Advantage CRM Software is completely compatible with Microsoft Office and has been developed to synchronise with common Microsoft Office tools such as Outlook.

Third Wave Software made a decision to develop Advantage CRM Softeware for the Microsoft Office environment. Our development platforms and databases are all Microsoft products. Advantage CRM Software is not designed to replace the calendaring and email tools of MS Office but rather to work with these tools.

We understand that Outlook Calendar will remain your corporate scheduling tool – the organization needs to access your shared diary via Outlook. Advantage  CRM Software has a streamlined interface to Microsoft Office developed over 15 years that ensures no double entry is required.  The design decision to have a separate CRM application rather than one embedded in Outlook has resulted in a customer-centric rather than a data-centric system.     

Interfaces to Outlook Calendar

Advantage CRM Software  “talks” directly to the Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar as you work with the system.

Booking Appointments

When appointments are booked in the Advantage CRM Software they are automatically, immediately posted into the Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar.  Appointments posted into the calendar include the following:

• Company name, contact person, designation, tel, cell and physical address.
• Any reminder is posted into the Outlook alarm.
• Any notes entered about the appointment – such as “Take projector” are also posted into the appointment notes. 
• Invitations are also posted via Outlook’s invite function for any invitees.

Editing Appointments

If an appointment is edited the Advantage CRM Software moves the appointment in the Microsoft Office Outlook – therefore it maintains a connection to each appointment posted to Outlook. If a third party makes your appointments for you in the Advantage CRM Software you will also receive an invitation via Outlook so that it can still be posted to your calendar. 

Outlook Calendar Screenshot

Interfaces to Outlook Email

Email Sent

Emails are sent from Advantage CRM Software and automatically filed under the customer – but still sent out via the Outlook client – your emails are also in your sent items in Outlook

Emails Received

• Incoming emails can be filed manually – allowing you to edit and file only applicable text.
• Incoming mails can be filed as history or as actionable to do’s.

Email Merge

• Advantage CRM Software has a module for generation of email lists using any criteria stored in the database.   
• The system automatically sends email merges using text or HTML messages via Outlook. The system makes use of Outlook templates.
•  Emails can be sent in small batches or individually to each recipient. 
• The system also posts email-merge activities into the client activity history if required recording to whom email merges were sent.

Complete Customer Contact History

The customer activity history stores all interactions chronologically – emails in and out, phone calls, visits and documentation sent (such as quotes).  This is all available within the system – no Outlook archives are required to be saved as the entire history is stored within the Advantage CRM Software database.

Client Activities History Screenshot

Interfaces to MS Word

Advantage CRM Software uses automation to automatically interact with MS Word for both once off documents and merges.

Ad-hoc Documentation

Advantage CRM Software allows you to merge customer data to any number of Word templates so contact data can be inserted into letters without re-typing.  The system keeps a history of these actions with the linked documents.

Word Merge & Email-Merge

The process of generating a document merge to Word is completely automated in Advantage CRM Software. Printed or emailed merges can be generated. The system also has a label printing facility

Quotations Are Generated as Word Documents

The quotes automation function of Advantage CRM Software generates entire quotations as Word documents – with one click. The system automatically merges all the customer information and draws tables for the quote body. Multiple levels of totaling is often used. The quotations module logic is often customised to format Word quotes in a layout suitable to each customer.

If you are interested in finding out more about Advantage CRM Software and the benefits thereof, contact us or call us on +27 11 462 6871 and we will gladly be of further assistance.