Tigerpaw Integration Added
Several months ago, we added the ability to import contact (and other) data into SalesDoc Architect from any CRM or contact management application that can generate a mail-merged Word document. This capability eliminates the need to re-key data, saving time and reducing re-keying errors.
Together with Tigerpaw Software, we are pleased to announce the joint development of functionality that enables you to push configuration data (part numbers, quantities, pricing, etc.) from SalesDoc Architect into Tigerpaw’s CRM+ business management software application. Now you can use the combination of CorsPro’s SalesDoc Architect and Tigerpaw’s CRM+ solutions to…
- Manage customer relationships with CRM+
- Configure turnkey solutions with SalesDoc Architect Generate customized proposals, statements of work and other documents with SalesDoc Architect.
- Generate sales orders, initiate billing, manage inventory, schedule service orders (and more!) with CRM+
…all without having to re-key any data back and forth between the two applications.
This functionality saves you lots of time and reduces re-keying errors, enabling you to take advantage of best-in-class functionality from both applications so that your company can sell more in less time. You’ll also increase margins because of SalesDoc Architect’s ability to generate statements of work that clearly set customer expectations (and prevent “scope creep”) and CRM+’s business management functionality such as sales order, service order and inventory management.
(Note: please click on the graphic to the right to see it at full size)
Setting Up the Integration
Setting up the integrations between the two applications should take your SalesDoc Architect/Tigerpaw administrator only a few minutes to accomplish (assuming you are already working with version 10.6.18 or later of Tigerpaw’s CRM+ software). There are three steps in the process:
- Set up a Word merge (export) document template within CRM+ (see instructions below).
- Enable SalesDoc Architect’s Word-to-SalesDoc Architect import functionality by having all users click Tools, Macro, Macros, then run “AddWord2PQButton”.
- Add the export-to-CRM+ menu item to SalesDoc Architect’s Outputs menu by opening outputs.xls in your PQuote\Data folder and adding a new row for the output (type “1” in the first column, “Export to Tigerpaw” in the second column, “Output” in the third column and “TigerpawQuote” in the fourth column). The SalesDoc Architect administrator only needs to do this once on the “master” version of SalesDoc Architect, after which the update can be pushed out to users using the normal updates process.
Administrators can set up a merge (export) document template within CRM+ by:
- Opening up filename “WordToPQ.dot” in your PQManager\Templates folder (this is a sample Word-to-Sales template document). We also have a sample Tigerpaw-to-SalesDoc Architect template that might work right away simply by placing the file in CRM+’s default Word Template folder.
- Clicking (within Word) Tools, Letters and Mailings, then Mail Merge. Click through the wizard, specifying “Letters” as the document type, using the current document as the starting document, and browsing for header.txt in the Word Merge folder underneath the Tigerpaw installation folder (header.txt is the file that CRM+ creates during the merge process).
- Insert the database fields from CRM+ by clicking on “More Items” and inserting the appropriate database fields into the “Merge Field(s)” column of the WordToPQ.dot sample file.
- Save the finished template file to CRM+’s default Word Template folder.
For more information on setting up the Word-to-SalesDoc Architect document template within CRM+, see the SalesDoc Architect help topic entitled “Integration with CRM & Contact Management Systems” as well as CRM+’s help topic on creating Word merge documents.
You can also download an excerpt from Tigerpaw’s user guide describing how to set up the function to import SalesDoc Architect exports into Tigerpaw. When setting up the SalesDoc Architect import function in Tigerpaw, we recommend that you set “Number of characters from manufacturer” to 0, “Separator character” to blank, and “Number of characters from part number” to 75.
Using the Integrations
To push contact (and other) information to SalesDoc Architect, first create the merged Word document from Tigerpaw CRM+ by pulling up the contact for whom you’d like to generate a SalesDoc Architect configuration and/or output document (proposal, SOW, etc.). Next, click on the merge-to-Word-document button and browse for the Word document template that you created above, then generate the merge document. Finally, click the “Open SalesDoc Architect” button within Microsoft Word to push the CRM+ data into SalesDoc Architect.
For more information on pushing contact (and other) information from CRM to SalesDoc Architect – including the ability to push other data that might be used to drive solution configurations or document outputs – please refer to our The Productivity Edge article on that topic.
To push configuration information from SalesDoc Architect to CRM+, click SalesDoc Architect’s Outputs button then select the menu item to create the export CSV file. Next, switch over to a quote screen within CRM+ and import the CSV file by browsing for it.