In this audio podcast, I’m interviewing Lon Orenstein of Pinpoint Tools. His company has a primary focus on creating solutions for the small businesses and entrepreneurs of the world that use Microsoft Outlook, Business Contact Manager, and ACT.

Lon is the author of the Business Contact Manager for Dummies book.

Our discussion centered on his product, Pinpoint Marketing Tools, which really has two primary functions:

1)      Automating marketing plans and drip campaigns

2)      Automating the creation of Action Plans for Projects

Here’s what we talked about:

·         We talked about the enhancements with the current version of Business Contact Manager 2007 over earlier version.

·         We spoke about his industry-specific template products for Realtors, Mortgage professionals, and Financial Advisors.

·         He showcased the flexibility and customization features of Business Contact Manager using a real-world example.

·         He told us about  pinpointDelivery, which provides the following features:

·                         Send large numbers of emails without upsetting your ISP or tying up your servers. 

·                         Stay compliant with the CAN-SPAM laws in the U.S.

·                         Create surveys and registration forms to insert into your emails or website.

·         He spoke about the latest Microsoft hosted solution for CRM Live, expected availability is this spring.

Lon can be reached at: lon@pinpointtools.com, or via a contact form on his website – lon@pinpointtools.com, or via a contact form on his website – www.pinpointtools.com.

We’re going to also be posting a demo video on the Pinpoint Marketing Tool in a later podcast episode, but if you can’t wait to see this incredible product in action or you want to find out more about the other products he has to offer, then you should definitely check out his website at www.pinpointtools.com.

Also, I’d like to give a big thanks and shout out to my friend Tom Mullooly of Mullooly Asset Management for turning me on to Lon and his wonderful set of products – thanks Tom!

Andrea Kalli

www.virtualassist.net 

Listen to the podcast below!        

Increase the effiectiveness of how you’re using a SharePoint Project Tasks list by adding a few extra fields to capture some all-important information.  By adding a lookup field that points to a client list, a multi-select field that allows me to associate project tasks to each other, and an appended comments field where it’s easy to track who has done what on the project and when, I’m able to greatly enhance the data I’m able to capture and use. Three simple fields, that’s it.

Now, imagine what you could do if you gave it some thought to determine just what other information your company wants to capture in SharePoint Project Tasks. I’m sure it won’t take you long to realize the potential.

Happy SharePointing!

Andrea

This is one of those unplanned and unscheduled video tips, and it was prompted by a simple email I received less than an hour ago. I immediately thought it would be a great example of how to utilize the new internet calendar functionality of Outlook 2007. It’s just another way to show you how Outlook 2007 will help you to be more productive…plus it has the added bonus of taking you just a few minutes to do. In my book, that’s always a plus.

Check out the video to see this shining example of the internet calendar (.ics) feature in Outlook 2007.

*Video available in both formats: m4v (for small portable media players) and wmv (for larger desktop viewing)

Enjoy your day!

Andrea Kalli, owner of Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

akalli@virtualassist.net

Outlook/Exchange and SharePoint Training and Support

Podcast and Audio Production and Support

IM: Skype, Yahoo, Gizmo: andrea_kalli

owner: www.smallbusinesspodcastdirectory.com

This one might sound a bit strange to some people, but I’ve been asked if this is possible by a few. So, since it can actually be done easily in Outlook, I figured I would put this in as a tip….just in case the situation strikes home to others out there in internet-land.

If this sounds like you, pay attention, I think you may like this –

You organize your incoming email by putting them into email folders that you’ve created, either by customer name or company name (John Smith, or ABC Company). You do this either by using drag and drop, or you have created some rules to automatically do this. Being the super-organizer that you are, you periodically go to your sent items and move the ones you have for John Smith, for example, to your John Smith folder, and thereby keeping the incoming emails and your replies to those emails in one folder, the John Smith folder.

If you ever thought to yourself “I really wish Outlook would do this for me”, then you’re in luck. There are actually two ways to accomplish this. One is specifically for replies that you’re making on an incoming email, and the other will handle this for emails that you initiate AND emails that you’re replying to. The first one is what this video covers and is a one checkbox, one time solution.

After I created the video I realized this can also be accomplished via rules, but you have to set up a rule for each of your email folders you have created. So I’m going to tell you how to do the second option here in this post. Create a new rule, but instead of starting with “Check messages when they arrive”, you’ll use “Check messages after sending”. You’ll check “Send to people or distribution list” (and you can put in all their email addresses here), then on the next screen you select the special email folder for that client or person. The end result is that when you send an email to that person a copy goes to the Sent Items folder AND the special email folder. When you go to clean out your sent items folder you don’t have to worry about sifting through to make sure you don’t delete those you’ve sent to important clients because a copy of them are already put “away” for you.

It’s simple really. Just one of those features you don’t think about.

*Video available in both formats: m4v (for small portable media players) and wmv (for larger desktop viewing)

Enjoy your day!

Andrea Kalli, owner of Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

akalli@virtualassist.net

Outlook/Exchange and SharePoint Training and Support

Podcast and Audio Production and Support

IM: Skype, Yahoo, Gizmo: andrea_kalli

owner: www.smallbusinesspodcastdirectory.com

Dashboards. This term has been around for a long time now. In a nutshell, it describes displaying various related information on a single page, making it easy to see the big picture. SharePoint provides a way to create dashboards on whatever you want by utilizing Web Part Pages, Web Parts, and Web Part Connections. Fancy terms for targeted filtering on a page.

The video shows you how to use this feature to create a customer dashboard, but you can create dashboards for so many different things, like a project management dashboard, an employee dashboard, a client orders dashboard …. the list goes on and on. The best part about it is that it is SO easy to do in SharePoint.

*Video available in both formats: m4v (for small portable media players) and wmv (for larger desktop viewing)

This is a great time to announce the launch of my new E-Learning Center. There you will find on-demand training courses for Outlook and SharePoint Services, and free training as well. I’ll be adding new courses on a regular basis. Go to www.virtualassist.net/elearning

Right now, here’s what is available:

1. SharePoint Services 3.0 User Training – online version $24.95 – over 10 hours of narrated video tutorials
2. SharePoint Services 3.0 User Training – download version $99.95 – over 10 hours of narrated video tutorials
3. Outlook 2007 – What’s New – online version $9.95
4. Outlook 2007 – What’s New – download version $17.95
5. Outlook 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0 Integration – download version $12.95

We also have an affiliate program for those that wish to earn a little extra money referring clients to our site. You’ll earn 30% on anything they buy. Create your own new revenue stream!

Enjoy your day!

Andrea Kalli

akalli@virtualassist.net

Outlook/Exchange and SharePoint Training and Support

Podcast and Audio Production and Support

Administrative Office Support

IM: Skype, Yahoo, Gizmo: andrea_kalli

owner: www.smallbusinesspodcastdirectory.com