Customer Management CRM

The entire Customer relationship management or CRM part of Pandora ITSM is designed to support support support management by incorporating a database of contacts, companies and contracts. It is designed to keep an integrated follow-up of the management of support contracts, software licenses and their expiration dates. It can even be used to issue invoices more Pandora ITSM is not a CRM/ERP(Enterprise resource planning) and is not intended for it.

The basic element of CRM and the first to be defined is the company. The basic file of a company looks like this:

The Manager is the owner of the company, and the main company (Parent company) is the company on which it depends.

In order for another user to have access, he/she must be a user associated with that company:

A company that does not have a “main company” can only be viewed by the company administrator and users with superadmin permissions.

The company role is a basic identification for filtering, in the menu CRM → Company → Company roles) you can edit, delete and add roles. Fields such as tax ID, country and address are used later to make invoices.

As in other elements of Pandora ITSM, it is possible to create custom fields for companies (menu CRM → Company → Company custom fields). Custom fields are grouped into “custom field sections” so that this information can be displayed and managed in blocks (menu CRM → Company → Company custom fields sections):

Once you have a list of created companies you can export them in CSV format (button Export to CSV) or obtain interesting statistics (button Search statistics) such as companies grouped by administrators or users or lists of top 10 places in activities, sales, et cetera.

Profile permissions that apply to the CRM:

The management of access to CRM information is given by the companies. The Manager of a company is the one who can modify information. Those who belong to the same company as the company owner can also view information. Only those with management permissions can modify data of peer companies (users of the same company). Case study:

• Company “father” or primary: My Company.
• User #1 and Manager #1 both belong to My Company.
• Customer #A (managed by User #1) and Customer #B (managed by Manager #1) are two of our customers My Company.
• User #2 is a user who has access to support and who belongs to the company Customer #A.

Permits:

• User #1 has the CRM View and CRM Write.
• User #2, user without CRM permissions.
• Manager #1 has the CRM View, CRM Write and CRM Manage permissions.

Scenario:

• User #1 you will be able to view and modify the data relating to the company Customer #A as it is their Manager. You will also be able to view (you cannot modify anything) of the data relating to the company Customer #B since its owner, Manager #1, belongs to the same company as him (My Company).
• Manager #1 can view and modify data of both companies since he belongs to My Company and also has management permissions.
• User #2 cannot see any data, as he does not have access to the CRM.

• Procedure, step by step:

Creation of the administrator profile for companies (CM):

User creation user1:

Profile assignment Standard user (profile CR + CW) to user1:

User creation manager1:

Profile assignment Standard user (profile CR + CW) to user1:

Creation of the company Customer #A:

Creation of the company Customer #B:

Login with user1 and its relationship with the companies Customer #A and Customer #B:

Login with manager1 and its relationship with the companies Customer #A and Customer #B:

Creation of the user user2:

Assignment of profile Support (without CRM profile) to user2:

User user2 does not have access to CRM:

The import can be done by means of an export made in Pandora ITSM or by means of a CSV file created by hand. For the second case, a series of parameters must be entered in strict order, some mandatory and others not, being able to choose empty values for the latter. The fields will be the following, following the logical order established by the tool:

name,address,fiscal_id,country,website,comments,id_company_role,id_parent,manager,last_update,payment_conditions,billing,Office Phone,General email

• Name.
• Address.
• Tax ID.
• Country.
• Website.
• Comments.
• Company role identifier.
• Father's identifier (the company must be previously registered).
• Manager of the company (the user must be previously registered).
• Last update.
• Payment conditions.
• Office telephone number.
• General e-mail.
• Custom fields: they must previously exist in your Pandora ITSM system and must be indicated in order, being able to choose a value, or in case of not wanting to give them a value, blank space.

In the configuration section you can find a tab for CRM configuration:

• Invoice generation parameters.
• Methods of payment.
• Lead parameters.

Contracts contain various information such as application period, client company or companies and other useful information that allows you to generate invoices (Generate invoice) and export documents in PDF files.

Contracts can also be copied and then edited to save time when renewing them (same conditions with new start and end dates).

To edit a contract, click on its name (column Contract reference). There are contract highlight fields such as the short descriptive field (contract reference) which is used to identify the contract in the lists and where each company can apply its own nomenclature. Then there are the custom fields depending on the type of contract chosen.

Contracts are associated to a company, so a company can have one or several contracts. In turn, contracts can be (or not) linked to one or several invoices by means of the Related invoices field (version 105 or later):

• Clicking on the icon will open a dialog box to allow filtering and searching of invoices by date, code or status and multiple selection. Once the required documents have been selected, click the Add + button to add. It is important to save the contract itself so that all the selected invoices are finally added.
• For each selected invoice listed in Related invoices, clicking the button will open a new web browser tab with all its details (company view).
• To exclude an invoice, similar to the previous step, in this case by pressing the button . It is important to save the contract itself so that eventually all the selected invoices are removed.

These associated invoices will be displayed by clicking on Invoices in the invoice list:

Several types of contracts may be defined, such as services, software licenses, etc. and each type may have its own custom fields.

Using the contract data, a PDF file can be generated with the contract data. This can be used to generate “certificates” or “formal documents” bearing the contract identifier, customer name, contract validity dates, or custom field data.

To do this, when editing a contract, click on the Generate PDF from template button and choose the template to be used. When you generate a PDF document based on the contract, it is automatically attached to the contract as an attachment in the final file section ( Files section).

To edit or create templates you use the template editor located in the menu CRM → Contract → Contract templates. Templates are a code written in HTML that uses macros to replace contract data. Images and text can be used by simply copy/pasting the same from another source. You can also use native HTML by clicking the Source code option.

The import can be done by means of an export made in Pandora ITSM or it can be done by means of a CSV file created by hand.

In the second case, a series of parameters must be entered in order, some mandatory and others not, with the possibility of choosing empty values for the latter:

name,contract_number,description,date_begin,date_end,id_company,id_sla,id_group,private,status,id_contract_type,related_contract,manager,company,Licence type

• Name.
• Contract number.
• Description.
• Date start.
• Date end.
• Company ID.
• SLA ID.
• Group ID.
• Private.
• Status.
• Contract type.
• Custom fields: they must exist previously in Pandora ITSM and in order, being able to choose a value, or in case of not wanting to give them value, blank space.

SAMPLE_CUSTOMER__2021,21/1001,Sample contract. ,2021-01-20,2022-01-20,3,,,0,1,2,,admin,Sample customer,Beta

Similar to contracts, invoices are used to find out when there are uncollected invoices issued and when and how much has been invoiced to a given company.

By clicking on an item in the first column of the list, the invoice will appear in the particular invoice section of the selected company:

Relevant fields:

• Bill ID: Invoice number. It must be the only one registered with this value. The system automatically calculates the next invoice number according to global CRM settings. Exceptions may also be defined.
• The invoice header and its logo, tax name, payment methods and invoice footer are also configured globally in the section for CRM.
• Reference: Informative. Generally to indicate a purchase order number, purchase order or similar.
• Invoice status: Pending payment, paid or cancelled.
• Internal note: A comment excluded from the PDF invoice.
• Description: Text that will appear on the invoice, generally clarifying order data or adding additional information.
• Language: The invoice will be generated in PDF in the specified language and this copy will be added at the end in the Files section. That way you will always have control of each change made to the document. Once the invoice is created, you may also attach other files (purchase order, quotations, etc.).

If an invoice is modified, when saving, the PDF is generated again to reflect those changes and replace the old PDF. Invoices may be locked (lock icon or Lock button) so that only the creator may modify them.

There are different profiles for users in invoice management. While superadmin users are unrestricted, other users may query and/or modify on a case-by-case basis.

• Users with a CIR profile may only see and download invoices.
• Both CIR and CIW profile users will only be able to see Submitted invoices, i.e. without editing options.
• Users with CIW profile may create and block invoices. If they appear as Received, they may also edit them.
• Submitted invoices, when created or edited, are automatically blocked and may only be unblocked by users with a CIM profile.
• Users with a CIM profile may edit and unblock invoices.
• When editing a Submitted invoice, a PDF file is created, deleting the previous one (or the previous ones if it is an invoice prior to this change and has several PDF invoice files). Received ones do not generate a PDF file.
• When editing it, if it is Submitted, it will show a modal warning that the PDF file will be replaced.
• When you click on the download button, if you only have the PDF invoice, the corresponding PDF file is created and downloaded; if you also have attachments, a ZIP file is downloaded with the PDF invoice and the corresponding attachments.

Pandora ITSM allows the management of business leads (sales lead, business lead or simply Lead).

Through Pandora ITSM Leads management you can track potential customers. The system allows you to record the activity of each Lead and modify its status, so that it progresses from an initial Lead to a successful closed (or omitted) sale. If done from Pandora ITSM, the sending and receiving email responses can be managed, which will be reflected in the Lead tracking.

Leads can be created manually from the editor or they can be entered through a integration with Pandora ITSM API. Like other Pandora ITSM objects, a Lead has a owner who administers it and a company that manages it (this last point is important when moving to the contracting and billing stages).

In the advanced search you can filter by language as each Lead allows this information to be matched to the Lead templates.

Another useful option is to filter by lead types because when selecting one of them, if it has custom fields, these will be loaded and will allow to further refine the results. These custom fields can also be optionally displayed as columns in the Leads view.

There are many more advanced features for Leads; one simple feature is the use of colored tags to quickly mark Leads that require special attention.

When you enter the Leads view, by default you are presented with the basic Leads search option, plus an advanced search. Whenever one or some of the search parameters are changed, the Search button must be clicked.

For frequent and/or complex searches there is the option of the Custom search button which will allow you to save the current parameters with a name. Clicking again on the Custom search button will show the saved filters to choose and load one of them, as well as allowing to delete it, if necessary.

In the advanced search you can filter by language as each Lead allows this information to be matched to the Lead templates.

Another useful option is to filter by lead types because when selecting one of them, if it has custom fields, these will be loaded and will allow to further refine the results. These custom fields can also be optionally displayed as columns in the Leads view.

There are many more advanced features for Leads; one simple feature is the use of colored tags to quickly mark Leads that require special attention.

For the filtered Leads statistics options are presented:

• Leads funnel.
• Conversion rate (there must be closed Leads).
• Leads per country.
• Users per Lead.
• Top 10 estimated sales.
• New Leads.

The filtered Leads are shown, and according to the Leads tracking scheme, sorted by estimated sales. You can also sort by modification date or by estimated closing date.

Optionally, each Lead can enjoy this classification, which allows the addition of all the custom fields necessary for the management of particular cases.

Once created, the list of Lead types created will be displayed and the buttons in the Actions column will allow you to edit the Lead type, delete it or add fields. These fields can be marked as visible in the Leads view and with one of the following options:

• Box, a value of true and false.
• Combo, a comma-separated list of options.
• Linked, to display a related list and sublist.
• Date.
• Numeric.
• Text, single line.
• Text, multiple lines.

With the right choice of colors, each Lead can be labelled and then easily filtered in the Leads view. By clicking on each created tag you can edit or delete each element.

In the general configuration of Pandora ITSM the indicative steps of Leads progress are defined:

1. New: Initial state of every Lead.
2. Meeting arranged: A meeting with the prospective customer has been arranged.
3. Needs discovered: After meeting with the client, the tools that will be useful to him have been identified.
4. Proposal delivered: A proposal is submitted, either a predefined contract or a specially created contract.
5. Offer accepted: Customer accepts proposal.
6. Closed, not response or dead: Lead closed without success.
7. Closed, lost: Lead closed without success.
8. Closed, invalid or N/A: Lead closed without success.
9. Closed successfully: Lead successfully closed.

Pandora ITSM allows to manage the commercial activity of the Leads through e-mails. This functionality will allow updating the conversation between the parties and uploading files to the Lead automatically.

For this, an e-mail box is used as a reference, from which Pandora ITSM will read the messages to extract the information and attachments. In section Email setup are all the details about the PITSM mailbox setup.

This functionality is used through the Email reply option available in the Leads. With this option Pandora ITSM will send an email message by adding a token of the type [Lead#XXX] at the beginning of the subject of the email message. In addition, when sending the email, the address of the reference mailbox will be added in the CC field.

In this way, when a customer or a sales employee replies to the email, a copy will arrive in the reference mailbox and Pandora ITSM will identify the email and process it. To update the Lead, the information in the body of the email will be added to the Lead activity and the attachments will be uploaded to the server and associated to the corresponding Lead.

You can select a template CRM, in the same language defined in the Lead, in order to save time in writing thanks to the macro templates, and always present communication in a professional manner.

Lead templates are communications that make use of template macros that are replaced with values from each Lead and thus personalize each message.

The language and the company that manages the template must be defined, so that users belonging to that company can have access to each corresponding template.

The following macros can be used in Lead templates:

• _DEST_NAME_: Full name of the mail recipient, as it is in the Lead record.
• _DEST_EMAIL_: Lead's email inbox.
• _SRC_NAME_: Full name of the Pandora ITSM user who sends the Lead.
• _SRC_EMAIL_: Email of the Pandora ITSM user who sends the Lead.

Using the REST API 1.0 of Pandora ITSM it is possible to create new Leads from a web contact form. In this way you will be able to enter the information of your Leads automatically in the tool.

The following PHP code creates a form and collects the data submitted by the form. With them it composes a call to the Pandora ITSM API 1.0 which creates a new Lead.

pitsm_lead_form.php

<!DOCTYPE html><html><body>
<?php
  //Config parameters
  $pitsm_url = "http://192.168.70.163/pandoraitsm";
  $user = "api_user";
 
  //Get post parameters
  $name = $_POST["name"];
  $email = $_POST["email"];
  $company = $_POST["company"];
  $role = $_POST["role"];
  $country = $_POST["country"];
  $comments = $_POST["comments"];
 
  //Create url to call the API
  $myurl =
      $pitsm_url . "/include/api.php?user=" . $user . "&op=create_lead&params=";
  $myurl .= urlencode($name) . "," . urlencode($company) . ",";
  $myurl .= urlencode($email) . "," . urlencode($country) . ",0,0,,,";
  $myurl .= urlencode($role) . ",,," . urlencode($comments) . ",1,0";
 
  // Configure curl
  $ch = curl_init();
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $myurl);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
 
  // Send curl request and close
  $ret = curl_exec($ch);
 
  curl_close($ch);
?>
  <h2>Pandora ITSM Lead form</h2>
  <form method="post">
    Full name: <input type="text" name="name" size="35"><br><br>
    E-mail: <input type="text" name="email" size="25"><br><br>
    Company: <input type="text" name="company" size="30"<br><br>
    Position: <input type="text" name="role" size="30"><br><br>
    Country: <input type="text" name="country" size="20"><br><br>
    Comments and questions:<br>
  <textarea name="comment" cols="50" rows="8"></textarea><br><br>
  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
  </form>
</body></html>

Contacts are associated to companies, so any Pandora ITSM user with access to a company will be able to see its contacts, its contracts and invoices. Contacts have nothing to do with users, they are only informative pieces of information without any access to Pandora ITSM.

To add a contact the required fields are full name, email and related company. You can also create custom fields (menu CRM → Contacts → Contact fields) with different types of data (date, numerical values, list of options, etc.) as needed.

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