Contact Management

Contact management is the process by which one manages the interactions between individuals. These interactions in a business environment can be of various types.

· Early stages of a business relationship – prospecting, searching for a business relationship.

· Mature stage of a business relationship – re-ordering, analyzing problems, furthering a relationship, and collection efforts.

· Terminating stage of the relationship – reasons why the relationship is ending.

Any system that tracks interactions has some common functionality. These various functions are listed below along with how that function would be handled (in general) within the Profits Plus system.

Common Functionality of Contact Management	Profits Plus Actions for Contact Management

Ability to enter a record for the interaction	Create an order
Ability to identify the recipient of the interaction	Identify the customer on the order
Ability to assign the interaction to individuals	Set the department and/or salesperson on the order
Ability to track status as the interaction progresses	Use internally created “labor” items to track status
Ability to change assignments	Change the department and/or salesperson as necessary
Ability to get summaries of pending interactions by assignment	Print an open order status report by department/salesperson
Ability to close the interaction once the contact is made	Invoice the order
Ability to maintain a history of all “done” interactions	Order and item history files

Advantages of using Profits Plus as a contact management system over specially created contact management software:

1. The information is integrated with the billing data – customer specific.

2. No added cost.

3. No added administration.

Specific Procedures:

1. Create an operational department within Order Entry module to represent contact management. Go into System Management [T 32], Modify Application Tables [SubT 17], and then the following options:

· Available departments (14)

· Available warehouse/dept. combinations (15)

· Default terminal warehouse/dept’s. (7)

While you could have multiple departments for contact management (e.g., sales contact management, operational contact management, and accounting contact management), the simplest way to begin is with one department labeled “Contact Management”.

2. Create tracking labor items in the inventory item master (I/C Module 5, Task 1 Add new items, Sub-task 1 Enter new & then Sub-task 5 Post). Use item prefixes that represent internal tracking (i.e., SLS, ACC, 999). An example would be:

“SLS-SALES CALL” with a description of “SALES – SALES CALL”

“999-SALES CALL” with a description of “SALES – SALES CALL”

Ensure that the cost and price of the item are set to $ 0.00 and that the item is set to be billed out in units of time. After posting the item, item memo notes may be added to Task 17 Item master, which should automatically come up on the screen in order entry. An example would be:

DATE: CONTACT PERSON:

NOTES:

3. Maintain an accurate salesperson/technician file utilizing O/P Module 6, Salesperson/Technician file [T 20].

4. Enter orders as before but make sure that the appropriate department number is being used on the front screen. You may also enter the salesperson/technician number in field #5 and a “Promise Date” on the shipping screen.

5. Track time spent on the contact management task by billing out the contact management item (enter the time on the item screen). Utilize the memo sections of the order to describe the efforts of the interaction and then invoice the order when the call is complete.

6. Stay on top of contact management issues with management reporting. Choose the Open Order Status Report [T 9] and select the Open Order Status / By Salesperson (ORDSTS) report option. This report is enhanced to list open orders by department and asks for a number of parameters including:

· Department range

· Salesperson number

· Promise date

· Item details/memos

7. After a contact management order is invoiced and posted the history may be accessed. When in a current open order, at the line item screen, at the point of entering a new line item #, by pressing the F7 key & then typing the first couple characters of the contact management item #: SLS or 999. Another way is of course to print a history report for the customer # and item #.