Laura Quinn on Integrating Constituent Data

Last Updated on Saturday, 17 February 2007 03:07 Written by Steve Friday, 16 February 2007 04:16

Laura, who always produces very thoughtful pieces, has a great article up about constituent data and integration.

It can sound complicated, but it’s a straightforward concept: integrating your constituent data means connecting the information from the various systems you use to communicate with and track your consituents so that your organization can see a unified view.

She lays out 3 main approaches: doing Excel import/exports, buying a all-in-one system, and adding integrations to you core constituent system.

I think Laura does an excellent job talking about the pros and cons of each option. I recommend giving the article a read if you’re thinking of revamping your constituent systems.

Try to get your head around what will be possible with Apex

Last Updated on Friday, 16 February 2007 02:15 Written by Steve Friday, 16 February 2007 02:15

Take a look at this video from the fabulous folks at CRMFusion. It’s a preview of a product they’re writing to warn you of duplicate data right when you try to create that data. It’s really amazing.

We’re going to have to get our heads around some new things when Apex launches in 2007. Like being able to plug 3rd-party business logic widgets into the application. In this case, we’re plugging CRMFusion’s dupe check widget in right before the save event. We build the logic in Salesforce.com, that logic is then referenced by the widget on attempted record save, and our business process is enforced.

This is amazing, really. The possibilities are exploding exponentially, as you would expect as Salesforce.com turns it’s application into a web-aware, application development platform. Wow.

Ismael on the power of a CRM platform

Last Updated on Thursday, 15 February 2007 11:38 Written by Steve Thursday, 15 February 2007 11:38

Deep thinker Ismael Ghalimi has done insanely detailed adn thoughtful analysis of the Office 2.0 landscape. At the center of it all is CRM, and a while back he migrated from Salesforce.com to SugarCRM. Now he’s migrated back, and I whole heartedly agree with his reasoning.

Any good Office 2.0 setup, be it mine or yours, needs a focal point, a place where all the bits and pieces fall into place. And because no single solution will address all the requirements you might have, what you really need is a platform that can integrate multiple applications in a meaningful way…Salesforce.com has matured into a full-fledged platform, and it has become too difficult to ignore its appeal.