A CRM Consultant at work
So today, as every working day, I logged into my Infor CRM remote database and Outlook, the two key systems I need to do my job. The difference today is that I have Infor CRM Xbar (an add-on that enables me to access information from Infor CRM without leaving Outlook).
I thought I would share with you both my likes and gotchas about it as it may help you decide whether to start using it too.
Some of the things I like about Infor CRM Xbar are:
- When an email is selected, contact cards are shown for all recipients who are on the email and it’s easy to see those who do not already exist in Infor CRM
- Where a person doesn’t exist in CRM, I can add them as a contact from within Xbar and associate them to an existing account
- The Xbar tab on an open email lets me add a note to Infor CRM not related to the email I might currently be working on (which is really useful if you are in the middle of something)
- I can view recent history and see the notes from the email that was sent within a couple of clicks
- When I receive an email about an opportunity, and once logged into Infor CRM from within Xbar, I can update the estimated close date very easily.
Some cautions from Nicola
There are a couple of things that you need to be aware of are when it comes to Xbar:
- There is no duplicate detection so I wouldn’t advise adding brand new leads or contacts using Xbar
- When adding an opportunity, you need to select yourself as the account manager (and the user list is not presented in an alphabetic order which is a bit of a drag)
- Any useful features or mandatory fields you may have implemented (we default the Company Name into the new Opportunity Name) will not be available. Other options such as adding products (which can be done via the create opportunity wizard) are also not available. For these reasons, it is still quicker for me to create opportunities within the CRM client.
All in all, I do think it’s a useful tool and does save me time.
For more information on the Infor CRM Xbar, check out the video below:
We’re pleased to know that our own staff here at QGate finds Xbar as useful as Infor says it will be. We hope that you’ll come to the same conclusions.
For more information, or to chat with Nicola about how Infor CRM and the Xbar can help your business, please get in touch.
