by Fanatical Labs

Save Your Team Countless Hours. SugarChimp syncs your lists in both directions so you can work in your preferred app. Segment and group your Mailchimp subscribers based on Sugar data so you can market to the right people at the right time. Compatible with all versions and editions of Sugar and SuiteCRM. Created by Fanatical Labs, 2023 SugarCRM Partner Award Winner.

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#547 - lack of documentation

Closed General Question created by arcangel 9 years ago

Hello,

Firstly - I am the admin on this client's installation - Michael Loveless - michael@604media.com

I have been working to configure this tool and I find there is a lack of documentation. - i see a few FAQ's and under Documentation - there is basically one page of how to installation -- am I missing something?

I am wanting to get more in depth beyond the initial installation.

  1. fanaticallabs member avatar

    Fanatical Labs Provider Affiliate

    9 years ago

    Hi Michael, thank you for the feedback. You are not missing anything. It's a very straight-forward and easy to setup installation. What you see listed is the all the documentation we currently have.

    I'd love to get the documentation updated if you're looking for more information.

    What exactly are you wanting to know how to do?

    Thanks!

  2. arcangel member avatar

    arcangel

    9 years ago

    Hello,

    thanks for your reply - I don't mean to sound critical - just that there was such a ground up change on the sugarchimp 3.x to 7.x --- the main things I am wondering is the following:

    1. We are using sugar 6.5 - and have installed sugarchimp 7.x -- so the connector is functioning - and my understanding is that you look up the contact/lead/target/account (we have configured the connector for these four modules) - and if there is any Mailchimp data for the selected record -- the marketing activity data is shown the the connector popup window --- -- and the data is not stored in the sugarcrm db - it is just being pulled from Mailchimp via the connector in real time -- ------ is that correct understanding

    2. the scenario in point #1 is handy when looking at the actual record - but what do I do if I want to process a campaign - and see all the bounces -- or all the click throughs - or all the opens -- for example --- from what I can see - we can only look at the connector on a record by record basis.

    the previous version of sugarchimp had a module that showed this activity based on a campaign - i believe.

    am i missing something here - perhaps you can guide me as to how the sales team would follow up from a mailchimp campaign after it is sent - I can't get my head around this -- In Sugar Campaign - the various marketing activities (bounce, open, click through, etc) are viewed as sub-panels --- is Sugarchimp connecting the campaigns between mailchimp and sugar - i recall Sugarchimp 3.x having a 'SugarChimp Campaigns module)

    I find that this is not exactly a simple process -- ie you are bridging two powerful system - merging target lists - campaigns and follow up activity against 4 different module in Sugar - as a premium user (44/mth) I would expect to have so more documentation - especially given the radical change in 3.x to 7.x --- just some constructive feedback -- thanks for your support.

    • fanaticallabs member avatar

      Fanatical Labs Provider Affiliate

      9 years ago

      You're not sounding critical at all, this is exactly the type of feedback we need. Thank you for the detailed response. Keep it up! :)

      That's correct regarding the connector. It's only a view into the MailChimp activity data. One small note, it does not sync accounts. Only people records: Contacts, Leads, Targets.

      The old versions of SugarChimp (version 3 and before) attempted to do what you're suggesting with campaigns, but it had several issues scaling beyond a few subscribers and campaigns. It rarely worked for anyone. At the beginning of the year we acquired SugarChimp from its previous owners to create a more scalable and reliable SugarChimp.

      We first tackled the list syncing problem, as that is the most popular and asked for feature. This is complete. It's bi-directional and you can sync any fields (default & custom) on the Contact/Target/Lead modules.

      The next large feature we'll be implementing is the syncing of the campaign and activity data so that it lives and Sugar and you can have the functionality you're looking for. This will be ready this summer.

      In the meantime, we tell everyone to use MailChimp for what they do best (campaign management, reporting etc.).

      We will be updating documentation this week to better explain the features and common usage going beyond the installation and setup. We'd definitely your feedback on that as it's updated.

      I think I answered all of your questions. Let me know if you have any more. Thanks again!

  3. arcangel member avatar

    arcangel

    9 years ago

    Hello - wow - that is quite a drastic change - I am not clear how the sales team would use this tool - you suggest that using the mailchimp interface for what it does best - but that is not practical for the sales team who would not be active in mailchimp --

    can we downgrade to 3.x version until the 7,x version is better suited for prime time use --? are there shortcomings in 3.x that would not make its use reliable or recommended?

  4. arcangel member avatar

    arcangel

    9 years ago

    Hello - my most important concern here is the stability of version 3.x -- your previous comments suggested that "The old versions of SugarChimp (version 3 and before) attempted to do what you're suggesting with campaigns, but it had several issues scaling beyond a few subscribers and campaigns. It rarely worked for anyone." ----- please expand on this - I need to make a decision regarding a solution for moving forward.

    • fanaticallabs member avatar

      Fanatical Labs Provider Affiliate

      9 years ago

      Hello again! When I say use MailChimp for what it does best, I'm referring to segmenting lists, sending campaigns and viewing the reports. MailChimp is far better than Sugar at these things. For the majority of our customers, the sales and support teams live in Sugar. They manage all of their Contacts/Targets/Leads in Sugar. As they make updates to the person records and manage who are on the target lists, SugarChimp keeps all of that in sync between the two systems. If you use MailChimp web forms, those leads can also be funneled directly into Sugar to your sales team to work.

      I definitely get that there's missing functionality between the old and new version of SugarChimp, but this is actually the first case I've heard of someone being happy with it. In the majority of the version 3.x systems we see, campaign syncing simply does not work. The schedulers (all 12 of them) never completely finish which causes even more issues on the system.

      To downgrade to version 3.x, you'll need to uninstall the latest version, then reinstall the latest version 3.x that you have. If you don't have an old version to reinstall, you may be able to find it in /cache/upgrades/temp

      Having said all that, you're definitely our target customer, and I want to deliver something that fits your needs. We're implementing the features you're looking for this summer. I'd love to have a chat/screenshare to talk more. Is there a time in the next day or so we can hop on a call? What timezone are you in?

      Thanks again for all the feedback!

  5. arcangel member avatar

    arcangel

    9 years ago

    yes please - I would love to connect today as i really need to make a clear decision moving forward - i am the Sugar specialist for this client - michael@604media.com -- could you please contact me and arrange a screenshare/chat asap. 905-807-7184

  6. fanaticallabs member avatar

    Fanatical Labs Provider Affiliate

    9 years ago

    Hi Michael, I'll shoot you an email right now. Looking forward to chatting.

    I have a couple meetings today, but should be able to work something out. Going to go ahead and close this case for now.

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