GoldMine Success

Happy Holidays the “Jib Jab” Way

Bob Ritter — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:25:04 +0000

Let a group of the First Direct Singers entertain you as we wish you all a joyous holidays and a prosperous & healthy new year!

Bob Ritter, President

What’s New In GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0.3 Release

Bob Ritter — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:29:14 +0000

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Which Way Do I Go? Figuring out the mobile options for GoldMine

Bob Ritter — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:14:23 +0000

Are you trying to take your GoldMine Premium Software on the road with you? Are you confused about which solution to go with?

With so many choices it is no wonder people are confused. One company wants to sell you iGoldMine, another wMobile, or CompanionLink, and now there’s the new GoldMine Mobile. And, then there is the option of synching your GoldMine to your personal Outlook and letting Outlook communicate to your device. Then again, you might consider doing the synch through Exchange using another solution. It’s easy to get confused and lost and never get to your destination!

With so many ways to go there are also pros & cons. The best choice for one firm, and even the different groups of users in a firm, depends on several factors such as the device, what you’re trying to access, what you’re willing to spend.

wMobile – mature solution with extremely rich functionality and a client for mobile phones and workstations. Offers two user interfaces to suit the screen size differences. Works with most major devices. Will support email tracking in the GoldMine contact both from within the wMobile client or directly from the device.

iGoldMine – a mature solution, based on OEM technology, the publishes GoldMine and many other applications to remote workstations and tablets. Provides the full client experience without the install or administration on the device.

CompanionLink – the most mature solution that supports synchronization to store data on the device or to your Google account so you can access the very limited data and calendars remotely. Will synch automatically from your workstation up to Google. Great for quick and simple access to limited contact information and calendar.

GoldMine Mobile – the new kid on the block. FrontRange’s third attempt at a phone access solution. Some nice features but still to early to tell what the issues are.

First Direct is happy to demonstrate all these options and discuss your needs an offer a recommendation. CompanionLink is the least expensive and the other three are priced alike. First Direct sells them all – so all the matters is what’s best for you!

A Great GoldMine View

Bob Ritter — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:43:49 +0000

You never know where things end up! In this case the thing is a GoldMine windbreaker I gave away at a business conference. We gave it to a valued customer, Specialized Office Systems, Inc., who wore it to the Grand Canyon. If you're in the Pheonix, Arizona area check out his business or give our friend Nathan a call! Click on the SOS link for his website. (That's Nathan's dad Bruce in the picture - Looking good!!)

The Greatest of Entrepreneurship Obstacles

Bob Ritter — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:52:34 +0000

There was a time when I, Bob Ritter, was quite active in promoting entrepreneurship. Coming from an entrepreneurial family background, my interest in this subject started early. I went on to graduate from Babson College among the first class to be able to major with a degree in Entrepreneurial Studies. Only five us graduated with that degree that year! One of them, Mark Simon, went on to become a professor and author on this subject. As for me, after working for a family business, and a three year stint developing one of New York State's largest business incubators, I was put my energy and focus into my own entrepreneurial life and firm First Direct Corporation.

Recently my ole friend, now Dr. Simon, asked me to write an article for his website and blog. I jumped at the offer and was all too happy to contribute. The result is an article that any entrepreneur (active or nascent) can I'm sure relate to. Have a read and check out my friend Mark's other articles and resources! Click her to follow the link to the Balanced Entrepreneur Website and blog.

Find a “needle in your haystack” with Universal Search

Bob Ritter — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:08:01 +0000

GoldMine Premium introduced a powerful new search tool with GoldMine Premium 8.5 that is called Universal Search. Universal Search is a one-box search engine that allows you to quickly access a summary view of the information you are looking for, along with links to more detailed information.

Universal Search is not your "everyday" search engine tool because it delves very deeply through your database and will find many more results than you'd want to return for when you were simply searching for one of your Primary View fields. In other words, if you just want to pull up a GoldMine Record based on ordinary fields like the Company, Contact, Phone1, etc., you'd be much better off using the Contact Search Center.

When you want to do a more thorough search of your GoldMine database to find an obscure value, or something that you may not know where the information is exactly located, Universal Search is perfect. It can be a real time and "life-saver."

To learn more about using Universal Search there is a very helpful video you can watch. Click here watch this training video.

First Direct can assist you with deploying or configuring your Universal Search.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT: The Full-Text service must be running in order for Universal Search to return results. This is a separate Windows service that you can configure to start either manually or automatically (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). You can also manually start or stop the service using the SQL Server Management Studio.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Full Text Search is a database requirement before installing GoldMine.

1. For more information about Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Full Text Search, refer to the documentation what came with your version of SQL Server.

2. For information about other Server Requirements, refer to the GoldMine Installation Guide.

Debugging Automated Processes

Bob Ritter — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:42:37 +0000

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

Lookup.ini – Automatically Enter or Update Data in a GoldMine Field When Creating a New Record or Updating a Field

Jay Dymond — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:08:59 +0000

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.

Beyond the “Click” – eMarketing That Takes Action

Jay Dymond — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:29:56 +0000

Take your GoldMine e-mail marketing campaigns to new levels with IntelliClick.

Send personalized email campaigns that track instantly back to your GoldMine database. IntelliClick alerts your sales team by e-mail, text message or scheduled phone calls in your GoldMine CRM system. As email campaign recipients access "intelligent" hyperlinks inserted into your campaigns, designated individuals in your organization are alerted so that they can take action to kick start your sales process. Integration with your GoldMine system, logs all tracked responses (email opens, web hyperlink clicks, one button literature fulfillment, one button call request and unsubscribe), allowing timely follow-up to be triggered.

Go beyond the first click to gain even more insight into your target audience interests using IntelliClick to track web site pages viewed and the frequency visitors return to your web site for each campaign to enable timely sales follow-up.

With the purchase of IntelliClick you are provided an SMTP Relay account for reliable email delivery of messages sent directly from your contact database via the IntelliClick Unified Email SMTP relay option. Using the Unified Email portal, you can retrieve reports on the effectiveness of your message delivery and bounce rates.

IntelliClick also includes a library of professionally prepared HTML templates (see examples) which you can readily use and modify with the on-line HTML WYSWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor. Benefit from messages that pack a punch and are designed to be optimally displayed by virtually all email applications.

Check out the demonstration videos

Request a personal demonstration

“Output To” Files Protected in Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Bob Ritter — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:33:16 +0000

By default MS Office 2010 will open documents in protected mode that fail validation, have been downloaded from the internet, are located in potentially unsafe location and include attachments. Protected view opens the document in read-only mode and minimizes the exposure to some potential security threats. This added security presents an issue with GoldMine when you "Output to Excel."

GoldMine offers the ability to "Output To" from the various table views in the GoldMine Premium. By "table views" I am referring to places like the History/Pending Tabs, the Activity List, the Contact Search Center, etc. That will transfer the data that is visible in the rows to a either a new Excel spreadsheet or an MS Word file. With MS Excel in Office 2010 the "default" security settings cause the file to open in "Protected Mode" (versus "Compatibility Mode"). When this happens you are not able to edit the file without "enabling" the right to edit.

If you would like to turn this function off and have control over your documents. Users can change their settings in both MS Word and MS Excel so that outputted files will automatically open in "Compatibility Mode" and you can just begin editing.

For MS Excel:

Output to Excel and when the Excel opens in the header of the file window select "click for more details." (see graphic below.)

When you show details you'll get the following window below and you should select "File Block Settings."

This will open the following window in your Excel Trust Center. Then within the window that appears simply uncheck the choices for Excel that you see checked below:

After these changes your Excel files created with GoldMine's "Output to Excel" function will open in "Compatibility Mode" so you can freely edit them.