Usually I am quite productive, especially working on my own projects. But in the last few weeks I have noticed a significant drop in the amount of work done. Although I am spending my day on the computer with clear tasks in front of me, I am not concentrated enough and probably I surf more than I should. On the other hand, summer was always my worst season as far as work is concerned.

So my dream of having a (private) alpha release of MagnaCRM by the end of August goes out of the window. I believe I have completed ~70% of the main development work, while I would like to be closer to 90%. I had even discussed the possibility of installing it to a company run by some people I know, so they could eat my dog food. I think this will have to move back for at least 3 weeks.

I would like to have v1.0 ready by the end of this year, but there is too much work to be done until then: finish main development, marketing, beta testing, write manuals, setup payment, setup site / online demo plus a million more details.

The MagnaCRM logo is (almost) ready! I don’t have the final files yet, but here is a preview:

Hope you like it! Logo shopping was fun. I’ll write a more thorough post about the whole procedure, after I have the Rapid Signal logo (in a week or so).

The new site is up! Don’t expect anything fancy, as the design was done by me and I am not very good at it ;-) I selected MagnaCRM as a product name. I am not exactly thrilled about it, but as they say, if the product is good the name is irrelevant.

Mainly I wanted to put some more information in the web site, so it wouldn’t look so empty. Also I believe more pages make search engines happier. Now I need 2 logos, one for the company and one for the product. I have LogoWorks in mind but I may try DesignOutpost too.

I will then seek professional help with the site design. I have 2-3 designers in mind, but if you have any recommendations please contact me (or post here). I would prefer someone who knows XHTML / CSS but I can convert it myself if I must.

After all that is done, I can go back working full time on development tasks!

Pagerank for rapidsignal.com just jumped from 0 to 5. The /blog/ url went from 0 to 3. It’s usually relatively easy to make a site have a Pagerank of 5, but very hard to increase that.

Anyway that’s certainly good news. I’ll upload the new site soon!

While the web site is getting done (slowly), I am also on the lookout for some good icons for the application.

The problem is that many icon designers don’t permit shipping their icons, unless they are compiled in the application. Obviously this is not an option with a web application, so I dispatched an email to 4 companies to see how they feel about it:

Glyfz
Glyfx
Incors
BuyIcons

On the other hand I don’t intend to use many icons (I prefer text links), so custom made icons is certainly an option.

My last thought as I write this, is that I have mixed up my priorities a bit ;-) I really should be looking for a designer for the company logo and site!

I am preparing a more thorough site than the one page I have right now. I have put this off for a long time, both because it’s somewhat boring and because I haven’t decided on the product name (although MagnaCRM is what I’ll probably use).

But I understand the need to have a better site, so this is what I’ve done so far:

1) I renewed the rapidsignal.com domain for another 2 years. I didn’t fear losing the domain since I have it on auto-renew mode, but then I read that Google penalizes domains with a 1 year duration.

2) I added a “Subscribe to the mailing list” box. I used Campaign Monitor for this, because it has a nice web site, clean interface, no monthly fees and lots of people whose blogs I read use it. These are other services I evaluated:

Constant Contact
MailChimp
IntelliContact
CoolerEmail
MailerMailer

3) I read lots of articles on SEO (search engine optimization). Ian Landsman’s article was a good start. Then I researched what keywords I’m after. I mainly used Yahoo! Search Marketing section and Google Adwords to do this. Google Adwords are very useful because you can find related keywords / phrases and see the expected clicks/day. Unfortunately you can’t see the search count for the keywords. I ended up with about 30 keywords / phrases in 90 variations, which I had to filter down to 3-4 phrases. After the first pass I ended up with these:

- contact manager
- contact management (software / system)
- crm solution(s) / software / application
- small business crm
- web based crm

“Contact manager” vs. “contact management”: Google prefers the 1st, while Overture (Yahoo) the 2nd. Other services I checked indicated “contact management” to be best.

“Software” vs. “solution” vs. “application”: Google prefers “solution”, everyone else “software”. I will go with “software” both because it sounds better and because it doesn’t have the plural problem (solution/solutions)

“Small business crm” vs. “web based crm”: I like these both and they are close in ranking, so I will use both. For the product pages I’ll use “web based crm”, while on the company pages I’ll make sure to note we target small businesses.

Now I have to actually write the site pages (which is quite time consuming) and put it online. Expect to see lots of “Web based CRM software [...] contact management [...] for the small business” ;-) I hope I don’t overuse these keywords!

“Eating your own dog food” means using your product everyday, as your clients will do. I was thinking about this today and wondering how this rule applies for different products.

I concluded there are three categories of products, as far as dog-food eating is concerned:

A) Products targeting consumers or developers / software companies (you belong to the target group from the start)
B) Products targeting existing businesses. This is the case with CRM, Helpdesk and other products requiring an existing business (you belong to the target group after a point in time).
C) Products targeting a niche that has nothing to do with you or your company. For example think of products for real estate agents, insurance salesmen or Internet / Cyber cafe management.

So while category A is easy, categories B and C are more problematic. Initially category B is the same as C, but merges with A after you get your v1.0 out and acquire some clients. On the other hand, C will always be a problem.

How can you continuously improve a product that you don’t use everyday? The only answers I can think of are:
1) have strong domain knowledge
2) frequently get feedback from interested parties
3) get someone else to work closely with you on this. You must trust his judgement and make sure he explains all reasons for asking a change or a new feature, so that you too, can understand the reasons.

Of course this is not exactly eating your own dog food. It feels more like testing, but then again I can’t think of other options.

Personally I believe I have enough knowledge to come up with v1.0 on my own. But this is the wrong mentality and the whole reason for eating your dog food ;-) So, I intend to also go with both option 2 and 3.

With the release of the Google Maps API (followed by Yahoo), I started thinking how online services will be used in future products and specifically a CRM app.

Lets take the Account screen for example. Apart from the expected things, which consist of static data (like the address, employees, todo lists etc), here are some things that could be offered (probably not yet, but soon):

• Map displaying the location of the company.
• If I am within driving distance, directions to get there (suppose the app knows my position, e.g. I carry a GPS) or public transportation methods available (with timetables). Real time traffic data and nearby parking lots.
• Nearby hotels and restaurants.
• The map should also display other nearby clients (with info windows showing contact info), in case I want to drop by.
• Latest news regarding the company. Information should come from “official” news sites, the company’s web site or blog, other blogs.
• Stock information
• Popularity stats (think g-metrics.com)

Taking this a step further, here is a more advanced scenario:

1. A salesman plans to make a trip to another city, in order to visit a specific client.
2. He starts the appropriate wizard and enters some data. The wizard based on previous similar trips, recommends a few more clients and does an initial schedule (including flight, visiting times and durations, accommodation, eating etc).
3. The salesman calls these clients and makes arrangements.
4. Back to the wizard he enters the final data.
5. The wizard does the rest: flight tickets booking, hotel reservation, car rental etc. Then it prints a nice report containing all info about the trip and about the clients (as in the previous scenario)

We are not there yet, but especially the first example is not that far away.

To tell the truth, the salesman scenario keeps reminding me of clippy ;-).

The bottom line is that available information and online services will start being embedded in software more and more. And that will certainly lead to much cooler products!

I wanted to populate my database with some “real” data (names, addresses, phones, company names etc) instead of random garbage and dozens of test123 records. Looking at ugly or random data is kind of depressing.

So I built some dictionaries containing names, lastnames, companies, streets etc (proving once again that the internet is vast). Then I entertained some thoughts of building a full data generation utility. Finally I created some simple scripts to insert the data and chose another task from my long list. Although I will probably have to come back to this later, it’s cool to have a thousand of the largest corporations in the world in my Accounts ;-)

I wonder if a free/open source data generator exists, containing lists of words (dictionaries) to generate real data.

I am trying to come up with a name for the CRM application I am working on, but I haven’t found something that excites me yet. My best name so far is MagnaCRM (proposed to me on this forum thread), which is not bad, but I would prefer something more meaningful and probably without the word CRM or sales in it. So I haven’t yet made my mind about this.

If you happen to think of a name please drop me a line :)

Here are some words I am using for inspiration:

Names:
RapidSales, RapidCRM, RapidCell, TeamSales, OmniSales, OmniClient,
ClientPath, ClientTrail, SalesLog, SalesPilot, SalesMark,
CustomerTrack, ClientTrack, SalesAgenda

CRM related:
CRM, sales, salesforce, customer, client, account, contact, manage, management, opportunity, lead, issue, solution, business, group, team, time, schedule, task, order, product, deal, company, money, agenda, plan, organize, sell, data, asset

sales manager, customer needs, develop relationships, process, information, sales, marketing efectiveness, market trends, enterprise, contact management, sales automation, scheduling, operational, analytical, leads, discover customer, increase customer, data, account, order, implement, business needs, customized, solution, opportunities, operative, dynamic, customer serving processes, integrate, automate, direct, sales force automation

Generic:
guide, pilot, wizard, touch, link, control, admin, order, option, edge, mark, target, key, check, hub, loop, focus, agile, ready, rapid, results, flow, track, log, radar, sight, Omni

Latin:
Radix (root), Acta (beach), Signo (to mark), Octa (eight), Mentis (mens mentis - mind, thoughts), Navis (ship), Ineo (to come/go, to begin), Volo (fly), Patro (achieve), Conecto (connect), Infigo (fix, fasten, impress), Tingo (to wet/color/dye), Versi, Origo (source,origin)

malens, mane, milia, mire, mirus, multus, semper, soleo, sonitus, sono, specialis, specialitas, stella, carmen, casus, condo, opifer, optio, emacitas, emax, amplus, pronus, opus, tempto

Starting a new application from scratch is usually fun, but it also has some boring aspects. Here I write about some stuff I find rather boring, mostly because they give no visual feedback. The first units I coded and tested for my CRM application (a couple months ago), were:

• Database abstraction layer: I discovered the excellent ADODB library some years ago. ADODB supports an impressive number of databases. It is stable, used in many projects and most importantly I have successfully deployed large and small applications using ADODB, in the past. What I did, was create a simple layer on top of ADODB and use that throughout my application. This way I can replace ADODB in the future, if I need to, without much difficulty.
• Error handler: Using PHP’s set_error_handler() I route errors to a custom function. There I decide how to handle the error: whether to log the error, issue a warning to the user and continue or display an error message and halt execution. Obviously I use trigger_error() to… trigger errors.
• Session handler: I built a custom session handler, based on an article by Matt Wade. This gives me the following advantages:
  1. I can store session data in the database. So I don’t have to care about some php.ini settings (e.g. session.save_path) and I can store the user id associated with each session.
  2. I have better control over things like the “Remember me” (cookie_lifetime) and session garbage collector settings.
  3. I can allow/disallow simultaneous use of the same username. This will be part of the simplified copy protection scheme.

After these were in place, I developed the user login / logout procedures, so I could both test all three units and do something that gives a sense of progress (hey, I can login and logout! It’s almost done ;-).

What’s a business plan? From “This Web Business”:

A business plan is a document prepared by a company that outlines what kind of business the company is in, their history, their competition, their projections, their plans, and their current position.

Writing a business plan is not easy. Or necessary. But I chose to write one (for the first time in my life), based on the fact that when writing something you are forced to think about it. It took me almost 15 days (for 10 or so pages!), but I don’t regret it one bit. Here’s why:

It forced me to analyse many aspects of this whole deal, even on the technical side of things, where I believed no problems would arise. Since I didn’t intend to present my business plan to any bank, VC or investor I laxed the rules of what constitutes a business plan. I thought about, researched and wrote about many things:

• The general outline of what my company will offer (Software products. No services, unless related with these products)
• Company’s mission: a really short blah blah paragraph, aiming to make me feel confident and ready
• Strengths: being small
• Weaknesses: being small again, plus tons of other things ;-)
• A comprehensive research of existing solutions in the CRM market. Commercial systems (in all flavours: windows vs. online, downloadable vs. hosted, enterprise vs. light) and Open Source solutions.
• Proposed solution describing the core functionality plus advanced / innovative features.
• Technology overview (PHP, Apache, IIS, Unix/Linux, Windows)
• Support options: What do I want to offer my clients? What can I offer them? Will it cost?
• Pricing (not that I decided - that’s a tough one)
• Marketing & advertising: What are the most important CRM centered sites? How do I spread the word? What is Google AdWords and how much does it cost? Will I need a sales force?

As you can see, I probably got a little carried away when writing it. It includes many things that usually don’t belong to a business plan, but that’s fine with me. The important thing is, I thought about all these things and decided to continue with my plans.

Choosing a name, for either a company or a product, can be tough. Most good names are probably taken and free domains are hard to find.

I was trying to come up with a name for the company for some time now. I wrote down words that I liked, suffices and checked on many Latin words. Here is a partial list:

Tempo
Norm
Nova
Poly
Sign
Note
Spot
Inno
Dino
Vigo
Snap
Rapid
Radix (latin - root)
Acta (latin - beach)
Signo (latin - to mark)
Octa (latin - eight)
Mentis (latin - mens mentis - mind, thoughts)
Navis (latin - ship)
Ineo (latin - to come/go, to begin)
Volo (latin - fly)
Patro (latin - achieve)
Conecto (latin - connect)
Infigo (latin - fix, fasten, impress)
Tingo (latin - to wet/color/dye)
Versi (latin)
Origo (latin - source, origin)
sol, rol, soft, prom, plus, bit, byte, net, cell, dev, hub
FitBit, InnoBit, Temposol (free), InnoWit (free), InnoTab (free), Patrosoft (free), InnoRad (free), InnoSig (free), InnoStep (free), ForStep.com (free), SnapIdeas (free), RapidSignal(s) (free)

I liked Rapid Signal the moment I thought it. I was sure the domain would be taken and was very happy when I found out it was not! BuyDomains.com (famous cybersquatters) have 211 domains with the words rapid and/or signal but RapidSignal.com was not among them!

Most people seem surprised to hear I am making a CRM application. Their usual response is in the lines of “But there are many CRM tools out there and they come in all flavours. What more do you have to offer?”.

I don’t understand why people think it’s a bad idea making something that already exists (crm, project management) when we have so many examples of this happening outside the IT field. Don’t food companies offer new chocolates or new milks all the time? Even well established companies offer new products that seem competitive to other products they make. And quite often, these products find their place in the market.

Of course things in real life are never so simple. A product’s market share is dependent on thousands of factors, but just because other products exist, doesn’t mean a new one is doomed.

Then there are other reasons to choose an existing market. This excellent article by Erik Sink analyses some in more detail. The main reasons are:

• It’s hard, if not impossible to create new markets.
• Competition can be beaten, if chosen carefully.
• There are unhappy buyers, even in saturated markets. It may be difficult to find out what these people want, but it can be done (targetting a niche of the market).

So for these reasons I strongly believe that entering a well-established market is the best thing for a company starting out.

… CRM software!

In case you are not familiar with CRM software, here is a very basic description of some things you can do:

• Contact management: Records of all companies and persons your business interacts with. This includes customers, partners, competitors etc and the relationships between them.
• Sales automation: Management of leads (persons that may lead to a sale), campaigns (which generate leads), opportunities (interest of a company in buying your products / services).
• Issue tracking: A light help desk module, allowing you to record your customers’ problems and the solutions provided.
• Scheduling: This is a more or less standard PIM (Personal Information Manager) keeping track of meetings, to-do lists and other events or tasks.

The CRM market is huge, as literally every business has such needs. People were performing most of these tasks before computers appeared, so everyone can understand why such software can be useful. Of course it wasn’t always called CRM / SFA (salesforce automation) but it was always about the same thing: making sales and keeping customers satisfied.

Moreover I will happily work on such a product, although it sounds boring. I find it helpful (if not necessary), I have experience on the domain and I can find problems with most existing solutions I have seen (and I have seen quite a few).

It’s early to start talking about the specific things I want to put into my product and what niches I am after, but I will as development goes on.

As you probably noticed I don’t have a name for my product. So ProductX will have to suffice for now ;-)