Quotewerks/CommitCRM integration improvement

First, let me say that I really like the built in Quote tool. I was a huge supporter of the addition of this option - and still am.

However, for most of our quotes, we end up using Quotewerks. This is due to the # of features that Quotewerks provides like: better margin visibility, integration with Dell Premier, Elitze content server, re-occurring billing calculations, nicer print outs (cover sheets), etc.

So, for everything except the most basic quote, we use Quotewerks.

The frustration is that the integration with CommitCRM is so poor that we don't use it at all. Other than provide a way of populating the address info into Quotewerks, and pull the total from QW back into CommitCRM, it really gives no real value.

I would LOVE to see this integration enhanced. These two features would make this integration so much better:

1) Provide a way to integrate with CommitCRM FROM Quotewerks - so that a new quote in Quotewerks could create an opportunity in Commit under the respective account.

2) Quotewerks quote line items need to be able to translate to CommitCRM ticket charges - this should automatically change the quote status.

Maybe this should be rethought a bit and we should be translating Quotewerks Quotes into CommitCRM Quotes - and then those CommitCRM quotes could be linked to opportunities or tickets based on the need. At least you would be able to then seamlessly translate that CommitCRM quote into a ticket with correct charges.

I would love to know what the plans are for the integration between these two tools. If there are no plans for improvement, then I may need to rethink my quote process. Thanks for your consideration.

Luke

Thanks for your feedback here.

RangerMSP Quoting feature is powerful and well integrated with all areas in RangerMSP. However it does not try to replace QuoteWerks when it comes to advanced quoting features such as the one you listed (For example integration with Dell Premier, Elitze content server, etc.). In case you you need these features we would recommend that you'll be using QuoteWerks and work with their great team. This is actually one of the reasons why we developed the integration to QuoteWerks.

To be more specific, for #1 you probably need to contact QuoteWerks. The current integration is based no their APIs where RangerMSP calls it. From what we understand #1 requires changing that and having QW call RangerMSP's API. We will be happy to assist with this.

In regards to #2, as far as we know (though things may have changed over the course of time) QuoteWerks does not provide line base access from its API, and in case this is the still the case - it is not possible to access the Quote lines. On a side note we would mention that even if it is/will-be possible, the structure of a QuoteWerks Quote Line differs from the one in RangerMSP so we can see some potential difficulties to overcome here.

Last bit: This may surprise new customers but RangerMSP did not include a Quoting feature when we initially integrated with QuoteWerks :-)

Right, I wasn't suggesting that you try to replaced QuoteWerks functionality.

So, if I contact Quotewerks and get answers for you on the above, will that help you out?

I just sent an email to Quotewerks to get answers. According to http://www.quotewerks.com/sdk.asp, their SDK does support line item access as well as contact manager replacement. Not sure to what level, but it appears that the SDK may have been updated since you last used it (?).

As I said, the built in Quote tool may be adequate for many users - but QuoteWerks beings so many more options to the table. I'm just finding that information spread out over too many systems makes it really hard to see what is in our sales pipeline - and makes it hard to stay on top of all the quotes and provide adequate follow up.

Thanks Luke. It's possible and actually even likely that their APIs have been enhanced. We will learn more about the level of support for it be will consider the options here. Thanks.

+1 pls

Also - apologies to possibly take this off thread but I am looking at starting to bring our customers into using the Web Portal

One of the tabs available is Quotes and at the moment it is very bare and obvious question would be 'where are all our quotes then/why have you put the tab there?!?'

We also use QW's and am wondering if there is some some clever way to be able to list the quotes here for the customer to see even if it is just displaying the list of quotes which when clicked shows a hyperlink to the QuoteValet (yup we use that too) quote?

We had a request a couple of weeks ago from a customer who was having a government inspection and needed not 1 but 3 years of quotes from us! (yes they have all been sent already over the years - yes they should already have had them - yes they should be responsible for keeping their own records - but - but - but...)

Good luck with looking into this though Commit and definitely something we would be interested in too please!

Regarding customers seeing seeing a very bare Quotes tab - you can choose not to show the Quotes section in the Web Interface - more details are on our wiki here. This will allow your customers to browse the Quotes as well as to approve them :-)

Quotewerks quotes can't currently be displayed in the Web Interface, only those from the RangerMSP quotes module. It's an interesting request though, maybe some kind of a link to QuoteValet. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for the reply

OH! ok I didn't think there was any editabilty on the Web Portal but I have followed the link you have posted and all I can see is info on how to make an individual quote public/non public and have scoured the rest of the article and cannot find anything about how to completely turn off the Quote Tab... sorry could you point it out for me/am just not seeing it

Re: the QV stuff - I have a gut feeling something 'funky' could be setup to basically allow a user to click a hyperlink and be taken to the QV quote along the lines of creating dummy Commit Quotes so they show in the Web Portal but obviously extra work/things to keep on top of manually etc. (lots of extra work in Commit but all worth it at the end of the day to keep a tight ship ;)

Would be great if you would consider better integration along these lines as you say QW is a good solution/product and you seem to rate them highly too etc.

It is mentioned under the Privileges section there which links to the Customer Privileges page. All you need to do is go to File > Users & Privileges > Customer Privileges – For Web Users and uncheck the relevant boxes which you will see there. Note though that you will need to create a custom privileges group and remove the Quotes privilege from that or use a Limited privileges group for the users.

Also, thank you for the additional input and suggestions regarding QV and QW.

Aha! thank you totally forgot about privileges and was not at all aware there was a separate section for Web Users Priveleges - thanks!

Is improved Quoteworks integration not important to anyone else?

I am also interested in seeing improvements in the Quotewerks integration. We are in the process of evaluating Quotewerks and part of that evaluation is how well it integrates with Commit. So far it doesn't look good, probably not worth the $199 price of the link.

I reckon it's worth the $199 price tag - chuck your money in the pot then there's more $$'s available for Commit to develop no...? ;)

I posted in QW's Forums a while back when we were looking at making a bespoke helpdesk system regarding SDK's - seems they've been superseded by ummm well to be honest was bit confused by the reply and don't know if it is relevant to this post here as such but basically looks like QW's have moved on from the SDK's so thought would point that out...