Opportunity management and sales forecasting
Included in the Gold version is an opportunity management module. This module is targeted for use by a sales organization. The module allows you to track sales opportunities and project them into the future, thereby helping you to forecast future sales. This is pictured in Figure G.

FIGURE G


The opportunity management module tracks sales opportunities. Roll over picture for a larger image.

If used properly, this can really help your organization's bottom line. Creating an opportunity and linking it with a customer is relatively straightforward. Like the other parts of the software, there are a number of user-defined fields available for the opportunity so that you can track exactly what you want.

Help desk
The help desk module is probably best used by your information technology or customer service departments to log complaints and track the resolution of a problem. As a problem is solved, a knowledge base is automatically built. This can be helpful to reference when a similar problem is logged in the future, allowing it to be resolved more quickly. Specific problems can be assigned to an appropriate expert to solve the problem. Their work can be tracked, and if not resolved in a certain pre-specified time period, the ticket can be escalated. Here again, there are a number of user-defined fields that you can easily set up.

Discussion
Although I didn't find much use for it, a targeted discussion database is available for members of your organization to discuss whatever is on their minds with regard to a particular customer. Discussions can then be linked to that customer file.

Events
One of the simplest yet extremely useful features is the built-in event management system. It lets you schedule events and invite your customers to them via Microsoft Office, mail-merge, or email merge. The customers' responses can then be easily tracked to create an attendance list.

Extras
Finally, the system allows you to link products, projects, or, for the legal industry, client matters with activities. You can also set up milestones for the projects to track their progress until completion.

Although I've spent most of this article discussing the features for the end-user of Extensions for Notes, I was just as pleased with the software from a technological standpoint. Extensions has an entire database devoted to configuring the system. Most prominent in these settings is the user-defined field setup, pictured in Figure H.

FIGURE H


Use the user-defined field setup to configure the system. Roll over picture for a larger image.

As I discussed earlier, Extensions provides hundreds of user-defined fields that can be set up in the configuration database. Configuring these fields was a snap. I simply had to give the field a name, and it appeared on the screen. One problem I found was that I had so much flexibility with what fields I wanted to set up that just deciding what I wanted to appear became a daunting task. Fortunately, the support staff at iEnterprises was able to help me understand many of the options and settings more clearly. They also explained that they have several industry-specific configurations available as a quick start, including those geared for manufacturing, legal, professional services companies, and more.