Intervals CRM website integration

Hi guys,

I have just finished a CRM integration solution for Intervals which can be bolted in to any website so that leads can go in to the Intervals system (under the request queue). The idea is that we created a 'Leads' project in which tasks as prospective customers.

The idea is that all interactions with a lead are tracked in the task as comments - just like a regular CRM system. If a customer lead turns in to a real client we move the tasks associated with that lead to a dedicated customer project to understand the true time/cost in acquisition of the client.

Is anyone else interested in this kind of functionality? I can package up the code as a DLL to be shared with everyone. Right now it is written in C#...

You can see how it looks from the consumer perspective at https://www.saasmentor.com.au/join.aspx

Not sure how hard this would be to port to PHP. I am guessing Ruby would be simple enough and I know its easy in Java - practically the same as the C# code.

Regards
Joe
[ www.pixolut.com ]

Guys, this is actually two discussions in one;

the first is about integration with some kind of external system which feeds tasks in to Intervals. This is essentially taken care of by the Email Request Queue - with a little exception.

The second is about novel workflows which can be created within the Intervals application.

So, let me speak to each separately - first, I think the email request queue could be made to be a little smarter, so that - if the submitting party knows some information it can be pre-categorized when submitted in to Intervals - specifically which project a submission request belongs to. If we could add some kind of custom tag in to the email or subject so that Intervals knew how to deal with an email request it would be great.

After working on the C# library I found that it was just too flakey, it seems that for some reason which I was not able to solve it would not pass requests to Intervals 100% of the time. Since we were using the API for capturing leads we decided to stop using the direct web-client API and move to using the Email Request Queue - our web site simply spits out an email and the Intervals app just picks it up.

We are doing similar things for other automated bug submission apps which used to transmit data via a GET request in to TestTrack Pro, we just made an intermediary page which just translated the GET to an email send off to Intervals.

So - in regards to workflow - have you ever used SalesForce.com? After using Intervals for a long time I saw SFDC and thought - holy crap, if I just made customer leads in to tasks I could use intervals for all of this. Its all about workflow in how you use the system.

So, thats what we do. Here's how it works:

* As leads come in the Email Request Queue from the website they are reviewed and assigned to an account manager and placed in the 'Leads' project - an arbitrary project which has no client associated with it.
* Account manager follows up with the lead and makes notes in the task comments. All comments are tracked by time/date and user - just like SFDC or any other CRM!
* All pre sales work on that lead has time associated with it by the account manager and any other resources brought in to land the deal - then we can track the cost of conversion to understand the true cost per lead! Yay!
* Once a lead converts to a client, we simply create a client and a 'conversion' project for that client and assign the task with all the customer history to that project.
* If landing a deal requires more co-ordination like planning documents which are essentially 'tasks' we create the client and 'conversion' project before we convert the client. It can simplify coordinating multiple resources and allows the team to work as they are used to...

Essentially we have the ability to transition from CRM-mode to Task/Project-mode SEAMLESSLY simply by adapting a workflow which is easy to follow and makes sense within a system we are all used to using.