Product Updates

This page will be updated with product update news as and when new versions of Tall Emu CRM are released.

Please check back in future for the latest news.

Version 2.6 Release Notes

 Field Chooser

Allows any field in the record to be added to the grid. Allows related records to be added to the grid. For example, on the contact grid you can now pull in related fields from the company or assigned-to records.

 

Here we can see that the contact grid can be filtered by fields on the related company.

 

Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting lets you change the font and colouring of data inside the browser grid based on the data. This allows you to see all overdue calls in Red, inactive clients in blue,  Customers who owe over $5000 in bright yellow with bold red text – or any other type of rule to highlight important data.  Rules can be applied to any grid, either affecting the entire row – or just one cell.

If the email contains the word “Emu” change the text to blue

Layouts
Allows you to store different grid layouts (selected columns, sizes) and select them with one click. This allows you to quickly define and share useful column layouts appropriate to the task at hand.  The layouts can be combined with advanced filters – it is possible to have a layout which shows “Company Name, Accounts Contact Name, Phone Number, Balance” only where balance is over $500, and access this view with a single click.

Bulk Update
The ability to multi-select records in a grid – and update one or more fields at the same time.

Open Related
The ability to right click on a records in any grid, and open related objects.  For example, to click on a call and open the related items such as the contact or company.

Show in contacts grid
The ability to filter a list of calls, meetings, tasks, etc – and with a right click open the Contacts Grid filtered to show only the contacts related to the selected items.

 

Selecting “Show in contacts grid” will filter the contacts grid to show the list of contacts which are related to the two calls selected above

Refresh Grids by Timer
Allows any grid in the system to be able to auto-refresh periodically. This is useful when CRM is being used to monitoring the status of tasks or work orders and need to see when new data is created without manually refreshing the grid.

Reworked Invoices & Payments
Invoices and Payments have had a significant overhaul – you can create invoices, allocate payments against multiple invoices, handle credit notes, refunds and see this all in a bank-statement type “transactions” view.  You can even interact with eWay’s online payment gateway to take credit card payments directly in CRM.

• Payment wizard enhanced
• Added transaction grid
• Added “Cancel invoice”
• added “Unallocated payments”
• added “allocate unallocated payment”
• The new field “INTERNAL_COMMENT” was added in the tables Invoice and Payment
• added refund processing
• Payment methods can now be written in DB (no longer hardcoded)
• Invoices can be cancelled.
• Payment terms are defined (e.g. 30 days, 7 days, etc) and can be set per client.

Improved performance and grid appearance
The performance of grids & filters has been enhanced. Some minor cosmetics to improve the grid look and feel.

Price Books enhancements
Price books in CRM allow you to have different pricing levels (e.g. Retail, Wholesale, Trade).  In version 2.6 they have been enhanced to allow prices to be automatically set based on differences from standard price (e.g. Standard +/- 10%), or alternatively margins on cost price.

These rules can additionally be refined by category (for example:  All Cars are cost +5%;  All accessories are cost + 500%).  Price books with manually set prices are still supported for special cases.  The changes make it much easier for clients with large product ranges.

Outlook Plugin
Improved user interface, particularly with Office 2010.  Performance and bug fixes.

• Outlook plugin now supports file and database storage of attachments.
• Outlook plugin now supports defining which outlook contact/calendar folders to Sync.
• Outlook plugin allows inserting of a tracking reference before Outlook sends an email
• Outlook adding now takes security settings into account when Syncing.
• Outlook Plugin security can be managed now inside CRM:  Can Sync Calendars, Contacts, Email can now be allowed or denied as permissions.

 EMail Tracking Codes
Ability to insert mail tracking codes from outlook into emails (commonly used to track support cases) so that as replies are Synced to CRM they automatically link to the related items in CRM.

Default Security Roles
A collection of default security roles are included in CRM to facilitate easy setup of user access rights.

Two Way SMS
Two way SMS (SMS Replies) capability is added to CRM – now you can broadcast SMS messages and collect customer replies – including using workflow to act on them automatically.  For example, send a job request to a tech and have them acknowledge it.

Hours (Time) tracking added
Working hours can now be tracked and related to items inside CRM, allowing the basis for the development of timesheet and time billing tracking capabilities.  Allows default starting time, breaks and duration rules to be set.

Timeline view
A view of the calendar in a timeline format – hours of the day along the X Axis, and resources down the Y Axis, useful for scheduling work of multiple team members.

Asset Management
Allows assets sold to customers to be tracked, maintenance tracked and work orders/servicing to be scheduled.

Accounting Links
MYOB, QB, EXONET accounting interface enhancements. Most interfaces now allow import and export of all major accounting objects.

Workflow Enhancements
The workflow system has been enhanced to make it more user-friendly – now power-users (and not programmers) can begin to access the business process automation features of CRM.

Default Reports
A collection of default reports have been added.

Google Map Control
Google maps can now be embedded in CRM, which will automatically show any address – including a street view, map view and satellite view.

Studio Enhancements
The design tools for CRM have been significantly enhanced. It’s now possible to create and manage CRM modules much more powerfully, manage layouts, import/export datasources between databases, view and edit data other databases inside CRM (SQL Views).

• FORMAT dialog in studio to allow currency, number and date formatting.
• Import/Export workflow added
• Import/Export advanced filters added
• Import/Export of dictionaries added
• Import/Export and management of datasources added
• Templates setting when making new datasources (Tab preference)
• Ability to add one-click bottom tabsets in editor…
• Database connection strings are now encrypted for security.
• MYOB, QB, EXO settings moved into system instead of config files.
• Date of last update of a datasource visible by default
• Lots of validation on creating of new datasources.

General

• Automatic cleanup of logs
• Configurable log storage duration
• Hide to tray option
• Customisable start page
• Ability to set default country for addresses
• Allow auditing of viewed records
• Retentions capability on invoices The misspelling in opportunity_type_stage was fixed(Several default sales stages say “closes” instead of “closed”)
• Sales Orders and Quotes can be linked to marketing Campaigns
• Company. Contact can now be marked as Active (or not)
• The new table for product sub-options added.
• List of suburbs (with Long/Lat)
• List of holidays by country, state.
• Removed summary icons on browser for non-numeric fields Added ability to classify communications (emails) by general type., and to have Open/Closed messages.
• Added “Variations” feature to products.
• Changes to default campaign type setup (Call/Telemarketing)
• Defaults changed on call record.
• Workflow – performance boost in rendering.
• QB – Added desktop application to make QB interface more reliable.
• MYOB – worked to improve interface stability.

Manageability

• Workflow, Messaging services now auto-zip and delete old log files.
• CRM service now auto-zip and delete old logs files.
• Changes to settings in CRM does not require restart of Workflow service
• Changes to setting in CRM does not require restart of communication service
• Changes to settings in CRM no longer requires a restart of the shopping cart sync service.