I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts. MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first is the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM application. It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and accounts.

It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen and used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or account level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word templates which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.

Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the moment is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a note with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time for a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the system.

Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in future?

Thanks
--
Paul Lisseter
LNL Services - UK

RE: Generating documents or letters from CRM by PeteC

PeteC
Sun Aug 01 02:09:02 CDT 2004

Paul,

Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under the actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...

"Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:

> I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts. MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first is the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM application. It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and accounts.
>
> It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen and used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or account level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word templates which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.
>
> Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the moment is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a note with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time for a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the system.
>
> Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in future?
>
> Thanks
> --
> Paul Lisseter
> LNL Services - UK

RE: Generating documents or letters from CRM by PaulLisseterLNLServices

PaulLisseterLNLServices
Sun Aug 01 02:19:01 CDT 2004

Yes I looked at this but I would need to do search for a contact every time then do a mailmerge of one. It would not attach a note at the opportunity level or a copy of the letter.

Since the basic processes are incorporated in the mailmerge feature I can't understand why the developers have not gone the extra mile and allowed the document generation for single users. Anyone should look at Act or salesoutlook (www.salesoutlook.com ) to see how it should be implemented.

Thanks for the reply though
--
Paul Lisseter
LNL Services - UK


"PeteC" wrote:

> Paul,
>
> Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under the actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...
>
> "Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:
>
> > I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts. MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first is the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM application. It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and accounts.
> >
> > It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen and used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or account level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word templates which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.
> >
> > Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the moment is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a note with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time for a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the system.
> >
> > Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in future?
> >
> > Thanks
> > --
> > Paul Lisseter
> > LNL Services - UK

Re: Generating documents or letters from CRM by Stephen

Stephen
Sun Aug 01 04:34:15 CDT 2004

I'm not sure what the problem is here. In SFO, you can do a mail merge to a
selected contact in any list, or multiple selected contacts.

I think that the mail merge functionality will take a boost with the 2.0
release (and even with the forthcoming update), but I guess it is really set
to take off with the 3.0 release as this is supposed to be tightly
integrated with Office.

Act! is a great product and probably has some more features "out of box"
than MS CRM - way more features than the average user will use (just like
Word); but if you want to do something that is quite complex as a
customization then you will not get very far with Act! Consider MS CRM as a
platform that you can build on, rather than a plastic-wrapped product.



Stephen


<Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
<PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:50B07A37-6851-48EC-9AC1-50A36B7EFFD5@microsoft.com...
> Yes I looked at this but I would need to do search for a contact every
time then do a mailmerge of one. It would not attach a note at the
opportunity level or a copy of the letter.
>
> Since the basic processes are incorporated in the mailmerge feature I
can't understand why the developers have not gone the extra mile and allowed
the document generation for single users. Anyone should look at Act or
salesoutlook (www.salesoutlook.com ) to see how it should be implemented.
>
> Thanks for the reply though
> --
> Paul Lisseter
> LNL Services - UK
>
>
> "PeteC" wrote:
>
> > Paul,
> >
> > Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under the
actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...
> >
> > "Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:
> >
> > > I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts.
MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first is
the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM application.
It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely
heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and accounts.
> > >
> > > It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen and
used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or account
level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word templates
which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter
could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be
attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.
> > >
> > > Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the moment
is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a note
with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time for
a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the system.
> > >
> > > Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in future?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > --
> > > Paul Lisseter
> > > LNL Services - UK



Re: Generating documents or letters from CRM by PaulLisseterLNLServices

PaulLisseterLNLServices
Mon Aug 02 07:45:01 CDT 2004

Many thanks for the reply. Its good to hear that there are updates in the pipeline. The good thing seems to be that Microsoft CRM will allow us to do some things that we can't with other products. The downside is that some of the everyday tasks are a little more difficult. The problem seems to be that the assumption is that most communication will be transacted by meetings, email or telephone. In reality it is still different for us and many companies we deal with.

I have tried the suggestions you make but we would still need to create some rules to allow all contact transactions to be duplicated to , say, opportunity level. This can be done as you describe but does seem more complex than clicking a button, chosing a template with the rest happening automatically with the minimum number of steps and keeping all the info for the item together in one place to allow efficient reworking of the item when reviewed.

I see from the postings that a number of others have raised the same point Hopefully the closer integration and planned modifications will help with this. Microsoft CRM is potentially a very good product but with one or two changes it could be really great.

Thanks again for your reply

Paul Lisseter
--
Paul Lisseter
LNL Services - UK


"Stephen Redmond" wrote:

> I'm not sure what the problem is here. In SFO, you can do a mail merge to a
> selected contact in any list, or multiple selected contacts.
>
> I think that the mail merge functionality will take a boost with the 2.0
> release (and even with the forthcoming update), but I guess it is really set
> to take off with the 3.0 release as this is supposed to be tightly
> integrated with Office.
>
> Act! is a great product and probably has some more features "out of box"
> than MS CRM - way more features than the average user will use (just like
> Word); but if you want to do something that is quite complex as a
> customization then you will not get very far with Act! Consider MS CRM as a
> platform that you can build on, rather than a plastic-wrapped product.
>
>
>
> Stephen
>
>
> <Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
> <PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:50B07A37-6851-48EC-9AC1-50A36B7EFFD5@microsoft.com...
> > Yes I looked at this but I would need to do search for a contact every
> time then do a mailmerge of one. It would not attach a note at the
> opportunity level or a copy of the letter.
> >
> > Since the basic processes are incorporated in the mailmerge feature I
> can't understand why the developers have not gone the extra mile and allowed
> the document generation for single users. Anyone should look at Act or
> salesoutlook (www.salesoutlook.com ) to see how it should be implemented.
> >
> > Thanks for the reply though
> > --
> > Paul Lisseter
> > LNL Services - UK
> >
> >
> > "PeteC" wrote:
> >
> > > Paul,
> > >
> > > Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under the
> actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...
> > >
> > > "Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:
> > >
> > > > I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts.
> MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first is
> the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM application.
> It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely
> heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and accounts.
> > > >
> > > > It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen and
> used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or account
> level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word templates
> which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter
> could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be
> attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.
> > > >
> > > > Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the moment
> is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a note
> with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time for
> a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the system.
> > > >
> > > > Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in future?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > > --
> > > > Paul Lisseter
> > > > LNL Services - UK
>
>
>

Re: Generating documents or letters from CRM by Bhaskar

Bhaskar
Thu Sep 30 00:07:01 CDT 2004

Hi,
this is an add-on product for MSCRM.
http://www.salesteam.com/docgen_ms.htm
This will generate Letters ,Documents.

Regards,
Bhaskar.T
<Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
<PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E260FEC9-2A95-4D8F-ADCF-48372E8C3188@microsoft.com...
> Many thanks for the reply. Its good to hear that there are updates in the
pipeline. The good thing seems to be that Microsoft CRM will allow us to do
some things that we can't with other products. The downside is that some of
the everyday tasks are a little more difficult. The problem seems to be that
the assumption is that most communication will be transacted by meetings,
email or telephone. In reality it is still different for us and many
companies we deal with.
>
> I have tried the suggestions you make but we would still need to create
some rules to allow all contact transactions to be duplicated to , say,
opportunity level. This can be done as you describe but does seem more
complex than clicking a button, chosing a template with the rest happening
automatically with the minimum number of steps and keeping all the info for
the item together in one place to allow efficient reworking of the item
when reviewed.
>
> I see from the postings that a number of others have raised the same point
Hopefully the closer integration and planned modifications will help with
this. Microsoft CRM is potentially a very good product but with one or two
changes it could be really great.
>
> Thanks again for your reply
>
> Paul Lisseter
> --
> Paul Lisseter
> LNL Services - UK
>
>
> "Stephen Redmond" wrote:
>
> > I'm not sure what the problem is here. In SFO, you can do a mail merge
to a
> > selected contact in any list, or multiple selected contacts.
> >
> > I think that the mail merge functionality will take a boost with the 2.0
> > release (and even with the forthcoming update), but I guess it is really
set
> > to take off with the 3.0 release as this is supposed to be tightly
> > integrated with Office.
> >
> > Act! is a great product and probably has some more features "out of box"
> > than MS CRM - way more features than the average user will use (just
like
> > Word); but if you want to do something that is quite complex as a
> > customization then you will not get very far with Act! Consider MS CRM
as a
> > platform that you can build on, rather than a plastic-wrapped product.
> >
> >
> >
> > Stephen
> >
> >
> > <Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
> > <PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:50B07A37-6851-48EC-9AC1-50A36B7EFFD5@microsoft.com...
> > > Yes I looked at this but I would need to do search for a contact every
> > time then do a mailmerge of one. It would not attach a note at the
> > opportunity level or a copy of the letter.
> > >
> > > Since the basic processes are incorporated in the mailmerge feature I
> > can't understand why the developers have not gone the extra mile and
allowed
> > the document generation for single users. Anyone should look at Act or
> > salesoutlook (www.salesoutlook.com ) to see how it should be
implemented.
> > >
> > > Thanks for the reply though
> > > --
> > > Paul Lisseter
> > > LNL Services - UK
> > >
> > >
> > > "PeteC" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Paul,
> > > >
> > > > Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under the
> > actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...
> > > >
> > > > "Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup posts.
> > MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The first
is
> > the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM
application.
> > It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will still rely
> > heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and
accounts.
> > > > >
> > > > > It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have seen
and
> > used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact or
account
> > level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word
templates
> > which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The letter
> > could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note should be
> > attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the document.
> > > > >
> > > > > Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at the
moment
> > is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it to a
note
> > with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly in time
for
> > a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within the
system.
> > > > >
> > > > > Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature in
future?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks
> > > > > --
> > > > > Paul Lisseter
> > > > > LNL Services - UK
> >
> >
> >



Re: Generating documents or letters from CRM by gary9710

gary9710
Sun Jan 23 09:14:08 CST 2005

Wow, this add on product for MSCRM cost more then the SBE version of
SalesOutlook! And almost as much as the full featured SaleOutlook CRM
product. Both products include document management.

Bhaskar T wrote:
> Hi,
> this is an add-on product for MSCRM.
> http://www.salesteam.com/docgen_ms.htm
> This will generate Letters ,Documents.
>
> Regards,
> Bhaskar.T
> <Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
> <PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:E260FEC9-2A95-4D8F-ADCF-48372E8C3188@microsoft.com...
> > Many thanks for the reply. Its good to hear that there are updates
in the
> pipeline. The good thing seems to be that Microsoft CRM will allow us
to do
> some things that we can't with other products. The downside is that
some of
> the everyday tasks are a little more difficult. The problem seems to
be that
> the assumption is that most communication will be transacted by
meetings,
> email or telephone. In reality it is still different for us and many
> companies we deal with.
> >
> > I have tried the suggestions you make but we would still need to
create
> some rules to allow all contact transactions to be duplicated to ,
say,
> opportunity level. This can be done as you describe but does seem
more
> complex than clicking a button, chosing a template with the rest
happening
> automatically with the minimum number of steps and keeping all the
info for
> the item together in one place to allow efficient reworking of the
item
> when reviewed.
> >
> > I see from the postings that a number of others have raised the
same point
> Hopefully the closer integration and planned modifications will help
with
> this. Microsoft CRM is potentially a very good product but with one
or two
> changes it could be really great.
> >
> > Thanks again for your reply
> >
> > Paul Lisseter
> > --
> > Paul Lisseter
> > LNL Services - UK
> >
> >
> > "Stephen Redmond" wrote:
> >
> > > I'm not sure what the problem is here. In SFO, you can do a mail
merge
> to a
> > > selected contact in any list, or multiple selected contacts.
> > >
> > > I think that the mail merge functionality will take a boost with
the 2.0
> > > release (and even with the forthcoming update), but I guess it is
really
> set
> > > to take off with the 3.0 release as this is supposed to be
tightly
> > > integrated with Office.
> > >
> > > Act! is a great product and probably has some more features "out
of box"
> > > than MS CRM - way more features than the average user will use
(just
> like
> > > Word); but if you want to do something that is quite complex as a
> > > customization then you will not get very far with Act! Consider
MS CRM
> as a
> > > platform that you can build on, rather than a plastic-wrapped
product.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Stephen
> > >
> > >
> > > <Paul Lisseter>; "LNL Services"
> > > <PaulLisseterLNLServices@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
> > > news:50B07A37-6851-48EC-9AC1-50A36B7EFFD5@microsoft.com...
> > > > Yes I looked at this but I would need to do search for a
contact every
> > > time then do a mailmerge of one. It would not attach a note at
the
> > > opportunity level or a copy of the letter.
> > > >
> > > > Since the basic processes are incorporated in the mailmerge
feature I
> > > can't understand why the developers have not gone the extra mile
and
> allowed
> > > the document generation for single users. Anyone should look at
Act or
> > > salesoutlook (www.salesoutlook.com ) to see how it should be
> implemented.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for the reply though
> > > > --
> > > > Paul Lisseter
> > > > LNL Services - UK
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "PeteC" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Paul,
> > > > >
> > > > > Have you checked the merge feature in Outlook - appears under
the
> > > actions menu when viewing a list of contacts, accounts etc ...
> > > > >
> > > > > "Paul Lisseter, LNL Services" wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > I have been looking at Microsoft CRM and reading newsgroup
posts.
> > > MSCRM has a lot going for it but has a couple of major flaws. The
first
> is
> > > the lack of a feature to generate letters from within the CRM
> application.
> > > It is possible to do this with Email but most SME users will
still rely
> > > heavily upon traditional written letters to send to contacts and
> accounts.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > It should be possible (and is in most other CRM apps I have
seen
> and
> > > used) to generate a letter from either the opportunity, contact
or
> account
> > > level. Selection should be allowed from a number of standard word
> templates
> > > which have the info from the contact/account also filled in. The
letter
> > > could be checked and modified then printed or faxed. A note
should be
> > > attached to the contact/account/opportunity with a link to the
document.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Unless I am missing something the only way of doing this at
the
> moment
> > > is to create a document in word manually, save it then attach it
to a
> note
> > > with a written summary in the note. This is unbelievably costly
in time
> for
> > > a process which should be (and could be) mostly automated within
the
> system.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Does anyone know if Microsoft are going to add this feature
in
> future?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Paul Lisseter
> > > > > > LNL Services - UK
> > >
> > >
> > >


Re: Generating documents or letters from CRM by support

support
Mon Jan 24 01:00:25 CST 2005

HEllo!

We are developed a new add-on now which adds an Letter-Activity
after MailMerge to the CRM-Objects(Account,Contact,..) and in this
Activity you have the Content of the document in the description.
If this is what you are searching for please contact me.
I will send you a beta of this Add-On!

Thanks
Ternek Christian

support@mscrm-addons.com
www.mscrm-addons.com

Your company for MS-CRM ADD-ONS!
GroupCalendar for MSCRM
Related Documents for MSCRM