Volume 4, Issue 4

Welcome to Bits & Bytes -- the quarterly newsletter from Computer Control Corporation. You may notice that the newsletter has a new name. By design, CCC has been moving, over the past 18 months, toward a new business model. The phrase, "Business Management Systems Powered By Technology," really says it all.

Our focus is on providing our clients with the technology and expertise to identify, quantify and leverage every important piece of data within their information systems. And this issue of Bits & Bytes contains information about several pieces of technology aimed at that goal. Enjoy!

Below are links to this issue's topics:

The Best Way To Find Out What Your Clients Think Is To Ask Them
A Word From Our President On Client Retention
GoldMine 6.0 On The Horizon -- Keep Your Eyes Peeled!
Introducing GoldFiche From CCC -- We've Got the Hot New Add-On for LaserFiche
Windows Terminal Services: Providing the Benefits of Remote Application Execution
Tech-Talk -- Tips & Tricks from CCC's GoldMine Gurus
(Includes a Heads Up on an Issue with GoldMine Installed on an XP Workstation)
Some Great News & Links
Upcoming Training Dates
Hardware Services
Check Out Our Newsletter Archives For Past Topics of Interest

The Best Way To Find Out What Your Clients Think Is To Ask Them

In our role as CRM and GoldMine Consultants we are always looking for products that will add value to our business systems. We have recently found one that is really special. It's called Quask, and it allows you to create and distribute professional-looking electronic surveys. It integrates nicely with GoldMine and may be especially useful in your business.

At CCC, client surveys are a cornerstone of our commitment to improving customer satisfaction, to database maintenance and to our marketing efforts. Quask fits perfectly with our larger client retention initiative.

You can use the Quask software to:
* generate Customer Satisfaction Surveys,
* automatically update your GoldMine records
* find out what products and services your clients really want

Our training survey is a good example of a Customer Satisfaction Survey that we have used. While your topic and survey questions will undoubtedly differ, you could certainly benefit from organized feedback on sales calls, on your customer service and on your products themselves. Bottom line --you just never know what your customers are thinking unless you ask. And, if you're waiting for them to tell you, then you are most likely hearing from customers who are upset with something and are about to defect. Even then, they are probably not telling you the real story. These surveys tend to pick up issues before they become crises.

For those of you managing customer databases, you can use the Quask system to have your customers review the information and correct it for you. Their responses will automatically update your records with relatively little effort on your part (and not much on theirs either).

Your marketing efforts will be enhanced by sending out an occasional survey to find out what products and services your customers would like to see. Once again, you'd be amazed what happens when customers realize you're interested enough to ask.

There are other survey systems available, of course. Most of them are offered as pay-as-you-go services. Every time you do a survey it's going to cost you. Quask software is yours for a reasonable one-time fee. Then everything is totally under your control.

We're using it. It's helping our business. We thought you would be interested too. If you would like to find out more, please call us at 860-529-6232 or send an email to adam.scott@ccc24k.com. If you'd like to get more info follow this link: www.ccc24k.com/quask.htm

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We've Got the Hot New LaserFiche Add-on,
Introducing GoldFiche 2002 -- From CCC

LaserFiche, one of the world’s leading Document Management Systems, is excellent at scanning, storing and retrieving documents. It's especially critical in the financial services and heatlhcare fields. GoldMine is one of the premier CRM systems, providing powerful contact management features, including sophisticated marketing capabilities. GoldFiche^© 2002 enhances the power of each by linking LaserFiche’s scanned documents with the appropriate contact record in GoldMine. With this combined system, users now have the best of both worlds. So, a GoldFiche user can request the LaserFiche documents associated with GoldMine’s active contact record, e-mail LaserFiche docs to GoldMine users or contacts, and much more!

View a pdf file with more info on GoldFiche

Click here to request more information on GoldFiche

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  A Word from Our President:

Focusing on Retention

The big news on the Client Retention front is that Joel has made Chapter 6 of his book, Client Powered by Technology available from our website. Chapter 6 is entitled "Surveys" and describes various survey techniques which should be integral components of any client retention program. To download a free copy of Chapter 6 follow this link.
www.ccc24k.com/clientretention.htm

If you're truly interested in this important business yardstick, click the link below...
Contact us for detailed information on an intensive, informative two-day Client Retention Workshop designed and presented by Computer Control Corporation.

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Providing the Benefits of Remote Application Execution

Terminal Services allows you to provide a consistent desktop environment to more people in your organization by letting you deliver the Windows 2000 desktop and latest Windows-based applications to virtually any desktop computing device, including those that cannot run Windows.

Through terminal emulation, Terminal Services allows the same set of applications to run on diverse types of desktop hardware. For organizations wanting to more flexibly deploy applications and control desktop management costs, a Terminal Services architecture offers an important enhancement to the traditional two or three tier client-server architecture based on servers and full scale personal computers.

The good news is that Terminal Services is included with Windows 2000 Server products (Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server). CAL's (Client Access Licenses) are required to run Terminal Services on remote machines. Click here for detailed licensing information.

There are several issues to consider on the way to implementing Terminal Services. We can help smooth the path. Contact us for details.

Click here for more technical information on Terminal Services.

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There are some MAJOR enhancements due in GoldMine 6.0. We're still sworn to secrecy, but we feel it's a very substantial upgrade. As part of his new GoldMine for Dummies Version 6.0 book, Joel Scott has written a chapter on the Top Ten New Features in 6.0. To learn more, contact Computer Control Corporation by phoning 860-529-6232 TODAY.

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  Tech-Talk
  Tips & Tricks from CCC's GoldMine Gurus

More SQL Queries We Love
(Based on client response you guys can't get enough of these puppies!)

From Ted Chmura III, CCC's Director of CRM Sales -- Here's one that lists the number of past activities which have not been completed by User -- NOTE: SQL ONLY!

select distinct UserID, count(*) from CAL where OnDate < getdate() group by UserID having count(*) > 0 order by UserID

From our Data Diva, Jill Messier -- Checks for duplicate contact1 records

SELECT CONTACT1.COMPANY, CONTACT1.CONTACT, CONTACT1.PHONE1, CONTACT1.ACCOUNTNO, CONTACT1.KEY1,CONTACT1.KEY3 FROM CONTACT1 WHERE (((CONTACT1.COMPANY) In (SELECT [COMPANY] FROM [CONTACT1] As Tmp GROUP BY [COMPANY],[CONTACT],[PHONE1] HAVING Count(*)>1 And [CONTACT] = [CONTACT1].[CONTACT] And [PHONE1] = [CONTACT1].[PHONE1])))
ORDER BY CONTACT1.COMPANY, CONTACT1.CONTACT, CONTACT1.PHONE1;

From CCC Senior GoldMine Tech Don (DJ) Hunt -- Lists orphaned ContSupp records

select accountno, rectype from contsupp where accountno not in (select accountno from contact1) and RecType <> 'O' and RecType <> 'H'

Heads Up!! -- GoldMine Issue On XP Workstations

Recently, we have encountered several GoldMine installations that were experiencing errors which suggested database corruption. Our investigation uncovered the problems occured while running GoldMine on a Windows XP workstation, when the GoldMine database files were installed on a Windows 98 machine. This is a known issue, documented on Microsoft's website. It has also shown up with other database products in similar environments. At this time, the only solution is to have the networked GoldMine database files installed on Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

The information on the microsoft issue can be found at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q300216

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    Some Great News & Links
We peruse the press and wander the Web to identify great sources of insight on CRM and small business success. Below are three links we thought you might enjoy:

1. Track Flight Arrivals
This site will tell you exactly where any flight is at any given moment. All you need is the origin and destination city (even if you forgot the flight number!). You can also look for delays by tracking scheduled departures and be on the lookout for possible weather or operational snafus.
www.flightarrivals.com

2. Get Directions
We think this one is even better than Mapquest! There's a cool LineDrive feature that maps just the roads you'll travel.
www.mapblast.com

3. Avoid Speed Traps
Enter your planned route and these guys will tell you where the most likely Smokey activity will be. This site can also teach you the rules of the road for foreign countries.
www.speedtrap.com 

4. When Customer Service Becomes Spam
This article contains some thoughtful tips you should consider to keep e-mail blasts from looking like blatant, inconsiderate marketing. Great rules for the e-road.
www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/18161.html

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To ask a question or share an idea, call us at (860) 529-6232 or e-mail us by clicking here.
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Training Center of the Year Upcoming Training Dates

This is the schedule for the Rocky Hill, Connecticut Training Center. Click here to contact your Regional Office to obtain training information for that location.

Click here to view a GoldMine Training Schedule.

Click here to Register.

Click here for detailed Course Descriptions.

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Reminder - Hardware Services

Did you know Computer Control Corporation is not only a “Top Ten” GoldMine Platinum Solutions Partner, but also a qualified hardware and networking service provider?  Keep us in mind when purchasing or servicing computers for your company.

Click here to send the hardware guys an e-mail.

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