Here are a few of my favorite flexible Sage SalesLogix ideas

The flexibility of Sage SalesLogix means you have liberty and freedom.  What types of choices and liberty do you mean?  I am glad you asked.

• Customizations

 Sage SalesLogix offers powerful options for customizing the applications.  You can use the scripting engine to customize.  You can use built-in configureable options like contact processes, sales processes, and pick lists as easy as clicking a button without being a programmer.  If you have the skills or resources available you can even use custom coding and .NET Extensions.  Overall the limitations are few and mostly centered around imagination and practical budget.  One of the common approaches is the incremental development approach or sometimes called phased approach to deploying customizations over time and measuring the return and the impact to both the end users and the customer results.  These customizations offer customers choice and helps deflect the round hole and square peg approach of some CRM tools.  Smart customers today demand flexible tools.  Most companies want their software to work the way their business operates, not changing the business to fit the software.  Sage SalesLogix allows you to be creative and build customizations affordably your way.

• Territory Realignments

 One of the “smart idea” tools built in to SalesLogix is the ability to slice and dice the data.  The built in administrative tool allows for easy changes in Account Management and territory changes.   I am sure that sales representatives never switch companies or territories almost never change.  But when they do get altered, it is great to be able to accommodate those adjustments in business software.

• Bundles

Sage SalesLogix has the ability to pull customizations, also known as plugins, out of the database and be saved into a portable format called a SalesLogix bundle (*.sxb) file.  Why is this smart?  Well on two fronts.  It helps the customer to make changes in SalesLogix and test the outcome without impacting production.  You might call this a “sand box” or development/test environment.  Once these changes are fit for production (QA) then they can be bundled up and moved to production without having to recreate them from scratch.  This saves time, energy, and money.  On the second front, bundles allow for smart people to create clever modifications to SalesLogix and share them either for free or for a fee with multiple SalesLogix systems.  This is another example of choice that the right Sage foundation has provided.  Don’t you just love open systems with flexibility.  You can keep bundles private as your competitive edge or share them with the world, but this is your choice.

• Deployment

 The next three items go hand-in-hand, but are separated out because of some unique value that Sage SalesLogix provides.   You can deploy the way your users want to work with SalesLogix.  You can deploy on-premise or off premise (SaaS) for starters.  Sage SalesLogix has always had the option of being hosted in a data center.  That is not anything new, but few have done so in the past.  With the on premise, the options run the gamut.  You can choose to be LAN (Local Area Network) only.  Note:  This is the primary “live or real-time” directly connected to the database option.    You can also use Terminal Services or Citrix or hosted LAN deployments.  Nothing new here, but it is great to have options, eh?  In addition, you can opt for browser-based users using a portal.  (This is a rapidly growing choice by companies) This can be deployed inside your firewall locally or outside (Internet).  Your option and your freedom.   (I feel like I am getting warmed up on deployment!) 

Now another alternative is concerning those users who are outside your company roaming accross the planet.  There are “disconnected” systems for those remote users.  You can use remote clients with a slice of the main host, using MS SQL Express, or you can use remote office for a group of LAN users who work off of one big remote client as direct connected users.  There is also the option of “disconnected” browser based clients.    The options don’t end with these choices.  All the options above are OR options.  You don’t have to pick one deployment option and if you wish you can work with them all.

Next, what if I don’t want the infrastructure in my IT data center at all?  Another popular option is hosted, which comes in three flavors.  SalesLogix Cloud, a data center hosting SalesLogix only, and a data center hosting your whole infrastructure remotely (we call this the Green Office Option).    The SalesLogix Cloud is mainly for the web client only deployment option using Amazon Web Services.  Very slick!  The data center hosting SalesLogix can be for any client type but mostly remote or hosted via Terminal Services.  And the last option is for the whole integrated infrastructure for your CRM tool set (think Exchange and Sharepoint, and SalesLogix etc more of a IaaS option).  You get to decide.  You have the freedom. You are the customer.   Unlike some Customer Relationship Management tools that box in your decisions to only browser based decisions and are only SaaS deployments.  Today, you may desire to have more options than that if you need them.

Oops, I didn’t even talk about SalesLogix Mobile Client or SalesLogix Disconnected Web Client options which have existed for years.  Maybe another time.

Client Types

Network, remote, web, and mobile users

The deployment option selected usually impacts the client types that are available.  If you are choosing to move SalesLogix out of your data center, then maybe you are a low customization needs shop and want to use  browser based access.  (Although, the browser based option can be heavily customized)  You have only one basic option then, the Web client.  Then your decision is where to deploy inside your campus or published to the internet or hosted in the Amazon infrastructure as SalesLogix Cloud.    If you wanted an application on your desktop, then you can virtualize the application, using (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)VDI technology, or have it installed local, or even use thin multi-user technologies like Terminal Services across the web.  Most desktop deployments use either remote or network installed software.  The trending movement has been toward the Internet based toolset for many years.  The point is that you can work from anywhere now!   I like the idea of working from the deck with my feet kicked up with a broadband internet connection or even in a field enjoying the great outdoors.  Feel the untethered freedom of the wind whipping through your hair?

These are just a few of the areas that I believe makes SalesLogix a vastly superior tool for the flexibility that it brings to the CRM marketplace and the many features that are designed with the user at heart.  As a Sage SalesLogix business partner, we would love to share the options that will work for your company and your situation on your terms.