WHAT'S NEW IN GOLDMINE PREMIUM EDITION 9.0.3

The biggest reason that FrontRange released 9.03 is to accommodate changes that are needed for GoldMine Premium Edition to support its new GoldMine Mobile Edition 9.  (** See note below.)

A new Messaging tab appears in the user options screen when a GoldMine Mobile license is added to the License Manager.  The Messaging tab enables users to receive alarms for upcoming activities on their mobile devices as SMS messages.  For more information, please review the GoldMine Mobile Edition Installation and User Guide.  The Pager tab that appeared in previous releases is no longer displayed.

With the 9.03 release also come some "fixes."

ID # - Issue Description

150834 - Performance issues moving from one message to another in Outlook when connected to GoldMine

133122  - Service Center displays all records in the database if no filter is applied by the user (does not respect limits on System Settings > Display)

120811  - GoldMine stops responding while e-mail messages are being queued

118791  - Slow response when handling e-mails for a contact with a large number of opportunities

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Note:  GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.3 also provides the fixes and enhancements included with GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.0, GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.1, GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.1 Hotfix 1, and GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.2, listed below.

** FrontRange is recommending that customers NOT go to the 9.0.3 release unless either they are buying GoldMine Mobile, or if they are experiencing one of the issues that is specifically fixed with 9.0.3. At this time FRS is considering 9.0.2 the "current" release.  (I know - strange!!  What can I tell you.)

If you'd like to see a demonstration or if you have questions about GoldMine Mobile contact First Direct Corp. at (800) 935-4386 or visit to request a demonstration.

Here's a nifty trick to help you debug a GoldMine Automated Process.  GoldMine will trace the steps in a Automated Process during a scan and report each step/event in your GoldMine Process Monitor.  Simply put the the following text in the User.ini for the individual who is testing the APs.  Insert this within the [GoldMine] section:

"APDebugLog=1"

When you're finished testing just "comment out" this command with a semi-colon ; in front:

";APDebLog=1"

For assistance on Automate Processes contact First Direct Corp. at (800) 935-4386 or visit us at <click here>

Did you know that you can instruct GoldMine to automatically enter information into a field or multiple fields when creating a new contact record or updating a field in an existing contact record? The time saving data entry benefits of this are alone enough to warrant use of this lesser known feature of GoldMine, not to mention the benefit of eliminating human data entry errors.

Lets look at an example:

When creating a new contact record in GoldMine, let's imagine that you want to populate other key information for this record such as, assigning a sales rep based on the state the contact is in. In addition to the sale rep name you also want to add the assigned sales rep email address and phone number. This information can be used to merge into print mailings and email campaigns so it looks like the campaign came from the assigned sales rep.

Using the Lookup.ini, all a GoldMine user would have to do is add the basic contact information (Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, etc. etc.)  and as soon as the contact was added the fields for the Sales Rep Name, Sales Rep Email, Sales Rep Phone, etc. etc would automatically be populated based on the state the contact is from.

You can also update fields when a particular field is updated/edited. Lets say you wanted to change the assigned Sales Rep for a particular contact. All the GoldMine user would have to do is update the Sales Rep Name field and  then  the Sales Rep Email and Sales Rep Phone fields would update automatically.

NOTE: With the latest version of GoldMine Premium Edition you can globally update a filter/group of records and when doing so specify that the update should be done based on the instructions in the Lookup.ini file.

If you are interested in learning more about the possibilities of the Lookup.ini file in GoldMine, please contact us.

First Direct Corp. is finding with the 9.02.26 update that the GM Plus links (integration) with MS Word/Excel/Outlook may be broken and need to be replaced after upgrading from earlier versions of 9.x.  Here’s one approach to dealing with the user and their GMPE workstation update.

After performing the server upgrade but before deploying the GMPE update to the user/workstation
remove GM Plus from the workstation. In most cases a Goldmine Administrator would go to Add\Remove Programs in Windows XP or Programs and Features in Vista and 7, select change, modify , and then uninstall GM Plus.

Let the "uninstaller" do its job and finally make sure GoldMine is shut down before doing the workstation upgrade.  Then, with the GMPE update add back in the GM Plus options.  Your prior set-up settings should not be lost, but you may need to add back any "Contact Pane" fields to our Outlook Link Set-up.

When the server is finished and Goldmine has been installed to the workstation go back to
Add\Remove Programs in Windows XP or Programs and Features in Vista and 7, select change,
modify. Click the drop down arrow next to Goldmine Plus and select “ This feature, and all sub-
features will be installed on the local hard drive”.

Click next and let the installer do its job, when it’s complete select close and configure
GM Plus for Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook. In the event that a problem with the link
becomes apparent, do not hesitate to call us so that we can look into the issue and correct
it for you!

GoldMine Administrators who have to manage remote GoldMine users and support their GoldSync database synchronization may like this handy SQL query.  The following SQL query will list all of your undocked users and sync sites, along with the date of their most recent sync:

select sname as Site, convert(varchar(20), cast(left(lastsync,8) as datetime),101) as LastSyncDate
from gssites
where rectype = 'S'
and synctype <> 'OG'
order by sname

If you need assistance with implementing, supporting, or troubleshooting GoldSync First Direct Corp. can be reached at 845-221-3800.

FrontRange Solutions has informed First Direct Corp. that the general announcement of GMPE 9.0.2.36 is being sent out Monday 6/13/2011.

This release will be made available to all GoldMine Premium Edition customers that are current on the annual FrontRange Maintenance.  If you are not current on your maintenance and you need costs and assistance you may contact FrontRange customer care or First Direct Corp. at (845) 221-3800.

Below are the release notes: (updated 6/8/11)

WHAT'S ENHANCED IN GOLDMINE PREMIUM EDITION 9.0.2

Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 is now supported.

Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 SP1 is now supported.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is now supported.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4 is now supported.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) is now supported.  Note:  When using IE 9, Word documents currently cannot be previewed inside GoldMine if there is another Word document open in your operating system.

There is a new option to control the preview of document templates within the Document Management Center.  Disabling the preview may increase application performance while working with templates and improve reliability when merging documents.  To use this option, check or uncheck “Show preview for documents” in the lower right pane in the Document Management Center.

Updates to user records can now be synchronized between sites, using a new option in the GoldSync Site Group Member Wizard.  To synchronize user records, expand the Customizations node on the Send Options screen by clicking the “+” sign, and then check the box for Users.

WHAT'S FIXED IN GOLDMINE PREMIUM EDITION 9.0.2
ID #    Issue Description
146660    Sync process stalls at gathering completions/deletions for CALDEF and eventually fails
144943    Unlinked recurring activities for another user will sync to Outlook when syncing only My Calendar using filter or group
144651    Accented characters cause wrong contact to be returned from search of GoldMine Address Book in Outlook
144554    Activity created in Outlook, recurring on a particular day of every month, creates large number of calendar items when synchronized to GoldMine
144317    GoldMine crashes when using the scroll bar while composing an e-mail message with IE 9 installed
143862    E-mail message is sent to wrong address if recipient’s address is added as new address via the select e-mail window and several e-mail addresses for the contact are available
143817    Outlook e-mail messages are not linked to GoldMine when NOCOUNT setting is applied in SQL Server
143322    Undocked user cannot access the One-Button Sync tab to import a One-Button Sync Profile sent through Outlook, if there is no existing One-Button Sync Profile for the user
143281    E-mails retrieved at remote location are not shown in E-mail Center at server when using year/month folder structure in synchronizing across time zones
143152    Wrong Opportunity opened for editing in Opportunity Manager when column filter is active
142090    Error message appears when merging a Word template in the Document Management Center after launching Word followed by Excel
141549    Error in building transfer set for database with name ending in letter C
140561    On Windows 7, an attachment will be linked incorrectly after attempting to move it, and then canceling after receiving notification that the file already exists on the destination
140244    The 'Create Forecasted Sale' button in Opportunity Properties is grayed out
139784    Linking HTML e-mails from Outlook corrupts certain characters when the e-mail uses Western European encoding
139181    Assigning a report to an Automated process Print Report event does not save the correct report
139169    Outlook Add-in shows as 'disabled' and cannot be enabled
138821    Custom toolbar item to Merge Tagged Records improperly merges records if toolbar button is clicked while no records are tagged
138528    Case number is not listed on e-mail notifications when reassigning a case
138815    JavaScript code removed after editing GM+View template
137913    E-mails using UTF-8 subject lines are corrupted
137407    Resolving a case will replace the name of the linked contact with the contact displayed on the contact tab
136765    Single user-defined field is not being imported during WebImport
136763    WebImport unable to populate user-defined fields when NewRecord section of lookup.ini updates a user-defined field
136705    Time Stamp Format setting is not saved to service center mask customizations
135999    E-mail message manually linked from Sent folder in Outlook is displayed as an inbound message on the History tab
135983    On a server OS, dashboard checkboxes and radio buttons are not displayed
135555    When using a database that does not include a LEADDIST, LEADFILE, or SYNCLOCK table, clicking the “Read GoldMine Settings” button in Outlook produces an incorrect error message.
135545    The "Enable Outlook Sync" option under Tools > Users Settings > Properties > Outlook does not synchronize from the server to undocked machines
132578    Multi-contact activity is deleted for all contacts when attempting to delete a contact-specific instance from the calendar
132456    When editing an AP event that prints an envelope template, the template selection is corrupted (reset to the first item in the list)
130823    Relationship tab does not refresh properly when expanding a section
129836    New detail record includes copied CONTSUPP header data for column position from an extended detail
128853    Zip code reverts back to original selection after selecting another city or reverts to the first city
128841    If a field is accidently duplicated in a System View, it cannot be removed
128584    When using IMAP, e-mail sent via mobile device links from Sent folder in Outlook to contact record with sender’s e-mail address
127909    Cursor focus goes to the subject line instead of the e-mail body when replying or forwarding
126359    Tab order positions are not being respected when creating new GoldMine contacts, skipping ZIP
124508    Daily DayTimer Summary report only shows times with activities scheduled
124394    Contact information in the history record is for the customer viewed in the Contacts tab
122618    Sort works inconsistently in Task area of Activity List
119811    Print Pages action in e-mail reading window does not provide option to print selected text within message
119647    When exporting contacts from a large database using a filter based on Contact2 fields, there is a long delay between the Select Filter/Group screen and the Field Mappings screen
111851    Customized labels are not shown in project window
108957    Case History tab shows no data after upgrading from version 8.0 with customized case tabs
108891    Wrong activities displayed after activating rollup on Relationship tab, selecting History or Pending tab, and clicking column header to sort results
108648    Private Activities are not visible for other users in Calendar
108579    Completing an activity for a selected contact will cause active contact to refresh to the contact on calendar when Calendar is in Outline view with an activity scheduled for current date selected and Sync Contact enabled
107197    “Pop-up when selected” option causes F2 lookup screen to be intrusive in the contact search center when clicking on different tabs and clicking back to CSC
101909    When scrolling between cases, the notes from the last case are displayed
70271    Time column does not sort properly when used for priority

We live in a wild world where a computer virus or malicious software (Spy-ware and Mal-ware) can attack and shut your system and business down at any time!

You don’t want to be making this call!!
It is not uncommon for First Direct to get a call from a GoldMine customer/user who has effectively lost access to their CRM system because of a virus or Malware attack.  Generally they are in a panic!  As you can imagine, the thought of losing their valuable relationship data accumulated over years and a great deal of effort, as well as not being able to access  documents on prospects, customers, and others is a scary situation for any firm.  

Malware and viruses grow smarter, more complex and more rampant by the day. According to one expert source, “There were over 73,000 new variants of malware released daily in April 2011 which is a 26 percent increase over April 2010.”  And there are more ways for attacks to be spread than ever before: the Internet, personal computing devices, file downloads, email, social media . . . the list grows.  Even fake antivirus software and poisoned image search links are becoming prevalent ways of spreading.

The attack can start anywhere and its tentacles may reach out to your entire network as well as your server and even onto your stored backups!  That's right … even your backups can import viruses and spyware upon execution.

Your Goldmine CRM takes a hit when your network is compromised by attacks.  If a virus or Malware attack compromises your CRM data and usage, it can severely damage the overall business.

Of course you can call me after this happens if heaven forbid it happens to you!  We do help people and businesses rectify problems after they occur.  But wouldn’t it be much better to take actions to try to avoid the disaster in the first place?

If you’d like, First Direct Corp. can have an engineer with special experience and expertise in this area review your protection.  Even if you have internal or external IT Support that is responsible for your system’s protection, we can give you a second opinion or provide validation.

Please pardon my bad attempt at being clever with the title of this article.  So you know what you're getting into, this post has to do with the importance of "User Preferences" in GoldMine software.  (Not to be confused with "user rights" or "user properties.")

Having trained thousands of GoldMine users over some 15 years, there are many things I have come to expect.  Some good, others bad.  Here's one aspect that most users have failed to optimize.  It is also one of the most expedient and simple ways to improve a GoldMine user's experience.  It is to change their GoldMine User Preferences.  Today, in GoldMine Premium, the user's preferences are now found within the "Tools" pull-down menu under the name "Options."  It is also likely to be on your user "Toolbar" by the same name.

Once you enter the Options Dialogue window you'll find tabs for specific categories where individual settings are made.  The "out-of-the-box" preferences, otherwise known as the "default" preferences, are reasonably appropriate.  But GoldMine programmers fully expected users, let alone administrators, to modify and adapt to their needs.

The problem is that most users don't know the impact of all the choices available to them so they don't know what to change.  Oftentimes GoldMine Administrators, who may not even be regular GoldMine users,  don't take the time to fully learn what all the options do or to coach their users to make good choices, let alone to make changes for them.  And yet, some simple changes to the defaults can increase user satisfaction and usage which is certainly desirable for all concerned.

One of the things a qualified GoldMine Solutions Partner, who is also a "Power User" by definition, can do for you is walk you through the settings and help you to understand them and make beneficial changes.

In addition to the Option settings, users have the following additional choices in many other areas of GoldMine:

• Window sizing
• Toolbar and Personal Task Bar
• Personal Knowledge Base
• Grid Controls for "Grouping, Filtering, and Summary" within views that have columns and rows such as the Record Tabs and Search Center, Contact List.
• Calendar View
• Which Navigation Panes and Record Tabs to Display

One of the nice things about the GoldMine client is all the ways each user can adjust their client view.  It takes significant programming to provide for that!   It only takes a little effort on the part of individual users to take advantage of it!

If you'd like me to review your settings and make recommendations; I can do that very quickly with you.  It is just one of the many services that First Direct Corp. offers.

Since the GoldMine Premium 9.0.1 release, customers have reported a variety of data-related or environmental issues affecting the stability and performance of the GMPE Outlook add-in.  FrontRange Solutions has tested a hotfix with several customers and have had enough positive response from this build to formalize it as GMPE 9.0.1 Hotfix 1. It is available to customers on annual maintenance through Technical Support.

FrontRange's recommendation is to use this build in environments where Outlook integration is important or other specific fixes are needed. We do NOT recommend upgrading to this build if a customer is already using a GMPE 9 release without problems.

This is Hotfix is NOT in general release, however,  the fixes will become generally available when we GMPE 9.0.2 is released.  Once GMPE 9.0.2 is released FrontRange would like customers who implemented the GMPE 9.0.1 hotfix to update to the GMPE 9.0.2 release.

WHAT'S FIXED IN GOLDMINE PREMIUM EDITION 9.0.1 HOTFIX 1

142555 Error message appears when opening Outlook calendar if forecasted sales are displayed in Outlook, and there is a forecasted sale related to a contact with a null value in contact field

141004 GoldMine toolbar does not appear in Outlook when using Terminal Services

140515 Outlook sync profile does not retain contact group setting if the contact group has a RecID value ending in a space

140055 When synchronizing with Outlook using a contact group or filter, other users’ linked recurring activities are synchronized to Outlook

139816 Paging of contact records in the Contact Search Center can cause entire database to be selected for different workflow operations

139579 Memory leak in Outlook.exe process

139196 Performance issues in Outlook add-in

139171 AddinExpress error message appears in Outlook

139163 Object Reference error when reading GoldMine settings from Outlook

139041 Object reference error in Outlook when no record types are set up in GoldMine

138584 GoldMine creates Accountno values with less than 20 characters when the contact name is abbreviated as first initial with a dot

137333 When sorting opportunities by actual close date, the sort is not chronological

137160 Activities synchronized from Outlook produce one alarm per attendee in GoldMine

136244 When editing an activity, the Opportunity/Project selection is not available if the Accountno for the corresponding contact contains less than 20 characters

128699 E-mail filed on the remote is not filed on the server after sync

126594 When entering an address for additional contacts, the Zip field does not auto-complete as expected

FrontRange Solutions USA is ceasing support for GoldMine® Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Overview

The purpose of this document is to provide product and support information for FrontRange Solutions GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7 customers.

Question: How long will FrontRange Solutions support GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7?

Answer: FrontRange Solutions will continue to provide support for these versions until December 30th 2011.

Question: What about GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7 customers who have bought maintenance?

Answer: GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7 clients currently on maintenance are able to upgrade to the latest version GoldMine Corporate Edition 7.6 at no additional license cost. To recognize these GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7customers who are current on maintenance, you can upgrade to GoldMine Corporate Edition 7.6 at no charge as part of your maintenance coverage. In addition we are offering a one time only promotion for you to upgrade to GoldMine Premium Edition. Contact your 845-221-3800 for GoldMine sales.

Question: What about GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7 customers who are not currently on maintenance?

Answer: For GoldMine Corporate Edition 6.6 & 6.7 customers not currently on maintenance are able to upgrade under a special promotion. Contact your 845-221-3800 for GoldMine sales.

Question: What do I need to do if I want to upgrade to GoldMine Corporate Edition 7.6 and I am current on maintenance?

Answer: As with all upgrades it is important that you plan for it. You will want to plan your upgrade including testing the new release in a test environment, backing up your system and other best practices. Contact First Direct Corp. for assistance in planning your upgrade.

Important Note: Customers upgrading from a GoldMine 6.x or earlier version will need to contact Customer Care by email at customer.support@frontrange.com or via telephone at http://www.frontrange.com/contact/support.aspx to obtain a GoldMine 7.x license before starting the upgrade.

You may upgrade from any of the GoldMine Corporate Editions to the new GoldMine Premium Edition!!!  For information about GoldMine Premium Edition contact First Direct Corp. in the USA and Canada by dialing (845) 221-3800 or go to GoldMine Premium