So the song goes “I don’t like Mondays”® (credit: Bob Geldof)….

After a weekend of development and code improvements, we were unable to get Dex through our internal tests to release it into beta - as planned for this week.  We ran into several roadblocks, and we held a long team meeting to discuss the opportunity vs. risk of launching the product to our beta users without some of the key, mind-blowing features.  In the end, we agreed that it was more important to get it done right than to get it done fast (this is me eating my words!).  This means disappointing all of the people who signed up for our beta program (our most interested audience).  And it also means a very disappointed and disheartened development team.  When everyone’s pulling all-nighters and working through weekends to hit a date, and you realize that the product just isn’t where it needs to be, its a real blow to morale and enthusiasm.

So Monday morning and the decision is made to push back the launch of our Beta program (emails to everyone who signed up to follow shortly).

But Monday gets worse…

Later in the evening I receive an email from a lawyer representing Dex Media (not to be confused with MediaDex) - who run Dex Knows, an online yellow pages site.  They believe that our use of the name dex “is likely to cause confusion and is an infringement of the DEX® mark”, and that we should change our product name immediately “before further and substantial damage results from [our] continued infringement of the DEX® mark”.

Apparently Dex Media feels that our relationship management product resembles their online yellow pages website and magazine publishing business enough that we risk causing confusion and could benefit from the goodwill they have accumulated with their customers.

Dex insurance: ok.
Dex skateboard: ok.
Dex software (software?): ok.
Dex supply chain logistics (software again?!?): ok.
Dex multimedia (media?): yup.
Medical equipment, clothing line, Imaging, Concrete work…

OK, so maybe we’re not so original, but I think its pretty unreasonable to say our product is anything like a yellow pages company.

So now we have a choice to make.  Do we try to make our case ($$$) or do we throw away all of our goodwill and time invested in an unoriginal but strong brand position?

At the very least, at least Monday’s over.

The new website, dexapp.com, launched over the weekend.

We plan on posting a new video within the next couple of days, but we wanted to get the new design up on the web for everyone to see (and provide feedback!).

We’re getting really close to launch now…

Over the last two weeks project development has hit a speed bump and gone from warp speed to a crawl - despite Creighton’s best efforts.  The reason for the major slowdown?  Ajax.

The slowdown has caused a lot of issues in our production schedule as we try to coordinate launch activity, do early demos, copywriting, website development, and all of the other activities that surround the last phase of product development.

But mostly it just causes frustration because we don’t know how long it will take to flesh out the new design (the AMAZING design!!!).

We’re putting out the word to everyone we know that we’re looking for some heavyweight help.

If you or anyone you know is a “code ninja” with Ruby, CakePHP, Design, Ajax (!) and is looking for an exciting opportunity to build some pretty revolutionary products - send me an email… quick!

(Photo cred: Dunechaser)

We’ve been working on a “mightier” way to manage customer information and interaction, but we’ve been struggling trying to figure out how we can build a system that does more than just feed back information that you “already know” about your customers.

We’ve come to two conclusions:

1. We need to build a system that is “smart” to help you improve your relationships, not just “track” them
2. The term CRM is too narrow in scope and delivery and carries too much negative baggage

And so, we have been working for the last few weeks on a better term to describe what we’re building and have come up with:  Network Relationship Management (NRM)

NRM is a new business discipline that describes the processes used to measure the influence and contact points of a person’s or company’s professional network.

To put it in context:

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) focuses on the processes and tools that a company uses to manage customer information.
• NRM recognizes the influence of a company’s professional network and helps leverage strong connections, improve weaker connections, and actively manage the overall health of the network.

A healthy network delivers increased customer loyalty, higher quality leads, and a better reputation — a major success factor, given today’s popularity of “word of mouth” marketing.

As we look at the popularity of online social and professional networking tools, they have been linking people together -  but soon the internet will connect us all!  It’s actually pretty obvious - it’s not who you know that matters, it’s the quality and relevance of the connections that matter.

Here’s an example.

I have exchanged emails (twice) with Seth Godin, author of several good pop-marketing books.  He responded quickly both times, and is listed in my “network” and my apple contacts.  But I don’t “know” Seth Godin, anymore than I “know” Wayne Gretzky (although I have an autographed hockey card).  The same goes for the 10 people I met once at a conference that are now in my LinkedIn network.

Network Relationship Management allows you to recognize the quality of relationships, and their relevance to business.

Which is why we need a powerful Network Relationship Management tool.

We are witnessing an increasingly blurry line between private and professional networks (doesn’t everyone check facebook profiles before hiring now?) and smart companies are beginning to recognize the much more complex business relationships between contract employees, consultants, suppliers, customers, media, and company “friends”.  If companies can strengthen their relationships by analyzing their total network, they can increase sales with existing customers, improve relationships with new leads, and improve overall word of mouth marketing - which all contribute to the bottom line.

In this new “networked world”, CRM starts to look like a dinosaur.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about how our products are going to fundamentally change how companies - and people - will be able to manage their networks.

Stay tuned.

I just got back from an intensive two-day brainstorm / working retreat with the team up near Mount Tremblant in Quebec.

It’s difficult trying to make the best use of such a short period with everyone in the same physical location - it’s only happened one other time - at the beginning of this project - and it’s unlikely to happen again.

The highlights of the meetings:

• A lot of progress was made on how we integrate the customer management, customer portal, and team collaboration modules.  We discussed where they overlap, and how we can ensure smooth transitions for all of the different roles of the people who will use the software.

• Huge progress in design.  I think we have an excellent, innovative navigation and data structure model that will make it easy to find information quickly without feeling overwhelmed by the screens.

• Some killer features.  Like a combo twitter-like IM / mobile notification and communication platform that is extended across the apps.  Or a scrollable, graphical timeline view of all information about an account in the company section.  I am really excited about some of the concepts that are playing out.

However, for me the biggest challenge and opportunity that came out of the last two days is how we are going to “name” the software.  We came to a conclusion that we are not doing traditional CRM or support management - and that our software really “humanizes” the relationship that companies have with their customers.  So we’re looking for a name that will reflect this.

Any ideas?

For reporting, we started out using XML/SWF charts. I was familiar with the library and it seemed to be easy to integrate with rails (and it was). But the type of charts Scott wanted to see weren’t possible with XML/SWF charts.

After a few days of hacking, we scrapped that charting library for amCharts (http://www.amcharts.com/)

This library works great, but you need to get comfortable with configuration. Lots of configuration options, but really easy to get working with rails. Basically you just use repond_to and write the xml needed using builder and the javascript in html.

Here is a chart that is on the dashboard of CRM. The rollover effects are nice, and the message inside is easily customizable.

We built a CSV import for contacts. It started out being an import specifically for outlook. Once completed, it didn’t feel right, especially when we started the Act import, which some of our clients use. Having them choose what type of import (Outlook or Act) didn’t feel right either, so rather than making imports so specific, we are going with this:

We were also able to reuse the code, and support importing CSV files for deals. Next up is vCard imports.

The Alpha version of our CRM system (codenamed “Blackbook”) was released last week and I’m really excited about this initial build.

This first build represents the skeleton of the application with the key data components.  There’s a lot of great functionality in this first build including:

• Dashboard Charts
• Company and Person management
• CSV imports (worked with 38,000 records!)
• Deal Management
• Custom Fields
• Task & Activity Management
• File upload and commenting

The next phase will focus on improving usability design (finding records easily with a lot of content), contact grouping, campaign management, and multiple integration points (forms, web, email).  I’m looking forward to receiving a lot more feedback over the next couple of weeks.

As always, if you’re interested in testing the alpha version (warts and all!) sign up here.