RE: [ic] interchange as a CRM/fulfillment system

["Paul Jordan" <suppressed>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: suppressed 
> [mailto:suppressed On Behalf 
> Of Ryan Perry
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 8:38 PM
> To: Interchange List
> Subject: [ic] interchange as a CRM/fulfillment system
> 
> Has anyone used interchange as a  CRM/fulfillment system?  
> I'm looking to use Interchange for an affiliate program and 
> while I'm at it I've thought of using the database to keep 
> track of other aspects of our business.  Any advice?
> 
> Ryan


I have, and do. It started when I wanted to do customer service in a store,
so I installed some perl scripts, but for high integration, I thought, why
hack at some other persons scripts, just do it in IC. Now when a client sees
an email, we can see relevant info about that email address (past orders,
etc) beneath the email, for a possibly quicker reply. For one client, we
made a system that tracks their offline *printed* campaigns, so when looking
at a client record, you can see their response rates, or when someone calls,
you can pull the image of the piece up. I have an affiliates system that
tracks offline affiliates that I am finishing up now. The sky is the limit
when your base is an application server. Regarding tables for tracking -
I've at least doubled the table amount in a standard install. Don't worry
about adding tables - track anything your cleint needs!

However, it has been tough, and expensive. Partly because I am not smart,
and partly because of some personal circumstances that I have had to make up
for. In the end, it is worth it though. Also, my coding style (or lack
thereof) has made it pretty proprietary and probably not as efficient as it
could be. I did not make it in ADMIN btw. 

I'd like to see one of the leaders in the community that understand modular
programming issue an outline of a much grander and more general use demo, or
even addons for a non-demo system, that are designed for the community in
mind. I think it would be great if some architect said ok, lets break it
down to this: customer service, affiliates, promotions, customers, orders,
etc. The guidelines for one might include table prefixes cs_MysqlTableFooo
cs_MysqlTableBar. I think there might be enough people in the community to
take on these little "chunks" and do something with them, then they'd just
easily plug right into ADMIN without stepping on each others toes.

This would have to be prefaced with a HOWTO, or maybe  paid online IRC
"lectures" by Mike Heins regarding "Programming in Admin". Even though I
went away from Admin, I'd still be interested in learning how to easily
program within its security, and understand what it expects. I'd pay
$25/hour for IRC lessons? Get 20 people on IRC, and that'd be worth it. 

There is also Kevin Walsh. At one point he had a more-than-mine-general use
CRM started - He might be able to help you. 

I am one would like to see the top consultants out there start to offer more
paid services. At one time there was a community projects going, and it
seemed to me that there was willingness in the community to pitch in to meet
the estimates. I don't know, maybe it got to be a maintenance problem or
something. Also, paid IRC lectures similar to Mike Heins "Part of a Series"
emails (that were great).  I think all these things would not only generate
money for the person taking their time, but help the community get smarter,
and more importantly - in sync.

Paul

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