In "Being Bullish on Android Doesn't Mean Being Bearish on Apple," Tim Beyers looks at what works and what doesn't on the new Samsung Galaxy.
Meebo, my cloud-based IM client, suffers some hiccups, but Evernote works great. So does Highrise, a cloud-based contact-management system from 37signals that I've come to love.
Read the full piece at Motley Fool.
"Highrise: CRM With 37signals’ Simplicity" [PCTechTalk.com] offers a thorough look at Highrise and says, "If you’ve ever thought that you’d like a better solution for managing your customer info, definately give Highrise a try."
Beyond contacts, deals are Highrise’s second major focus. This is where you can add information about proposals for jobs your company is bidding for, and obviously works best for firms that do individual jobs for clients. Highrise lets you enter the bid value, add tasks related to the project. This is a great way to keep track of who’s involved with a project with Highrise’s great contact management. Even if you’ve won a bid, you can still use your deal page to keep track of the ongoing project. Whenever you receive emails about the project, you can forward them to your unique email addresses generated by Highrise for each project, and they’ll be automatically added as a note.
Marketing agency True Hero asks, "As business grows, client lists expand, taxes are due, and calendars filled up, how do you keep organized?" The answer is a list of tools to keep track of people, places, and things — and Highrise, Basecamp, and Backpack make the cut.
1. Highrise is Customer Management, Assistant, White-Board, Email, To Do all in one. TrueHero recommends Highrise to all our clients. It’s a one stop place for answers when responding to sales managers, accounts and reps. Each user can see who talked to the client last, when and what was discussed. Schedule a meeting, Task or Follow-up by Company, Brand or Client. You don’t have to bother Bob on his vacation for Client X’s info – it is right there in Highrise. Easy, efficient, and effective. Love this tool and it’s inexpensive...3. Backpack is part of 37signals like Highrise. If you have the $99 package, Highrise, Backpack, and Basecamp is included. No need for Google Calendars – Backpack has a group calendar. A great alternative to mass emails, notifications and group organization. The 37signals tools work well together – one place, one app, easy.
The rest of the list includes tools like MailChimp, Mint.com, and Quickbooks. Check it out.
"Reduce 'Getting it All Done' Content Marketing Anxiety: Create Your Own System" [Content Marketing Institute] is a guide to help marketers design their own workflow system. Highrise is one of the recommended tools mentioned.
Instead of running to yet another time management book or tool, I began to look at how I work, what was causing problems, and finding ways to reduce or eliminate them. Here’s the process I used that any marketer can use, too, whether you’re a consultant, freelancer or corporate marketer...Highrise is marketed as a CRM app, but it has this really cool functionality that lets you manage tasks by client (or “contact”) and by due date. I customized it to how I work and now I know when I need to make follow-up phone calls or emails and when a task is due. I now see my task list by day and by week, which helps me stay focused.
O, The Oprah Magazine, listed "Web Tools to Keep You Organized" and Highrise made the list.
You don't just enter names and phone numbers at Highrise. You can also include identifying information, like whether you've met in person or which projects you've collaborated on. You can even jot notes about your last phone conversation and check a box if you need to follow up (you'll get an e-mail or text reminder). Invite your colleagues to join, and you can collaborate and share information via the site.
Fun news for us, especially since our new office is right across the street from Harpo Studios!
"A Small Business Made to Seem Bigger" is a NY Times article that discusses people who run a business alone but want it to appear bigger than it really is — as if it has teams of employees and lots of resources. One of the article's subjects, Peter Sorgenfrei (below), uses Highrise to keep track of his email.
Peter Sorgenfrei, founder of a product development consulting firm, Sorgenfrei L.L.C in New York, uses a Web application called Highrise to keep track of his e-mail, so he knows when he last communicated with a client and what was said. Whenever Mr. Sorgenfrei sends an e-mail, a blind copy of the message is sent to his Highrise account, where it is archived. “I come across as completely buttoned-up and in-control,” he said, “because I have all the information, files and discussions in one place and can access them before talking to the client.” Recently, when an automotive manufacturer he works with couldn’t find some legal documents it had sent him, Mr. Sorgenfrei located them in his Highrise archive. It took him just minutes to send the documents back to the client.
Read the full piece or learn more about Highrise's email dropbox.
Sorgenfrei's use of Highrise and ShoeBoxed
Sorgenfrei also discussed Highrise at his blog, in the post "Tools of the trade: How to be a successful solopreneur."
Highrise: A customer relationship management platform from 37signals in Chicago. In addition to functioning as an address book, Highrise allows me to list tasks, assign tasks to project colleagues, and track deals and ‘cases’ for things I am working on. But the real genius of Highrise lies in the tracking of conversations. I have an email address from the system that I bcc every time I email a client or a potential client. If the addressee is not already in Highrise’s address book, the system creates an entry. The genius part is that it then saves the content of the email, including attached files, so that I can always check on past conversations before emailing again or before making a phone call or entering a meeting. That way, clients see that I am completely on top of their business, even when I’m handling 10 projects at any given time.
And he talks about using ShoeBoxed to get contact info from business cards into Highrise.
ShoeBoxed: Instead of having to enter receipts and business card information manually in FreshBooks and Highrise (see both above), I send an envelope with all my collected receipts and business cards to ShoeBoxed. The crew at ShoeBoxed then scans and verifies the information and provides me with an online record that my accounting program and contact manager can import. ShoeBoxed keeps me organized for tax season and ensures that I always have phone numbers and addresses with me when I’m running to meet a potential client.
Read more about the tools Sorgenfrei uses.
Sorgenfrei L.L.C home page.
eCommerce Hacks lists 7 Indispensable Web Tools Every Ecommerce Merchant Should Be Using. Basecamp and Highrise lead it off.
1. Basecamp – Free/Subscription (Subscription starting at $24/mo)
The product of 37signals, BaseCamp is a wonderful project management tool that’s fully web-based, so you never have to install any programs onto your computer. In basic terms, what Basecamp will do for you is to keep track of what you need to do, when you need to do it and assign tasks to anyone who is involved in the project. Because everything is hosted on servers, you can access Basecamp from where ever you have an Internet connection. Once you figure out how Basecamp works, it becomes an indispensable tool in your everyday work-flow. With Basecamp, collaborating with others is made easy and keeping track of important events is automated with their notification system which emails or texts you of upcoming events.2. Highrise – Free/Subscription (Subscription starting at $24/mo)
Highrise is also a product of 37signals and is a easy to use contact management web tool. OK, so what’s contact management? Simply put, it’s a Rolodex that you can access on the Internet. What makes this better than a Rolodex is that anyone who has the right credentials can access the information through the Internet and catch up on the latest information about contacts. For example, if you contacted one of your key customers, you can enter their information along with a summary of your conversation and set reminders or next actions based on the last conversation. When it’s time for the next follow-up, anyone in charge of the customer can read the last summary to get a good idea of what was discussed prior to contacting them.
According to the Credit Management Association, Highrise "can be perfect for those missing an internal follow-up system."
By adding tasks to your customers in Highrise you create a follow-up (call, email, phone) task list for yourself. Making notes on each contact builds your history on each customer so that excuses for non-payment cannot be used again, you’ll know exactly when you faxed the copy of the invoice or when they said the check was going to be printed.
Do you use Highrise or another 37signals product in an interesting way? Let us know.
Sage Wedding Pros is "a resource for wedding professionals who want to have smarter businesses." Recently, the site's Michelle Loretta wrote about how she loves the integration between Formstack and Highrise.
Once I started using 37signals’ Highrise to manage my client information and communication I needed to have everything get into Highrise in one easy step...Formstack is easy to use and I love how it integrates with Highrise. You build your form or questionnaire in a few steps. You can add your logo and customize it so that it ties with your company branding. For me the branding match is more important than having a “template” form.
To integrate with Highrise, simply input your merge code (called an API key). Voila! When someone completes a form the data (name, address, phone, etc) goes directly into your Highrise database. No need to copy over info to multiple programs. You can also integrate with Mailchimp (for newsletters), Paypal, and a bunch of other programs. You can also embed the form onto your website.
"How to move your small business to the cloud?" [Techworld] offers up "what you need to know about cloud computing: what it is, pros and cons, suggested services, and tips for applying it to your business." The article mentions two 37signals products, Highrise and Basecamp.
Highrise for CRM and Basecamp for project management ($24 to $149 per month each, depending on the level of service you choose) both come from 37signals. A number of small businesses we contacted recommended these services for their feature sets and ease of use.
