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Online Helpdesks, Higher Education CRM, and More

Here’s a quick update on what we’ve been pursuing lately at Adapt Data Solutions.

Higher Education CRM

Universities and colleges are facing an interesting challenge. Budgets are being slashed, staff resources are strained (including marketing and IT), and they need “customers” (students) more than ever. Meanwhile, traditional marketing tactics are not working with the next generation of students.

Enter Higher Education CRM. Some colleges and universities, (including Iowa State University here in Ames, Iowa) are now investigating using CRM and Web 2.0 to reach prospective students. With the right web-based CRM software they’ll be able to greatly improve the process of converting prospective high school students into loyal university students.

Web-based Help Desk Software

Perhaps you already know that EnterpriseWizard is the ideal solution for web-based help desk software. Perhaps not.

To help folks see the light, we’ve created some FAQs on selecting helpdesk software.  First, we discuss the advantages of a web-based help desk over a pc-based help desk.

For those who already understand that a web-based help desk is the way to go… we describe the advantages of EnterpriseWizard over competing online help desk software.

MS CRM Dynamics: Customizing the Look and Feel

Recently, we’ve been comparing two CRM packages: MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 and EnterpriseWizard. This CRM comparison in this blog has focused on the customization possibilities and the effort required to create a CRM Dashboard to track key metrics.

If you’ve missed these posts, check out:

• Microsoft CRM Dashboards vs EnterpriseWizard CRM
  
• Flexibility: Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs EnterpriseWizard CRM

I just thought that I’d add some additional fuel to the fire when comparing these CRM software packages.

Change the logo image in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Let’s say that you would like to change the logo in MS CRM 4.0 from the default:

Scouring the Internet, we find a post on the MSDN site that explains what to do:

We find two possibilities. One is to simply replace the .jpg file in the _imgs directory.

The second is to modify the css file definition.

The proposed changes come with an ominous warning however that an update “might overwrite your files and your logo customization.” These user interface customizations are apparently unsupported in Microsoft Dynamics.

Essentially, this change is “brittle”. That is, you are hardcoding a modification into MS CRM that is likely to break with future upgrades. Nice.

Change the logo image in EnterpriseWizard CRM

Thankfully, there are CRM packages available that allow you to completely customize the look and feel of the user interface without the risk that a future patch will “uncustomize it” for you.

Adapt Data Solutions offers one such CRM and online issue tracking system: EnterpriseWizard. In EnterpriseWizard,  you are easily able to modify the look and feel without hacks and the risk of breaking as you upgrade your CRM.