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"It's a girl"..... I yelled!!!!

That was one of two jobs I had when my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl Sienna Drew Singer.

The second job was to cut the umbilical  cord  which I did without a hitch.

The umbilical cord reminded me of calamari. :)

What an amazing experience to see a new person coming into the world.  



Sienna Drew Singer born Dec 22 2011

A child represents a perfectly clean canvas.  You have the opportunity to try and arm your child with the right tools that will take her through life.

I can not help but  to draw comparisons on how deploying brand new software like a CRM solution is somewhat similar.

The business owner in your company makes the decision to deploy software to your users.

They are the Parents of this new application.  This software is a reflection on  this business owner for better or worse.  

Everyone is excited about this new software. A new beginning  is upon your company which also represents great potential.

But....much like a neglected child, without proper direction and training  your software will become useless and more of a problem than a blessing.

So what can you do to make sure your new CRM software is successful and makes papa proud.

1. Take ownership  - there needs to be parental guidance with software from the business owner.  You can not be one of those parents who let their kids decide what time to go to bed. YOU have to set the rules.  They do not need you to be a friend....they need a parent.  The same goes for software .  Create a "BEST PRACTICES" document for how to enter data.  This will ensure uniform data entry throughout the organization.  Why is this important ....because the more uniform the data entry is the more accurate your reports will be.
2. Train your users -   You send your kids to school on average for 22 years. Some cases more .  Train your users!  Your end users need training on how to use this application.  Spend for training do not cheap out.  Training is the number 1 thing you can do to ensure your CRM application is successful
3. Understand your user's needs -  Sometimes your baby has gas so you need to stop your scheduled feeding for a little help to burp them.  Even though you are on a strict schedule, you had to modify your plan based on how your child was reacting.  The same goes for your users.  Maybe you thought you needed the software for one thing but found a new feature that may help in a big way in another area.  This is ok and normal as you get used to using your software.  Your vendor should be their to guide you much like a baby nurse.
4. Listen to your users - although you set the rules as parents sometimes you have to amend those rules as they become irrelevant.  The same is true with software. Make sure your users feel like you are trying to benefit them with CRM software. They need to know you are trying to make their lives easier not just making sure you get those reports that management needs.
5. Have fun - Being a parent is stressful and sometimes you wonder if  you have what it takes to do it.  You forget one of the most important aspects of all of this.....HAVE FUN!!!  Believe it or not, software can be fun too!  You have to allow yourself to have fun with it though .  For example - Let your users have an iPhone so they can use their CRM application on it.  Thank you Steve Jobs and thank you Vigilus for creating a Mobile app for iPhones, iPads, Androids and Blackberrys..
   
   The relationship you have with your Vendor is key to all of the above.  You need to have a guidance counselor or Mentor.
   
   My company for example has worked with hundreds of organizations identifying needs and nurturing end users.  We are the baby nurse.  
   
   Contact us for swaddling lessons anytime.....literally.....Vigilus never sleeps.  Nor do I since the birth of Sienna.
   
   
   
   
   

Posted by Joe Singer At 12:19:42 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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My car was skidding all over the place.

I had been warned but I did not believe a huge nor'easter would really hit us with 16 inches of snow in the month of October.

My wife and I had to be on Long Island for a family party and we live in CT.

She was also 7 months pregnant at the time.

My mother offered the day before to put us up in a hotel but we respectfully declined and decided we wanted to drive home.

Wow was that a mistake.

I had never seen conditions worse in my life and I live in an area where it gets pretty bad in the winter.

We got home safe out of pure luck....thankfully.

That was the good news.  The bad news is we lost power and would not have it back for another 9 days.




So, we stayed home for a day trying to make the best of it.  No power, phone etc.

BUT.....I still had my laptop with a fully charged battery and I needed to do some work in  Lotus Notes applications like my product ACT! for Lotus Notes.

I was able to get a lot of work done.  Create emails that would later go out once I was in a place where I was connected to a server.

I needed to call some clients and I was able to again because I was working Locally.

And ...it dawned on me.  What happens to people when they rely on applications that ONLY work in the cloud.

How would they be productive if not connected?  The answer....they are not.

Not having power for 9 days does not happen often although....it certainly seems like it is happening more often then I would like.

We ended up driving back to Long Island and moving in with my mother for a the week.  

She had power and wireless internet.  As soon as I got there....I got on to her network and was able to send out all the emails I had created locally when I had no power and those emails were sent.

My clients had no idea I had been without power and they did not care....and why should they?

Vigilus never sleeps and is always opened no matter what.

Before your organization decides to go off into the cloud..... make sure they understand the risks.....that's all I am saying.

How often is it that you are at work and the server goes down and everyone stops working.

I bet often.

I am not going to get into all of the other risks like security etc.

Remember when you use Lotus Notes applications like email, ACT! for Notes etc, you can use these applications...

• disconnected from the server
• connected
• via a web browser
• ACT! for Notes can be used on iPads, iPhones , Androids and Blackberrys
  
  What can your CRM and email system do?
  

Posted by Joe Singer At 02:47:49 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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"Lotus Notes is dead."  

That was what I was told the first day of my new job back in 1999.  My job was to sell a Lotus Notes CRM application.

My boss was the one telling me Lotus Notes was a dead platform.  I couldn't help thinking that information would have been helpful during my interview ...no?

I was young.....at the time I did not know the difference between a Lotus Note and a Posted Note.  

I started reading everything I could about Lotus Notes.  What it was, why organizations deploy it, what it was good for and most of all....why everyone seemed to hate it.

I came to realize that everyone did NOT seem to hate Lotus Notes only the people who really did not understand what it was.

Some thought it was an email system.

Some thought it was Lotus 1-2-3.

Some thought it was a form of torture that was now outlawed under the Geneva Convention that only Dick Cheney would endorse

How could it be that really no one understood what Lotus Notes was/is?

I blamed Lotus and once  IBM bought Lotus...I blamed IBM for NOT communicating what it was.

Let me put it this way....... If Steve Jobs ran Lotus and Lotus was exactly what it is today.....you can bet people would be saying how amazing Lotus Notes is.



I am not kidding either.

Lotus Notes is......

• Social media
• Cloud computing
• Software as a Service (SaS)
• Collaboration
• Disconnected use
• Instant messaging
• On-line Meeting Room
• Secure software platform
• Developer Platform for rapid development
  
  ALL in one platform !!!
  
  Oh by the way...it happens to have email and calendaring.
  
  It was just never made cool .  That is it.   That is the only issue with Lotus Notes.
  
  No other platform comes close in functionality.  
  
  Still today I hear Lotus Notes is dead.  
  
  Fact is there are 35 million Lotus Notes users WorldWide.  There are almost the same amount of Exchange Users to give you scope.
  
  So why do organizations move off of Lotus Notes?
  
  Most of the time a new Director or VP  comes into a company having never used Lotus Notes in previous jobs and their first order of business is to modernize the company.
  
  They say things like "Lotus Notes?   Lotus Notes?    You guys have been using what?   We need to migrate over to Exchange or Google Asap.  We need to bring this company into the 21st century"  
  
  blah blah blah.
  
  Look...for some companies there are times when it does make sense to migrate away depending on your requirements and resources available .
  
  The only time when it really makes sense to move away  is when a merger takes place.  Usually the the company that acquires another migrates that new company to their existing platform.
  That to me makes sense.
  
  But otherwise it is usually a waste of time and money.
  
  Companies usually find out how stupid and expensive it is to move off once they begin the process and realize they now have to recreate all of the mission critical  Lotus Notes applications
  that the company uses from scratch.
  
  Recreating these applications usually cost 10 times more money not to mention 10 times more in  time to recreate something that already exists.
  
  The end result will be an overwhelming nostalgia for the good ole days when you had the Lotus Notes platform.  
  
  The way I see it....Lotus Notes is soooo uncool that it is cool like Ocean Pacific bathing suites or Members Only Jackets.
  
  How would you make Lotus Notes cool if given the chance?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Posted by Joe Singer At 03:04:39 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Have you heard of IBM XPages?

Well you need to know .

Basically, you can take your existing old and tired Lotus Notes applications that you have been using for the last ten years and transform the existing code with XPages.

I say old and tired as they may not look modern but they still get the job done.

XPages will allow your users to use those same applications on their Mobile Devices (smartphones, Ipads etc)  and on ANY web Browsers.

On top of that....if you have users who only want to use those same applications on the Lotus Client.....they STILL CAN?

So....with one stream of code you can kill all birds with one stone.

This is a huge solution especially for organizations who are moving off of Lotus Notes.

All you need is one server to house the apps.  Your users can access those same applications in the cloud.

Tell them you just bought NEW applications.  They will think they are so cool since they now can use them on the web , ipads, and smartphones.

Upgrading your applications with XPages is such a no brainer.

For starters....because Lotus Notes is a rapid development platform, many applications that run your business were built relatively inexpensively but are really feature rich.

So rather then recreating these applications or looking to migrate to another application....XPages allows you to keep those same applications, leverage past investments, save on training since the applications will are not changing and most importantly insure user adoption since there will be no learning curve.

All this for a very small price.  I am not kidding about that either.

To me....this sounds to good to be true but it is the real deal.

In fact Vigilus is transforming our oun lotus database with XPages?

Are you interested? You should be.

Contact me and I would be happy to chat.

Posted by Joe Singer At 02:14:34 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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"The well known dirty little secret is that, for the most part, it is not the technology or coding techniques or development tools that determine the success of a software product. Rather, it is whether the software tool meets a real (or in some cases imagined) USER need."

This is a quote I heard today 9/1/11 from Jaime Zapata a Principal Owner here at Vigilus.

Posted by Joe Singer At 05:09:47 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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I posted on facebook that I liked some movie.  Because of that post, 600 of my closest friends now know that I liked that movie.

Odds are from a marketing standpoint they are in the same demographic as me and because I gave a positive review they may trust my endorsement over say Roger Ebert or some T.V commercial.

There you have it....the real benefit of social media from a marketing perspective.  Very easy to understand.

What is not easy to understand is Social CRM.  By now you know my company has a CRM application for the Lotus Notes Platform.

We help organizations collaborate with each other with regards to  their clients.  At any given moment, a user can look up a contact and see ALL interactions with that client, what opportunities have been won , lost or on hold and when was the last time emails were sent/received or the last time  a conversation occurred.

But is it important to know when that same contact posted something on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?  

I am not sure about that.....in fact yes....I am sure of it.  It is not important. There I said it.

Recently my organization was selected to be in a CRM contest called CRM idol.  Same concept as American Idol except for CRM dorks like me.  :)

You can see the review the judges gave me here....Review

The judges were disappointed that Twitter feeds do not get automatically fed into and documented in my product.

They also could not understand why someone would export information out of ACT for Notes and into excel to analyze data but that is another story.

So forgive my ignorance but why is knowing when some one posts something on Twitter so important that it needs to be recorded in your corporate CRM application?

Again...I understand social media very well.  I am on LinkedIN, facebook, Twitter etc.

 In fact in ACT for Notes  users CAN get to facebook, twitter and LinkedIN without leaving the application.  Isn't that enough?

And what happens when social media backfires?

Say one of your clients gets off the phone with YOU and then posts on Twitter what a jackass you are......do you need/want to record that in your CRM application and then share that important information with the rest of your organization?  I guess it is important if your client calls you a jackass.

To that end...I do want to thank the judges from CRM idol . They did do a great job and they have provided a platform for small companies like mine to make others aware of what we do and offer.

Posted by Joe Singer At 03:59:24 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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Your company is trimming costs.  If they are not....they will and very soon.

You are trying to de-leverage  and simplify your IT environment  in terms of both hardware and software.

The trend is .....sure we will pay more for the software as a service monthly fees  if we save on IT resources, hardware and software.

So what should you do.

Well.... the first thing is....you should outsource your servers.  Meaning....pay an organization to maintain your servers off site.  This is a very affordable and reliable strategy.

Prominic is a very reliable outfit.  In fact....Vigilus ourselves use them to host all of our severs and they NEVER go down. They handle all server upgrades and any issues with our Mail file.

Another company to use is Phase2.  They are very affordable and great to work with as well.

Below is a screenshot of my real Mail file.  Even though we are a NJ company....our servers are in Chicago.



Your users will not know the difference.  They access the server just like they do now but the server lives somewhere else instead of within your organization.

Really good  value proposition.

Once you set that up....you can allow Vigilus access to the server where ACT! for Lotus Notes lives.

Have Vigilus virtually take care....

•  ACT! for Notes version  upgrades
• If we make enhancements....Vigilus can replace the design of your database with the new version virtually
• Data management
• Database configuration
• Database maintenance
• Add users
• Archive management
  
  This is a really cost efficient way to get the most out of your AFN database.
  
  Let Vigilus be your virtual database admins.  It makes so much sense to have the experts/developers of AFN be your database admins.
  
  Even if your servers are hosted in house....all you need to do is grant permission for us to access your server remotely.
  
  Think about it.   It is a much less expensive option and you will be getting much better service.
  
  Contact me directly at jsinger@vigilus.net.
  

Posted by Joe Singer At 10:11:26 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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I have been in the Lotus Notes world for over a decade.

The first day I starting working for a Lotus Notes CRM shop back in the late 90's I was told by my coworkers that Lotus Notes was dead ...."but hey welcome to company Joe".

This is not new for anyone who has worked in the Notes world.  Periodically, I have some clients leave me as their companies do in fact migrate away from Lotus Notes.

This is never easy to deal with but most of the time these decisions come from the very top and are usually due to a new corporate executive who thinks they are bringing said company to the 21st century by migrating away from an "old in the tooth" platform like Lotus Notes.

For the first time however....I am seeing companies who have abandoned Notes actually coming back.  How can anyone explain this?

For one and I risk sounding like a broken record ....there is no platform out there that does what Lotus Notes does with regards to the offline capability.

And.....it has all of the features that cloud applications claim they  have but much more.

If you want to use your Notes application in the cloud....be my guest and do it while enjoying the best security around.  Your Lotus Notes applications will NEVER be hacked into....NEVER.....it has NEVER happened yet.


Collaboration - this concept is inherent to the Lotus Notes platform.  My company actually sells a collaborative CRM Lotus Notes application called ACT! for Notes.

Development - Lotus Notes is by nature a development platform.  These days with Xpages....there really is NOTHING you can not do with a Lotus Notes application.

Extensibility - do you need your Notes apps to integrate with other back-end systems.....no problem. This can occur whether those applications are Notes based or other platforms.

Anyone who says Lotus is dead really has no idea what they are talking about.  There is a reason why there are 30 million users worldwide.  There is a reason why companies who announce they are moving off of notes take years to actually get off of notes.  It is not because it is difficult it is because there is no replacement for what Lotus Notes gives you.

Are there better email and calendaring apps out there sure....but that is a tiny piece of why organizations elect to go with the Notes platform.

For more information on why Lotus Notes is the perfect platform for any organization large or small contact me directly at jsinger@vigilus.net

Posted by Joe Singer At 09:36:45 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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All of your contacts and information associated with them .....all of your hard work keeping track of all interactions with your relationships, emails, Notes, letters, opportunities, activities etc.... is gone.

That is what your cloud CRM product vendors may tell you one day when their systems go down , or get hacked into unexpectedly.

Think it can't happen.....well it did.

It happened to Amazon.  Read.....   http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lost-data-2011-4

I write this post not to scare but to point out that just because everyone is looking to applications in the cloud ....does not mean it is fool proof.

I do a bit of investing in the stock market and when the herd mentality sets in ...I usually take the opposite end of that trade.

Our product ACT! for Notes is a Lotus Notes based application.  By the shear nature of the application, information is stored on the server.

Users can create multiple LOCAL copies of the database that replicate based on a schedule.  Server goes done.....no problem.....server blows up....no problem.

Oh....you want to use ACT! for Notes in the cloud.....NO PROBLEM.....you can for free!!!!

I mean...choose these other Cloud CRM applications at your own risk.....and pay a lot more for them as well for the exact same functionality that we give you.

Have you ever heard of a Lotus Notes application getting hacked into.....wait for it...............wait for it some more.....because it has NEVER HAPPENED!!!!

Anyway....call me if you want to see the latest version of ACT! for Notes.

Posted by Joe Singer At 08:09:31 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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I get asked by many of the prospects I work with as to why they should move forward with our Lotus Notes Products for CRM.

I am aware that Vigilus has a lot of competition.

I always say....CRM software applications  tend to do very similar things.  

Organizations move forward with ACT! for Notes first and foremost if they are using Lotus Notes for email and calendaring.

Other then that.....it comes down to working with Vigilus.  

I have outlined what I believe are the 4 most important qualities that we possess.....

1. Experience - we have seen and done it all.  We have worked with every kind of company large and small, domestic and international, private and public and not to mention in every industry.

All of the partners have been deploying CRM applications for years.  We really know what we are doing and it shows.....if you do not believe us....talk to our clients.

2. Honesty - Simply put.....it is our corporate culture to be ethical at all times.  

We believe in being ethical very strongly.  We will talk our clients out of needless costly solutions even if we could profit from it.  We believe in karma and truly strive to do the right thing for the sake of well.....doing the right thing.

3. Work ethic - again simply put.....we work hard and enjoy working hard.

At the end of the day we are a software company but we feel we have a cause and a purpose.  

That cause is to make our clients better at ...

• managing  their relationships
• servicing their clients
• collaborating with coworkers
• managing their own activities and making sure they are spending time in the right places
• generate reports more accurately and far quicker
• closing more deals
• reaching, targeting and communicating with clients more efficiently
  
  4.  Communication - Perhaps the most important quality of a vendor.    We communicate on everything.  We believe you can not communicate enough.
  
   If we say we will deliver on a day....we deliver on that day.  In the real world, deadlines get pushed out for many many reasons both at the fault of the client and us .
  
  We will communicate the fact that a deadline is pushed out for whatever reason and agree on a new one with the client.  
  
  If a client asks us for something we communicate and try to understand where this requirement is stemming from.
  
  We may have a better way or disagree with what they are asking and we will discuss this with the client.  
  
  If at the end of the discussion the client is firm on what they want....we of course accommodate that request but only after we lay out alternatives.
  
  I am an owner of Vigilus and very proud to be a part of the company.  My partners and I have a mutual respect for eachother.
  
  We judge our success by asking the following question to ourselves...."if I were a prospect would i want to do business with Vigilus" .... I can tell you....the answer is a resounding YES!!!!!!!!
  
  IF that answer was not YES.....significant changes would need to be made as I would could not be a part of something that I would not use myself.
  
  
   

Posted by Joe Singer At 01:26:12 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)