June 12th, 2007	i-Tr@der MODULE FACT SHEET	MOD00001
Document Library	Contact Management Systems (CMS)

Introduction

CMS is a highly functional yet simple to use Contact Management Tool. All businesses require to keep records of Suppliers, Customers, business associates and other types of contacts. CMS helps to organise these in an efficient and simple to retrieve manner and because they are stored centrally they are available to all staff who need them.

As a member of the i-Tr@der business platform CMS is used through a web browser, this means it is available not only to staff in the office but remote workers, Sales people or satellite offices, with no extra set up or costs.

Contacts are at the centre of any business, but too often we have to enter the same information into other tools we use as well as our main Contact systems, such as Bookkeeping systems, Email systems (Outlook) and Marketing databases. CMS is part of the core of the i-Tr@der business platform and because everything is linked together information need only be entered once to be available to all other areas including the Email and Bookkeeping functions. CMS has it's own Email marketing module and more details can be found in the CMS Campaign Fact Sheet.

below Contact Management main details window - Figure 001.01

Feature Highlights

The Contact Management system really is system Central. From the one main screen anything to do with the contact can be viewed with just a few simple clicks. Some of the key features of the system are shown in the table below :-

FEATURES	FEATURES
Simple to use	Opportunity management for contacts
Multiple people records per Company record	Complete Document filing area available for each contact, with full folder and document management
Contact assignment to single or multiple staff members	Template Letter and Document creation with auto Addressing
Comprehensive marketing codes for selecting groups of records	View all incoming and outgoing emails for the company and individuals within the company.
Call Lists to ensure recontact at the right time	Link to Website and Location (via postcode)
Electronic reminders for follow up tasks or activities	View account status (Suppliers and Customers)
Full notes recording for Contact Activity at Company and People record level	Send Emails or Document Links direct from the Contact record
Comprehensive record Searching facilities	Export Contact information to .CSV file format
Import data easily from .CSV template layouts	Access anywhere anytime with an Internet connection

below view Individual People record details - Figure 001.02

Integration with other modules

The CMS system is at the centre of the i-Tr@der business platform and so it links with almost all other modules in the system. Below are the main modules which link directly with CMS :-

iEmail, File Manager, Alerts, Diary, iSop (Sales Ledger), iPos (Purchase Ledger) and iEPQ (Quotations)

Below are examples of direct links to other modules from the CMS module :-

Emails Sent and Received for a Contact Record

By simply clicking the email icon from the People record, or via the Main Contacts view all incoming and outgoing emails for contacts can be viewed. Historically emails have been stored inside an individuals INBOX making it difficult to find out everything that has been happening. With CMS and the iEmail (integrated email application) all correspondence is filed automatically against the contact concerned as well as being filed into the recipients inbox.

below an example of Incoming (white) and Outgoing (Yellow) emails to a CMS people record - Figure 001.03

Storing Documents and related files against a Contact

When we cast our thoughts back to the days of Filing  and the filing cabinet, typically a Folder was opened for each customer / contact and inside the folder all correspondence and documents would be placed. With Personal Computers, email and networks, everyone now creates their own documents and so control over filing has been lost. CMS records re-establish the concept of the old filing cabinet Folder and the Document Store enables us to file documents of any type neatly against the Contact in any number of clearly named folders making them easy to find later.

Document store for a contact record in CMS, ability to create folders and store all types of file types - Figure 001.04