vtiger

[ncruba]

I'm attempting to set up vtiger for use in a commercial law firm.
Have version 5.0.3 up and running though the outlook plug-in version 5.0.3 not working as I get error msg "unable to reach vtiger".
I'm also wondering how best to customise the product sales bias of vtiget to the needs of a law firm, where we provide services to a greater extent then we do 'products'

[ncruba]

Thanks!
I have just placed vtiger on our own internal server and intention is to have it accessed only by the firm's staff, and not externally!
I actually have no expertise in the area of code manilpulation, so for now I'm restricted to the customisations that can be carried out using the 'settings' area in the admin panel which can be carried out without a knowledge of code! So customizations thus far have been limited to things like picklist editor, adding custom fields, security (users, profiles, etc) and so on!
So far I'm pretty happy with what it can do so far!
The areas we would use as a law firm, at the moment, are:
1) contacts
2) accounts (each account being an individual file)
3) leads (being potential clients) - we are not using 'potentials' as it forces you to specify an account name, when there may not be a file as it is not yet a client)
4) trouble tickets
5) notes
6) calendar functions
7) the chat function
Cool analytics!
9) possibly, campaigns


Questions
a) Curious as to whether you can have matters come up in key metrics - eg if you want a time filter applied to data so that all accounts that have a 'bring up date' (this is a custom field) of today, are listed. And for this to happen everyday?

b) Is there something I should be doing periodically to ensure database, application on server runs properly, and if so, are there tools that can automate such routine admin tasks?

c) can notifications be sent to more than one user at a time?

d) Why is it that email reminders are not received unless the users computer is switched on at the time the reminder is sent, yet emails are usually kept on server and retrieved when user switches on computer.

[robhowarth]

Hey - that's interesting to hear. I'm also implementing vtiger for a firm of lawyers, and I've had to customise the hell out of it !!

As a standard CRM for any business, vtiger is great, but we've customised it so that (for example) property conveyancing can be perfomed in the CRM - with clients files, cash, documentation all tracked through vTiger. Like you say, the analytics are superb, and give the lawyers a complete picture on the state of their business like they could only dream of before.

Unfortunatley non of this can be achieved with the basic customisations of available in "Settings" (I've added over 500 fields !!), so my advice to you would be trawl the vtiger wiki and learn how it hangs together - you're gonna need it !!

As for your questions
a) yes, but you would need to midify the code behind the metrics
b) I'm not a mysql expert, but it seems pretty happy to run itself. Monitor freespace in the data directory, take nightly backups and also test your database recoveries every so often!
c) yes, but again you will have to change the code to define who the notification will be sent to
d) don't know - this is not something I've experienced - are you sure it's not a problem sending the reminder rather than receiving it, since this is a problem I had once.

Rob

[ncruba]

Thanks for the reply Rob!
I trust you've received my reply!
:)