valuable pages within the Sage Customer Portal is the Resources page, as this gives you access to a lot of resources for your personal Sage products. (Note: The Resources page is the default page that appears after logging into the Sage Customer Portal).

Where do I locate the Sage SalesLogix Product Documentation within the Sage Customer Portal?

Recently we added a Sage SalesLogix Product Documentation link on the Resources page in the Download Product Updates section. This link directs to a list of Sage SalesLogix applications that allows for you to navigate to the various product documentation.

Where do I locate the Sage SalesLogix Product Downloads within the Sage Customer Portal?

The Product and Service Release Updates link on the Resources page in the Download Product Updates section directs to the Sage SalesLogix Product Download pages. This directs to a list of Sage SalesLogix applications that allows for you to navigate to the various product downloads.

Can I search for Product Documentation and Product Downloads within the Sage SalesLogix Knowledgebase?

Yes, the search does allow for you to locate Sage SalesLogix Product Documentation and Product Download pages.

Hint: if you are searching for Product Downloads but you are retrieving a lot of PDF files within the search include not *.pdf to exclude those from the search results.

Moving forward, we will continue to improve the Resources page to provide the best customer experience as possible. We do appreciate any feedback that can assist with improving this experience.

Thank you,

Matthew Campbell
Knowledge Management Lead, Sage SalesLogix
Sage CRM Solutions

slxkb@sage.com