| A CRM is a tool to better serve and understand
your customers and prospects in order to maximize your
sales and profits. It is a database of all existing and
prospective customers (Contact Management), a reporting
tool allowing easy selection and review of contacts and
a mechanism to manage action items for contacts. Many
companies specialize in CRM, some of the more recognizable
ones are Act!, Maximizer, Goldmine, Sales Logix, and Siebel. |
| Our customer's have been inquiring about
Minotaur CRM functionality for some years, mainly the
question has been whether or not we intended to integrate
with Act! or Maximizer. Such and integration requires
a significant investment, while there was a general interest,
we could not get any firm commitments at a fixed price
point. |
| In 2003 we elected to take a two pronged
approach to CRM |
- Seek a partner to provide integration with a full
fledged CRM product. We have a partner interested
in providing integration between
Minotaur and Sales Logix.
- Development of a basic CRM as a Minotaur module
would be less sophisticated, less expensive and fully
integrated.
|
| Design specifications of a Minotaur CRM
would be a system centered on contact entry |
- The top portion of the screen to show company information
- Tabs to access
-- Duplicate Searches
-- Contact Persons
-- Event Calendar
-- Notes
- Buttons to access Reports
|
- New Selection Screen
-- Selection by name, phone number, fax number, toll
free number, contact code or customer code
-- Goes directly to exact matches
--If there is no exact match, a list is presented
with partial matches from which the user can make
a selection
- Mechanism to merge contacts to remove duplicates
- Mechanism to import contacts from other sources
- Mechanism to generate user specific to-do lists
- Mechanism to turn a contact into a customer
--Once a contact is a customer, its main contact information
can only be changed from the customer screen.
- Mechanism to report customer information for contact
that are also customers
--Credit status, sales history, payment history
|
| Please contact us if you would like to
see Minotaur CRM, or you are interested in pursuing integration
between your Minotaur and Sales Logix. |
E-mail: info@minotaursoftware.com
Toll Free: (800) 668-1284
Phone: (905) 458-7575
Fax: (905) 458-5585 |
- Major part is usually supplier product price
- Many possible Extra Cost components
--Freight
--Duty
--Brokerage
-- Warehouse charge
|
- Landed cost is affected only at receiving (interim
bill-VVB) time
- Only a single extra cost can be added
- No mechanism to capture costs when product transferred
between warehouses
- No mechanism to capture costs when shipping product
to customers
- User had to calculate total extra cost
- No mechanism for the system to track separate extra
costs
- No mechanism for the user to decide how costs should
be distributed in general ledger
- No mechanism to recognize extra costs as specific
interim liabilities
|
- Can still be applied at receiving time
- Can be applied when transferring product
-- Above cause CLC value to increase
- Can be applied when shipping product
-- Special mechanism to store cost in sales report
- Unlimited number of extra costs
- User controlled costing to part or landing factor
- Option to set up interim liability
- Various automatic cost calculation methods
- Various automatic cost distribution methods
- Multi-currency capability
- Can be set up either at transaction or order time
- Templates can be created to automate use
|
- Post Estimated Costs when receiving (VVBN)
- Remove Costs when Posting Supplier Bill (SBN)
- Other incidental postings
- Theoretically a sub-ledger
- Reflects only estimated costs of items received
but not billed yet
- In practice, in traditional Minotaur IL system
---Accuracy of Sub-Ledger entirely dependant on efforts
of users
---No system controls
|
- Incorrect postings to IL account from some function
other than receiving (VVBN) or supplier bills (SBN)
- Of course, this type of problem is relatively easy
to track.
- Supplier Bill shows a variance from receiving,
nevertheless entire supplier bill charged to IL account
rather than charging variance to appropriate account
- Supplier bill charged to IL account despite the
fact that no receiving has not yet been recorded
- Supplier bill properly matched to receiving but
receiving later edited and changed
|
- Interim Bill Reconciliation Report (SRR)
--Based on supplier bill number and reconciliation
date posted to receiving when supplier bill first
reconciled to receiving.
--Not always accurate because posted data editable
|
- System imposes controls so users can no longer
enter mismatched data through receivings or supplier
bills
- Of course, bad entries from other options are still
possible-however they are relatively easy to trace
- Main New control
---When entering a supplier bill, the amount of the
posting to the IL account must exactly counter the
amount posted to the IL account by the receivings
which the supplier bill reconciles
- " Other supplier bill controls
---If an edit to date or invoice number occurs, this
is reflected in related receivings
---Edit of supplier code no longer allowed
--If cancelled, this is reflected in related receivings
- " Other receiving controls
--Ability to edit or cancel reconciled interim bill
removed
--Ability to enter reconciliation date and invoice
number removed
- " New Interim Sub-Ledger report
---User specifies aging date and account
---Report lists all bills not yet reconciled as of
the aging date
---List sorted by supplier
- " Some implementation considerations
---You must manually balance your interim liability
accounts before implementing new IL sub-ledger
---Once IL sub-ledger implemented, your AP and receiving
personnel will have to communicate.
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
