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Vital Information Center

Build Better Customer Relationships

That's Vic, our mascot. He's an industrious little fellow that wants nothing more than to help you build better customer relationships! He works well in groups, and I don't think he ever gets tired.

(He wanted me to tell you that he'll help you keep your dam business from floating downstream, but I think that's a bit much, don't you?)

Actually, I originally drew a much more natural and conservative picture of Vic, but a lot of people mistook him for a rat or a hamster. Personally I think he's a fine figure of a beaver. Judge for yourself:

• Open your Workspace
• Drag the VIC Launch icon to your Bookmark Bar
• Right-click the new bookmark
• Click "Set bookmark as home page"

• Open your Workspace
• Select the VIC Index (just select it; you don't have to open it)
• From the Lotus Notes menu, select Actions, then Import, then 1a. Notes Addressbook.
• Edit the imported entries to ensure the data is correct. You'll find them categorized at the bottom of the Organizations view.
• Select Actions, then Import, then 2. Create Organization Docs.

• Export your Outlook addressbook to CSV format.
• In Notes, open your Workspace
• Select the VIC Index (just select it; you don't have to open it)
• From the Lotus Notes menu, select Actions, then Import, then 1b. Outlook Addressbook.
• Edit the imported entries to ensure the data is correct. You'll find them categorized at the bottom fo the Organizations view.
• When the import is complete, select Actions, then Import, then 2. Create Organization Docs.

• Click the "Create" tab in the Navigator pane
• Click on "Organization"
• Edit the organization document and click the "Save" action button

• Locate the organization in the Organizations view. You can open the document or not, your choice.
• From the create drop-down menu, click "Organization"
• Alternately you just can click "Contact" on the "Create" tab of the Navigator pane, then click on the "Select Organization" hotspot of the contact document as you edit it.
• Edit the remaining information on the contact document and click the "Save" button

If the organization doesn't already exist, you can create the contact first and add the organization later using the "Select Organization" hotspot on the contact document.

• If you have the recipient's contact document displayed or selected in a view, then simply pull down the "Create" action menu and select "Letter."
• Otherwise, you can click the "Create" tab on the Navigator pane, then click "Letter". Then click the "Select Contact" hotspot on the Letter.

• On the Categories tab you can categorize the letter in a number of ways. This will affect the way that the letter appears in the correspondence views of the Journal.
• On the Letterhead tab you can choose to print on pre-printed stationery or include the letterhead (as for a laser printer). You can also specify a different return address from your default (which is pulled from your Lotus Notes user profile)
• On the Associations tab your can provide assign ownership of this letter to other users or groups.

Phone Calls are the default Journal entry type. To create one,

• Click on the "Create" tab in the Navigator Pane
• Click on "Journal Entry"
• Now click on the "Select Contact" hotspot and select the name of the person you're meeting. (You don't need to do this if the person's contact record was open or highlighted in a view)
• The date and the time of the meeting defaults to the current time. You don't need to fill this in.

Meetings, like most date-stamped activities (including correspondence) are stored in the Journal.

• Click on the "Create" tab in the Navigator Pane
• Click on "Journal Entry"
• Journal entries default to "Phone Call". To change it to a meeting click on the "Type" hotspot and select "Meeting"
• Now click on the "Select Contact" hotspot and select the name of the person you're meeting. (You don't need to do this if the person's contact record was open or highlighted in a view)
• Select the date and the time of the meeting.

Document templates are stored in the library document and can be inserted into letter, faxes, or any Journal document. To create one. you simply click on the "Create" tab of the Navigator menu, then "Library document".

Your Library document can contain Rich Text, attachments, and can embed any OLE objects, such as Microsoft Office documents, Adobe Acrobat documents, or PaintShop or SmartDraw illustrations.

Good question! The answer is absolutely not!

We've also had bad experiences with CRM software that modifies the Notes mail template to ingratiate itself into your system. As a result, found that we couldn't upgrade Notes without having to upgrade the CRM software as well. This can effectively lock you out of upgrades.

VIC avoids this kind of mess entirely. We've come up with a method of pulling your incoming mail into the VIC Journal without touching your existing Notes templates at all, so you can feel free to keep your Notes installation current.

These are the same as for Lotus Notes and Domino. Keep in mind that there are two basic ways to deploy this product:

• As a standalone program. Although VIC is primarily designed for collaboration, it works very well as an organization tool. Anywhere you might use something like Act! or Organizer, VIC is appropriate.
• On a server. In this configuration you would have Lotus Domino deployed on a server (I recommend Linux for this) and Lotus Notes deployed on the clients.