Hello,

I always go to SearchEngineForums.com first. Why not ask those who've been there & done that?

We're facing two challenges:
1. Managing incoming & outgoing sales & support e-mails. We have different people on staff specialized in answering different types of mail.
It's our policy to answer incoming sales e-mails as quickly as possible. Within a minute if possible. Now that our staff has responded, when that customer replies back, they will only be responding to that one person. What if that's late on Fri. and that person doesn't work again until Mon. morning? We have people who work on the weekend, but they will not have the ability to respond to the other team member's e-mail. Same thing happens after the weekend people finish their shift. I know there are e-mail management and sales management programs out there to handle this. What are the best options?

2. Managing multiple projects across multiple team members and across oceans. We've tried dotProject but it seems too cumbersome with too steep of a learning curve. It takes more time to use than the time it saves. What are some better options here?

I truly appreciate any advice and even welcome solicitation if you think you've got a worthwhile solution.

Sincerely,
Dave

Years ago an SEO company hired me to do a custom database application. I got them to hire an expert VB coder to cut down on the MS Access overhead. The kid was a brilliant college student.

Check you local higher education schools. Young folks these days have grown up always having a computer available. They really are quite capable even at a young (and cheap) age.

So you're suggesting a custom program? Or?

If you can find a good programmer at a good rate. Its been 7 years since I did any database work.

Back then I had high school students from ICQ asking some tough programming questions that they had for homework assignments. I was doing it for a living and they were teenagers doing it as homework!

Once the programmer has the initial steps done, you will be able to see some good reports. When you see how much information you can get out of a custom database, your programmer will be very busy.

Integrating all information from first contact, sales management, orders, billing, shipping, customer service...

You can get reports within minutes, "How many clients over $20,000 did Salesman Smith have last fiscal year?" or "What was our increase ratio in Buffalo during that last radio campaign?"

Or if you just don't have the time, there are local companies that will do it per project.

keep a look out for young people who go 'WOW!' at fairly small (large to them) amounts of pay.

You'd be amazed at the amount of wiz kids are about.

Yes - we're always on the lookout for young talent. Does anyone have any suggestions for 'out of the box' programs that can help manage e-mails?