If you’re like us, you have a CRM system and a contract management system. Both include important information about your clients, but they are two distinct silos of information with different purposes and functions. Customer phone, address, and email information is common to both and that information needs to be accurate, current, and identical in all locations.
As users of Highrise, we needed a way to import and sync our contacts with Mumboe. Fortunately Highrise has an API and we were able to tie the applications together. We thought this would be a useful feature for all Mumboe users who also happen to use Highrise, so we made it available to everyone. 37signals has now graciously listed Mumboe on their Extras & Add-Ons page for products that work with Highrise.
If you would like to sync your Highrise account to your Mumboe account you can do so on the Admin >> Settings >> Sync External Contacts tab in Mumboe. We also have a short video tutorial covering Contacts to help point you in the right direction.
Fall Creek Farm & Nursery® is the leading blueberry nursery stock producer in the world. Located in the fertile Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, they have been serving the blueberry plant needs of commercial fruit growers, nursery stock growers and garden centers throughout the world since 1978.
We asked the folks at Fall Creek to tell us why they chose Mumboe to solve their contract management challenges.
What was the main business challenge you were facing before Mumboe? Before deploying Mumboe, Fall Creek staff was spending time as librarians—looking up key dates or contract clauses every time there was an issue. Sorting and reviewing groups of contracts was difficult too.
What did Mumboe do to make your life easier? Mumboe’s Auto Extract took away some of the initial data-entry fear and got staff working on creating a workable resource for multiple departments. It freed up time spent searching and allowed for custom reports for specific user groups.
What part of Mumboe has brought the most value? The initial startup help was invaluable for our adoption of Mumboe. Fall Creek has spent thousands more on other software solutions and has never seen the level of service and responsiveness that it receives from Mumboe.
How has your business process improved? Mumboe has taken a 40-hour a week job of managing contract data and reports and freed us up to focus on growing and selling. Mumboe lets us sleep at night knowing that we won’t miss a deadline.
Our latest upgrade introduces User Groups. If you have a large number of users, this should make management much easier.
The User Groups feature allows an account administrator to manage permissions at a group level rather than for each individual. To manage your groups go to the Groups page (you will find the link under Settings on the Admin page).
All accounts have a group called All Users which cannot be deleted and all users automatically belong to this group. Here you can create / rename / delete groups in the left pane. The right pane displays which users are members of the selected group.
On the Folders management screen you can now manage the permissions for your User Groups. The groups are listed at the top of the right pane and are differentiated from the normal users by a multi-person icon. By default the All Users group will have all permissions in new accounts (not true for existing accounts), but you can easily disable the permissions for this group and use your own groups to manage the permissions.
And if you decide groups are not for you…you can still manage permissions individually.
As part of an initiative to make our Admin tools more simple, we have rolled out a new page layout.
The page is organized in two columns. The left-side has links for all of your account configuration settings and the right-side displays information about your current usage and product plan. You will notice that some of the configuration links have a “+” to the right. For instance the + next to Users is a shortcut to create a new user.
A number of our customers asked for ways to enhance password requirements within Mumboe, so we’ve added some additional password security settings.
Expiration – Specify the number of days a password is valid before prompting the user to update to a new password.
Minimum Length – By default this option is on and set to 6 characters, but can easily be modified.
Must contain 1 letter and 1 number
Must contain 1 of the following: $, %, !,_, -
Cannot repeat passwords – This option will prevent re-using the same password again. You have the ability to adjust this to prevent re-using passwords from the previous 1 – 10 times.
Account Administrators can access the new feature by going to the Admin area of Mumboe and then clicking on Settings.
Automatically extracting data from documents is a complex feature, typically involving a discussion of linguistics. We tried to simplify the subject in our new Auto Extract video by explaining the advantages and value of the end results: fast, accurate and consistent data extraction from existing documents. Please let us know what you think and thanks again!
Phil Wainewright wrote a great article outlining many problems with the way analysts judge SaaS products. The first and probably most important to many buyers is the total cost of ownership comparisons. Wainewright points out a built in bias in the formula most analysts use to compare on-premise solutions vs. SaaS applications (multiplying the subscription price by three years). This doesn’t account for the huge cost and disruption of upgrading to a new version of an on-premise solution while SaaS applications are continually upgraded at no cost.
In a recent Forrester report a SaaS collaboration tool was given a low rating for its lack of cross platform support. Since SaaS applications are not installed, it is absurd to penalize the application for not conforming to an on-premise grading criteria.
A reader pointed out that publishing timetables also skew analyst results. The typical two year lifetime of an analyst product comparison is designed to coincide with on-premise product delivery cycles. Normally on-premise products are made available to analysts long before customers have them deployed while a report on a SaaS product is likely two versions behind when the report is issued. The result is comparing apples to oranges.
Too bad so many enterprise purchasing decisions hinge on an analyst report. Let’s hope coverage becomes as agile as SaaS development.
Our users asked us for more easy ways to get information into Mumboe. The Dropbox feature allows users to email information and documents directly into Mumboe. Each user has a personal Dropbox with four unique email addresses that allow for a variety of options:
Dropbox – Using the generic Dropbox address you can send emails and attachments to your Mumboe account. Within Mumboe at a later time you can use the email and/or attachments to add new Agreements, add new Documents on existing Agreements from email attachments and add Notes on existing Agreements.
Add New Agreements – Use this Dropbox address to add a new Agreement record in Mumboe. Email attachments will automatically become Documents in the Agreement Record. The subject line of the email will be the Agreement Title. The email itself will become a Note for the Agreement. You can also specify the Agreement Type in the body of the email by including for example “Agreement Type: NDA” (where NDA is the name of your Agreement Type).
Add Documents – Use this Dropbox address to add new Documents for existing Agreement records. In the subject line of the email include the Mumboe ID for the Agreement record, and any attachments to the email will become new Documents.
Add Notes – Use this Dropbox address to add new Notes for existing Agreement records. In the subject of the email include the Mumboe ID for the Agreement record, and the email will become a new Note.
Click on My Dropbox in the upper-right corner on the application to see your personalized Dropbox addresses and information on using the feature.
Based on user feedback, we’ve changed the name of Advanced Search to Reports. The Advanced Search link has been removed from on top of the main navigation bar and replaced with the Reports link on the main navigation bar. You’ll still have the same great functionality, but now it will be more obvious and intuitive for users.
Our users also asked us to modify the scope and layout for Search Results. Previously, a search would present the results in a report format with results only coming from data related to agreements. In our new format we have included search hits related to Agreements, Contacts and Templates. The results are presented in a format more similar to a Google search. Relevant data is displayed and you can filter the results to limit them to Agreements, Contacts, Templates, or choose to have all results displayed. You’ll always have the option to turn a search into a report with a single click (see right sidebar for options).
CIO had a great article last week that is a must-read for anyone thinking about or in the process of buying software. I’m sure for people in the software industry this article will come as no surprise, but for those purchasing software, spending 5 minutes reading this article could save you a lot of pain.
The Magic Demo: Canned demos seem to work flawlessly and you’ll hear the word “absolutely” as an answer for every question and feature request. And there’s always a great slide presentation extolling the virtues of this perfect solution to all your problems.
Underbid, then Overcharge: Total cost of ownership and return on investment is almost impossible to calculate when speaking to some vendors. At first, the prospects look great, then you get hit with implementation fees, service contracts, and system integrator costs. They blow your budget out of the water, as well as diminishing the chance for a positive ROI.
The Customer Headlock: Vendor lock-in can happen in two very different ways. Hopefully the application exceeds your expectations, the value and benefits are obvious, and the customer service is fantastic. You want to stay by choice. You are extremely satisfied. The second scenario is more common: trap the clients’ data, make switching costs impossibly high, and make the pain of moving your data too great. The author gives some examples of embedded contractors within the client organization which can lead to relying on them too much or having them sabotage any efforts to change vendors. You need to know the exit strategy before ever entering the contract.
The Billing Mistake: Aberdeen Research reported that 7% to 12% of all charges in the telecom industry are mistakes. This article lists some horrifying examples of what appear to be systematic, intentional overcharges by vendors. After reading this part, I’m guessing you’ll be calling your accountant or comptroller.
The Forced Upgrade: You buy version X today and then next week the vendor calls and says “hey, I know you just bought version X, but we released version Y today and I can cut you a great upgrade deal.” Isn’t this something he could have told you last week?
The Clueless Customer: Bottom line here is do the proper diligence. Make sure the vendor understands your requirements and is selling you what you need. If not, you’ll end up with extra costs for change orders and additional features to get the system you originally thought you were buying.
Fortunately this article ends on a positive note: with SaaS, customers can see how applications really work, and they can back out of a bad fit without sacrificing a huge investment. I whole heartedly agree. Try the real product on-line at some point without a sales person. Make sure the cost is obvious, simple, and transparent with no surprises. Reduce your risk, try it before you buy it and make sure there’s a simple, painless exit strategy.
