Today’s business customer expects a more personalized experience. Research shared by Bernie Borges at Find and Convert found 2 in 5 consumers tend to unsubscribe from emails or unlike a Facebook page if they receive too many promotions that aren’t relevant to them. Poorly targeted promotional emails and communications reduces the likelihood of sales by 45%.

Marketing automation can feel like an overwhelming task for the average business, but it needn’t be as daunting as it appears. CloudWork’s integrations help you to break down your marketing workflow into manageable stages that can then each be automated. This technique lets you keep total control over your marketing workflow, while reducing the amount of duplicate data entry or administration support you need to resource to manage your communications.

For many businesses, crafting more relevant promotional materials means:

• maintaining customer records with the latest updates (such as updating new contacts from your emails to your CRM, knowing who opened your marketing emails whenever you make contact, and being aware of who subscribes to your mailing lists)
• being able to group customers into relevant market segments
• demonstrating your business leadership, and
• being ready to reach out as customers show they are ready to buy.

Here are some simple ideas that let you get started with marketing automation based on the app integrations we offer at CloudWork.

1. Sync your contact data from your emails to your CRM

Example Integration: Add Google Contacts to Zoho CRM as lead

How to use: You can set up integrations to automatically save new contact information from your emails directly to your CRM. For your workflow, get into the habit of saving all new Gmail contacts to a particular group in your Google Contacts, for example, “New customer enquiries”. Then set up our integration so that whenever you add a contact to this group, it is automatically transferred to your CRM app as a new lead (or contact if you prefer).

When to use: With a couple of clicks, you can now transfer any new customer enquiry into your CRM so you never lose track of a potential sale opportunity again. You can also couple this integration with some of our other CRM integrations, such as being able to store a full copy of the email with the CRM record.

2. Automatically add high-paying customers to a VIP list based on their invoice amount

Example Integration: Add FreshBooks customers to a MailChimp list based on invoice amount

How to use: Create a specific interest group in MailChimp for your platinum shoppers – i.e. those customers who spend over a specific amount, say $500. Then set up an integration so that whenever you issue an invoice from FreshBooks to a customer for this amount (or more), they are automatically saved to a special VIP list for targeted promotions.

When to use: Providing an all-encompassing loyalty scheme is difficult to manage and can end up with you offering unsustainable discounts to low-value customers or looky-lou’s. Fine tune your loyalty program by creating a VIP experience for your best customers. These customers have already proven they want to spend money with you, so you want them to come back sooner and spend similar amounts again. Don’t overdo the promotional offers you send to this list, and only use it to offer a truly VIP experience.

3. Know which contacts open or click on your email marketing

Example Integration: Track Campaign Monitor campaigns in Capsule CRM

How to use: You can use app integrations to have a note added to your CRM record for each lead contact record showing if they opened your latest email campaign sent from Campaign Monitor, indicating whether they opened your email newsletter or promotional offer, and what they clicked on.

When to use: If you have a sales department that calls leads from your CRM database, it is essential to conversion that you have a 360 degree view of all the interactions they have had with your business. With this integration, your sales staff can see if your leads opened your email campaigns and what links they clicked on. Sales staff can have a more targeted conversation with leads based on what they have shown they are interested in.

4. Send thought leadership tweets directly from your note-taking

Example Integration: Send a tweet from your Evernote notes

How to use: Set up an app integration so that any new note added to a particular Evernote notebook will also be tweeted from your Twitter account.

When to use: This is a great integration to build your thought leadership reputation, especially when attending industry events or from a conference. Now you can save those pithy speaker quotes and at the same time, share the gold with your followers.

5. Get an SMS alert whenever a lead subscribes to one of your email lists

Example Integration: Send an SMS alert via Twilio when someone subscribes to a MailChimp list

How to use: Twilio is an API tool that allows you to promote a phone line to your target market that will connect all your calls via voice-over-IP. There is some set up required as this is a coding API, but once in place you can route all your landline calls through a VoIP network and onwards to mobiles. There are integrations available to send you SMS alerts when particular events are triggered, in this case, when someone on your lead database subscribes to one of your email newsletters.

When to use: When your lead contacts start seeking out more technical information – for example, by subscribing to a more specific email newsletter you offer rather than a more general one – it is a sign they are edging closer to being ready to buy. You can set up this app integration to alert your sales manager by SMS when a lead subscribes to a particular, more technically-focused email. Now your sales manager can followup with warmer leads who have shown they want a deeper knowledge of your products and services, and convert the lead into a customer at just the right time.

6. See an engagement summary of your latest email campaign

Example Integration: Create a summary in Evernote 24-hours after your MailChimp campaign is sent out

How to use: After you have scheduled an email marketing campaign in MailChimp, you can set up an app integration to receive a summary ion Evernote 24 hours after it is sent to your subscriber base.

When to use: Keep a summary record of the effectiveness of each email campaign and work to improve your benchmarks for opening rates and click-throughs. This is also a great app integration to use if you have a limited items discount offer. You can review the email opening rates from Evernote and decide if you need to invite a greater portion of your customer base in order to reach a conversion rate that will use up your supply without over-committing your business and disappointing customers.

App integrations let you work on marketing tasks rather than on the admin and data entry required to connect your various online tools and cloud-based apps. Start thinking about the tasks that see you spend hours repeating data entry or cutting and pasting from one app to another. These are ripe fodder for app integrations and automation.

Get started with one of our app integrations to start your own marketing automation machinery now!

The post Marketing Automation for the Rest of Us: 6 App Integrations You Can Use To Personalize Your Marketing Now appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

Managing a Field Service office is one of the most difficult coordination tasks in business.

A typical Field Service Management workflow includes:

• Responding to urgent customer requests
• Allocating field service technician support
• Matching technicians with the service equipment and repair machinery they need to do the job
• Coordinating a mobile workforce
• Keeping back-office systems up-to-date
• …The list goes on.

On any given day, the average Field Service Manager feels like an octopus, juggling eight things at once. And then the phone rings with an urgent new task or a query about a job just completed…!

Keeping Field Service Teams in Sync

Luckily, the Field Service industry has Synchroteam. This cloud app has been especially designed to support Field Service Managers with managing both a mobile workforce and on-site customer jobs. Synchroteam is ideally suited to any industry business that needs to manage an ongoing roster of jobs in the field, and to allocate resources (both staff time and equipment). Security firms, pest control, machinery repair services, transport maintenance, and HVAC services all use Synchroteam to manage their work.

Extending the Field Service Management Workflow

Now, Synchroteam integrations (powered by CloudWork) extend the Field Service Management workflow so that it connects with the whole of the business operations.

In particular, the Field Service Manager can optimize their work by automating data transfer tasks and backup jobs.

One-Touch Contact Management

There is an old anecdote from the time management bible, One Minute Manager, that reveals how often we end up touching each piece of information before we actually use it. A manager marks the corner of a business letter (this was pre-email!) with a little dot to indicate that he had read the letter. He then ends up working on something else, or taking a phone call, or whatever. Later, he picks up the business letter and so he marks it again with another dot. By the time he finally actions the letter and can put it away in the filing, he has accumulated a string of little dots in the corner of the letter.

Managing contact information is much the same. Instead of being touched once and dealt with, we end up coming back to it time and again as we need to re-enter the information into multiple systems, then check that we haven’t made any errors, and finally are able to file the original.

Synchroteam’s new integrations allow one-touch contact management. If a Field Service Manager enters new customer information into Synchroteam, the details can be automatically routed to other business apps including:

• Campaign Monitor
• Capsule CRM
• FreshBooks
• Google Contacts
• Highrise
• MailChimp
• Salesforce
• SugarCRM
• Zoho CRM.

Contact data can also be funnelled from the business’ CRM app first, and then into Synchroteam and other business apps. As long as either Synchroteam or the company’s CRM is the first place the contact information is entered, everything else can be done automatically.

Maintaining Customer Job Records

The Field Service Management workflow does not end with the customer job being completed. This can be a stressful and unproductive aspect to the Field Service Manager’s job. While new requests and routine jobs continue to roll, backend admin starts piling up. Photos of completed jobs need to be backed up, customer records need updating, and a visual calendar of all completed works needs to be maintained.

Synchroteam now offers integrations to allow the Field Service Manager to stay focused on customer service, while backend administration is automated. Customer job details can be added to the appropriate contact record in the business’ CRM, photos can be stored in a cloud backup service, and a running calendar of work can be added to a visual timeline. These can all be done through Synchroteam’s integrations with business apps including:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Google Calendar
• CRM apps.

Field Service Optimization with Integrations

These new Synchroteam integrations will enable a smoother workflow and greater efficiencies for the Field Service business user. Field Service optimization allows companies with a mobile workforce to stay focused on customer service, timely job response, and efficient allocation of resources. We commend Synchroteam on extending their ecosystem to empower their customers.

The post Field Service Optimization with Synchroteam appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

Our click and connect cloud data integration catalog is filled with actual business use cases. These are integrations that can be set up in three or four steps, with no complex coding or complicated data transfers.

We know you need app integration tools that don’t get in the way of your relationships with customers, your focus on quality, and your ambitions to innovate and stay ahead of industry trends when you next create service and product solutions. By using cloud data integrations, you spend less time on the backend administration and more time on your core business.

We are pleased to present some user interface design enhancements to help you get the job done quickly. If you are adding new integrations to your account, you will notice some new screens to guide you through the process.

One-stop access to all our integrations

On your account home page, where your current integrations are listed, you can now see a “Create Integration button”. This will take you to our new integration wizard.

Now all our integrations are listed in one place. You can find fresh ideas for app integrations that will help your business workflow in two ways: by clicking on the apps you use, or by using the filter input box in the top right hand corner.

1. Click on each of the apps you use in the lefthand side menu.

Now, you will be given a list of all integrations that involve the apps you use. You can now more easily see which cloud data integration tools could help you in your business. When you find an integration that will help reduce your data entry and administrative workload, click on the “Activate” button.

2. Alternatively, you can type a keyword in the filter box in the top righthand corner. For example, you could type in “email” to see all integrations that help you automate your email workflows.

What your cloud data integration will and won’t do

Our revamped integration configuration screen clearly lets you know when the integration will transfer your data between your cloud apps, and (just as importantly), when it won’t.

For example, with our integration “Add Evernote attachments to Google Drive” you can automatically backup all the attachments stored when you create a note in Evernote. This screen clearly lets you know that when you create a new note, your attachments are saved to your preferred folder in Google Drive, but if you later update that note, no further data will be transferred. Now you know you will need to create a new note if you have more attachments to backup, and you can rest assured that you are not saving duplicate attachments if you have to go back and edit the Evernote note text where you already have attachments.

Please let us know what you think of our new user interface. We are constantly improving the cloud data integration tools we offer our business users and are always looking for ways to help you keep your focus on what matters most: your business value.

The post Click and Connect: Cloud Data Integration Just Got Even Easier! appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

However, for managers wanting a quick overview and for client meetings focused on discussing project progress, dev teams can have a difficult time converting their Pivotal Tracker dashboard into a format that non-dev minds can get their heads around.

A Google Calendar/Pivotal Tracker integration can let you instantly create a data visualization of how your dev team is rolling out project activity across any given timeline: a week, a month, or for the full length of time to create a minimum viable product (hopefully, that means 90 days for your dev team).

You can use this timeline:

• as a benchmark for future product development
• to assess the resources involved in adding code for new features
• to manage dev teams, or
• to create a timeline for your clients to show them how an app dev project progresses day-by-day to build an online or mobile product.

Here’s how to create a Pivotal Tracker/Google Calendar integration.

Project Management Tracking in a Timeline Visualization

1. Select Pivotal Tracker from the app integrations catalog page

2. Now select Google Calendar to integrate with Pivotal Tracker

3. Click on the “Get Started” button beside the integration “Track delivered Pivotal Tracker stories inside Google Calendar”

4. Indicate which Pivotal Tracker project you want to track
If you want a finer-grain project management tracking visualization, you can create separate calendar integrations for bug dev work, new feature story implementation, or for an updated release of an app product.

As a developer, if you want to benchmark how quickly you code your development tasks, you can create a personal calendar.

If you need to review the progress of requested client work, you can create a calendar based on stories implemented in response to a specific requester.

Optional fields that are left blank will return all relevant stories, regardless of story type, owner or requester.

5. Select to which Google Calendar the stories should be added, as they are completed

6. Click on ‘Create Integration’. Done!

Additional Project Management Tracking Tips

• Before you start this integration, you can create a new calendar in Google Calendar where Pivotal Tracker stories should be placed
• You can add the emails of managers or clients to share your online calendar and provide them with an easily accessible cloud-based visualization of the progress of your development project
• You can create separate integrations for each type of Pivotal Tracker Story and add these to separate calendars. In Google Calendar, select to see all calendars at once, and you instantly have a color coded visualization of delivered Pivotal Tracker stories
• Check out our Google Calendar Integration Tips for more ways to supercharge your time management

Get started with our Pivotal Tracker/Google Calendar integration now and improve your project management tracking now

The post Project Management Tracking for Developers: Pivotal Tracker/Google Calendar Integration – Step By Step appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

Our Salesforce Gmail integration automatically lets you keep records of all incoming and sent emails to your leads from within your Salesforce database.

You can even set up tasks in Salesforce so that your schedule is updated whenever you receive new emails.

At CloudWork, we encourage you to use CRM integrations as a key way to maintain an overview of all your business relationships. Now, more than ever, a successful business must be able to show a listening ear to their customers and be able to create a personal experience for every client. Customers want to feel that the businesses they buy from understand their needs and are flexible enough to adapt to their specific situation. Successful businesses are often taking a lean entrepreneur approach to their business model by creating a sense of personalization for each individual customer, while using business processes that can scale up and meet ever-growing demand.

Our Salesforce Gmail integrations are a good example of the resources we are creating for businesses to better manage their inbox and continually convert sales leads into new customers every month of the year.

For Salesforce Professional Users Only

To make use of this integration, you will need to have your REST API enabled. All professional Salesforce accounts are provided with this in place, or you can contact Salesforce customer support and request that it be enabled. If you are using a trial account, you will not be able to use this integration. In that case, check out our other Gmail integrations for more ideas about how to get more value out of automating and task managing your emails.

Set up the Salesforce Gmail Integration

1. Click on the + sign from your account home page to start a new integration. Select Salesforce from the menu of apps available

2. Select Gmail from the choice of apps to integrate with Salesforce

Now you can choose the Salesforce Gmail integration that will help you best keep a global overview of your lead nurturing and engagement.

For example, a tour operator uses our Salesforce Gmail integration to keep copies of the full body text of all emails received from leads. Now, each time the tour operator makes contact with a lead to promote a potential business group booking, they have full access to the followup questions and specific needs that a lead outlined in an email to them.

3. Select the inbound integration that makes business sense to your lead followup:

• copy the full email body text to your Salesforce lead record, or
• add a notation with your lead’s email subject line and the email date to your Salesforce lead

4. Configure which emails received should be monitored for adding to Salesforce lead records
If you leave blank, all emails received in your Gmail inbox will be added to the relevant lead record, where it exists.

If you only want to add emails with a particular label, or with particular words used in the subject line or text body, indicate them here. This will prevent all email correspondence with leads from being imported into Salesforce, and only add those emails about a given subject.

For example, our tour operator emails regularly with a business lead, but only wants to keep track of the discussions regarding an upcoming New York business trip. They leave Mailbox and subject blank and add the words “New York” to the field “Has the words”.

5. Configure whether Gmail correspondence will be visible for all leads (Choose No from the drop down list), or whether details are only viewable by the lead owner (Choose Yes)
That is, indicate whether email correspondence should be private or not.

6. Click the ‘Create Integration’ button. Your integration is ready!

In Salesforce, new emails will now appear in the individual leads database screen under “Notes and Attachments”. You can use the formatting function within Salesforce if you want to prioritize this field and place it closer to the top of the page. This will more easily prompt your sales staff to review all previous correspondence before making the next contact.

Additional tips

• You may need Administrator privileges in Salesforce to implement these integrations. Check with Salesforce support if you are having any problems.
• You can also use a Salesforce Gmail integration to trigger a reminder to yourself to act on the latest requests from sales leads. Set up the “Add Gmail messages to Salesforce as tasks” integration to automatically update your to do list any time an email about a particular subject is received from one of your leads.
• Set up integrations to create 360 degree views for all contacts and leads in Salesforce by automatically attaching both inbound and sent emails to the relevant lead with our integrations.
• Use a MailChimp/Campaign Monitor integration with Salesforce to also track whether clients subscribe to your email lists, and consider adding a prompt in your script for followup calls – or even just a footer to your emails – to encourage leads to subscribe to your email campaigns.
• Set up a time once a month for a manager to review your communications with sales leads: are there other processes that can be automated or regular requests/queries that can be addressed earlier in the sales funnel process? Discuss any patterns with your marketing team so you can develop content resources aimed at specifically addressing these common queries or obstacles to buying.
• Create a similar process to discuss queries and unresolved issues with product development teams. This will let you identify new innovations that can address areas of unmet customer demand.

Track your emails from leads with this Gmail integration to attach notes to Salesforce leads now

The post A Single View of All Your Leads – Salesforce Gmail Integration: Step By Step appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

Despite the advances of mobile apps, video-on-demand, Facebook posts, Google Glass predictions, and a constant stream of tweeting, email remains one of the most effective customer engagement strategies available to businesses. It is so effective, it has even been singled out as one of the factors that helped Barack Obama sweep to victory for a second Presidential term in the US elections of November 2012. For ecommerce vendors, 2 out of every 3 email recipients who open an email usually buy – that is, around 67% of your engaged subscribers!

SaaS apps like MailChimp offer our businesses a sophisticated email marketing tool that can be up and running with a few clicks. Meanwhile, contact relationship management (CRM) apps are becoming the spinal column for any business’ operations, as more and more competing businesses take a lean entrepreneur approach that prioritizes creating a personalized experience for every customer.

With these two app tools, you can consistently build on effective email marketing strategies, and create a personal experience whenever you are in contact with a customer (be it via email, phone or in person). To achieve this, you need a MailChimp CRM integration that gives you at-a-glance information on which lists your contacts are subscribed to and whether these potential customers have responded to your previous email offers by opening and clicking on your links.

Let’s look at an example of a MailChimp CRM integration that tracks email engagement.

Follow this step by step guide to setting up a MailChimp integration with Capsule CRM.

1. Select MailChimp from the CloudWork apps integration marketplace

2. Now select Capsule CRM to connect/sync with MailChimp

3. Click on the Get Started button next to the option “Track MailChimp campaign interactions in Capsule CRM”

4. You will be asked to allow authorization for CloudWork to connect with MailChimp and Capsule CRM
Just a reminder, we don’t store, read or use your data in any way, other than to connect it between your apps.

5. Now choose which campaign you want MailChimp to monitor
A dropdown menu will appear for each active campaign you are running. (You can repeat this integration for each of your active campaigns.)

6. Click the “Create Integration” button. Done!

Advanced Tips and Ideas

• MailChimp campaign lists will only show in the dropdown menu if you have completed all stages of their setup. Make sure you create and schedule your email campaigns first, and then use this integration to select which campaigns you want to have monitored with your Capsule CRM contacts.
• There are some key variables that may be impacting on your email response rate:
  • The time of day (and day of week) that you send your email
  • How frequently you email your audience
  • Your email subject headline.

  You can use big data to help you better understand when to schedule your email campaigns to increase the likelihood of them being opened. Check out MailChimp’s blog and resources, especially data summaries like this one which collects data from multiple campaigns to identify patterns in how we all respond to emails. If you are a frequent MailChimp campaigner, consider using MailChimp’s Wavelength service which lets you compare your campaign effectiveness with others in your industry.

• Alternatively, it could be your subject lines that are leaving your audience non-plussed. If you have a high rate of unopened emails, you may need to find a more enticing way to pique the curiosity of your audience. MailChimp has an A/B testing tool that allows you to try out different email headlines and see which one is the best fit for your target market segment.
• If your opening rates are healthy but your conversions are not, your problems may lie in what happens after your subscribers click on an email link. You can always copy what Obama did by setting up specific landing pages, using line-of-sight images, and including customized elements to create a personalized feel.
• Consider timing some followup calls with your Capsule CRM contacts who do engage with your emails. You can schedule calls to followup and discuss the links they clicked on from your email. The beauty of this integration is that you can see what email offers your prospective customers were most interested in. Make sure you scan these in Capsule CRM before your staff start making calls. Give your sales team enough specific product information based on the click-through interest responses and delegate the responsibility for them to make appropriate discounts to close sales.
• This MailChimp CRM integration helps you keep your customers at the centre of your business operations. Have a look at our other CRM integration tips to make sure your business workflow always focuses on building your customer engagement and loyalty.

Get started with tracking email engagement with this Mailchimp Capsule CRM integration now

The post Be Obama! Improve Email Engagement with a MailChimp CRM Integration: Step By Step appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

The second part of our tutorial focuses on how to import data between Google Calendar and your other apps.

We have already looked at the best way to use a CSV import to copy all your existing contact data from one app to another. Part One of our tutorial focused on moving subscriber and customer data from apps like FreshBooks and MailChimp to a CRM app like Zoho CRM.

If you are getting started with apps integration, it sometimes makes sense to import all your existing data so your apps are in sync. Then you can use app integrations from our ever-growing catalog to keep all your data updated and connected going forward. You will only ever have to do this import data process once, and after that CloudWork will look after all your data syncing needs.

Now lets look at how to import data:

• From a CRM, like Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zoho CRM, Highrise or Capsule CRM to Google Calendar
• From Google Calendar to another app, for example, the time tracking app like Toggl.

If you have a particular integration in mind, where you need to import all your current data across your business apps, please contact us and we will update our tutorials with the example you need.

How To Import Data

…From a CRM to Google Calendar

1. Several CRM apps like Highrise and Capsule CRM only offer one-way feeds to your Google Calendar. While this means you cannot edit events in Google Calendar (as they won’t sync with Highrise or Capsule CRM), you can use the URL feed function in these CRM apps to see all past event data in your Google Calendar

2. If you want to review all previous client event history from Zoho CRM, here’s how to import all the activity to your Google Calendar

a. Export data from Zoho CRM
Choose the setup menu option in the top right hand corner and then select the “Data Administration” option.

Under the Data Migration Wizard, select “Export Data” from the menu line and “Events” from the dropdown list of export options

b. Now clean the exported data. Open the CSV file that was downloaded. Import it into Excel or upload it to Google Drive,m choosing for separated values to be shown in separate columns. Now delete the following columns:

• Event ID
• Event Owner
• Event Owner ID
• Contact Name
• What Name
• Related To
• Created By & ID
• Modified By & ID
• Created & Modified Time
• Send Notification Email
• Description

c. Add the data from each “Who name” column to a parentheses at the end of the relevant “subject” cell. This will let you keep a record of who each event corresponds with when you import into Google Calendar. When completed, delete the “Who name” column

d. Separate the data in the date and time columns and rename them as Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time

e. Your spreadsheet should now look something like this:

f. Save, or download (if you are using Google Drive) your cleaned up spreadsheet as a CSV file

g. Now you can Import this data to Google Calendar. Click on the cog symbol on the right hand side of Google Calendar and choose the Settings menu option

Choose the second tab, the Calendars option from the menu row.

Click on Import calendar under the list of My Calendars. Upload your cleaned up CSV file and select which of your Google Calendars should display your CRM events.

The import data items will be confirmed:

…From Google Calendar to Toggl

1. Export data from Google Calendar.

Select the cog symbol and the Settings menu from the top right hand corner of your Google Calendar.

2. Choose Calendars from the tabbed menu

3. Now click on “Export calendars” from the menu line after “My Calendars” are listed

4. Your calendars will be downloaded as a zip file. Once download has completed, unzip and open this file, it will open up your file in calendar (.ics) format
You will need to use an online service to convert this from a calendar (.ics) format into a .csv file that Toggl will understand.

We used Project Wizards online service to convert the ics file into a downloadable csv.

6. Now create a new spreadsheet in Excel or Google Drive and import your csv data: you may need to indicate that values are separated by tabs

7. In Excel or Google Drive, you can now “clean” your data so Toggl will understand which data aligns with which field in the time tracking app:

• Add a column for the email address of the user – this will be you in most cases
• Add another column after ‘Given planned earliest start’ and call it ‘start time’
• Rename ‘Given planned earliest start date’ to ‘start date’
• Add another column after ‘Given planned earliest end date’ called ‘duration’
• Change title to tasks, notes to description
• Delete additional resources and additional description columns
• Add a column called “project”

It does not matter what order your columns are in. Now you need to clean up your data so Toggl will understand the time entries when you import.

7. Add your email address to each row of entries under the column you created called “email”. If you are tracking the time of more than one user, identify whose time corresponds to each entry using the email address here: this should match a user account in your Toggl workspace

8. For each row of data, copy the start time from the second half of the start date column and place in the column you created for start time

9. Now calculate the duration of each task in your spreadsheet. Subtract the start time from the finish time and add the duration in the format hh:mm:ss to your newly created column after end date

10. Delete the ‘given earliest end date’ column

11. Auto-format the start date column so it is in date format only, in the format YYYY:MM:DD

12. Now allocate a project to each row of time tasks
Your spreadsheet should now look something like this:

13. Now you are ready to save this cleaned-up csv file and import it into Toggl. Save or download the file in .csv format

14. Now in Toggl, click on the Settings menu option in the top right hand corner

15. Click on the “Integration” tab in the next level menu

16. Now click the “Choose File” tab under CSV import

17. Select the csv file you have just cleaned up and click the “upload button”

18. If your csv file is in the correct file, Toggl will let you confirm the import data arrangements:

Toggl is also kind enough to let you know if there have been any import errors, and will give you an easy-to-read log file that shows you where things went wrong. It should be clear enough for you to go back and fix your csv file. For example, if you use the wrong date format, your log errors will look like this:

Additional Tips

• These import data examples demonstrate the methodical approach you need to take to sync all your historical data. If you want your SaaS apps to be in sync, it is best to import data first, and then use our CloudWork integrations to keep all future added data updated wherever you need it.
• You can get more ideas about making the most of Google Calendar from our Google Calendar integration tips.
• If you would like to see a specific example of how to import data between your apps so you can start using an integration, please let us know and we will add to this tutorial series.

Get started with a Google Calendar integration now and be ready to import data between your apps!

The post Import Data and Sync Your Apps! Step-By-Step Part 2 appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

According to entrepreneur and successful SaaS founder Jason Lemkin, getting apps to talk to each other is “a huge next frontier”.

With at least 100 new business cloud apps being added to the market each month, any business making use of Software-as-a-Service can quickly end up repeating data entry in multiple business tools. It is a headache that mid-size companies are currently facing, with small business on a path to growth also being hit.

“We are still doing way, way, way too much data entry by valuable, non-clerical employees”, Lemkin posted to Q&A expert site Quora in February. Lemkin knows the industry well: as co-founder of EchoSign, an electronic signature software service that was snapped up by Adobe, he worked with over 1 million customers and close to 18 million app users. After EchoSign was sold, he became Vice President of Adobe’s Business Services, where he is projected to generate $100 million in business this year.

“We need SaaS start-ups that automate much of what is still manual data-entry in current generation SaaS products,” Lemkin argues.

At CloudWork, we build practical, ‘real world’ integrations that remove all the complexity for those businesses looking for ways to move data from one SaaS app to another. Our integrations do exactly what Lemkin is calling for: SaaS automation solutions that reduce duplicate data entry and allow you to use cloud apps to get your business operations flowing.

Lemkin identifies some key areas where SaaS data entry needs to be automated. We put CloudWork to the test against Lemkin’s demands:

• “CRM that doesn’t require manual entry of leads, contacts, opportunities, stage, etc.” In talking to CloudWork users, we found many business teams end up making minimal use of their CRM app because it is too much hassle to copy and paste in data about every new contact. Our CRM integrations let you automatically add contact details to your CRM from emails, invoice software and marketing campaigns. We also integrate data so your CRM contacts are synced with other business apps you may use. So far, we have Salesforce, SugarCRM, Highrise, Capsule CRM, and Zoho CRM in our integrations marketplace, with more coming soon.
• “Real-time ERP/Financials and Billing that automatically integrates with the revenue side of your app.” In this area of business operations, we are particularly keen to hear what integrations would make sense to your business. For example, we have a series of Chargify and FreshBooks integrations planned, and will prioritize the order of their development based on user experience feedback. The capacities of our integrations are set to grow even further as we implement our PayPal integrations with a range of business apps in the coming weeks.
• “Real-time semi-automated Human Capital Management that provides employees constant feedback, and ends the drudgery and complete ineffectiveness of the Annual Review.”This is an interesting idea and we look forward to exploring the implications of this in a future blog post. It will require businesses to first model the sort of performance indicators that indicate success in the workplace, and then seeing what evidence-based data is available from your business apps to demonstrate worker achievement and high merit. For now, we have integrations that allow managers to receive SMS alerts to monitor support responses, the lead generation impact of turning leads into customers, and automatic record-keeping and time-tracking for newly added tasks in team projects. All can help managers measure the capacity of their staff to act on data and act efficiently at each stage of an operational process. We’d love the opportunity to work with businesses to work out what additional integrations would make sense in this business context.”

As Lemkin argues: “Software is great. Web software is better. Data entry is horrible. Data entry by high-priced employees who aren’t paid to do data entry? Unconscionable.”

Lemkin is right. For businesses to stay focused on customers and to grow their operations in a way that can scale successfully, SaaS automation is the only solution that will work. SaaS has been a game changer for businesses: leveling the playing field and allowing anyone with a lean entrepreneur mindset to compete effectively against enterprises in winning customer loyalty and providing innovative products and services. These gains have begun to be chipped away as businesses spend more time and resources moving data between the multiple SaaS tools necessary in a business’ operations.

We are excited to see CloudWork bring back the productivity gains for businesses that have moved to the cloud. Now is the time to begin using integrations in your business to automate tasks and move data seamlessly. To compete, you need your business to find its flow.

Luckily, the SaaS automation frontier has arrived.

Get started with your own SaaS automation now with a CloudWork integration.

The post SaaS Automation: Progressing To The Next Frontier appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

We have some easy new ways to give us user experience feedback. Help us create the integrations that drive your business in less than 20 seconds!

At CloudWork, we are focused on creating robust integrations that make good business sense. API coding is complex and beyond the capacity of most businesses that simply want to connect their apps to get stuff done. Our integrations are designed with a simple click-and-connect interface. This lets you customize what data is being monitored and how it is moved between your various business operations.

As the User Experience Manager at CloudWork, I’m here to make sure that your integrations are creating value for you in your business:

• keeping you more productive
• more customer-focused and
• up-to-date with everything that is going on in your business operations.

We’ve just introduced three new enhancements to make it easier for you to let us know how your integrations are working in your business.

Prioritizing the right integrations for your business

We conduct business analysis all the time to select the integrations that will make a difference to how you work. Now we want to hear from you about what you need. We now list our planned integrations on our app integration marketplace pages.

If you select one of these, you will be offered a chance to be notified when the integration is ready. With our ever-growing user base, this helps us understand your priorities for new integrations. By requesting to be notified, you are giving a vote for the integrations we should work on next.

Getting started

Now we have a new pop-up screen within the platform and it walks you through your first integration task. You will now be prompted to test out how the new integration will work. You will be given a simple three step process to test your integration.

For example, you are guided to create a note with sample appointment details in Evernote to see how it is added automatically to your Google Calendar.

We also wanted to ask you with each integration if it makes more sense to you to be importing all your data, or just focusing on new additions from hereon. For example, with Evernote and Google Calendar, we would imagine you are more interested in focusing on newly added events, whereas with something like syncing MailChimp subscribers in Zoho CRM, you may be more interested in a CSV import of all your data.

Of course, our assumptions may be wrong, so there’s nothing like asking for your opinion to really help us understand your business needs!

Deleting integrations

Now when you delete one of the integrations you have previously set up in CloudWork, you will be asked why you no longer want to connect the data between these apps.

This helps us understand some of the finer details of your integration needs. Our click-and-connect interface removes all the complexity, but in some occasional cases, this also removes the customization you are looking for. Many of our integrations let you customize what data is being monitored and transferred between apps. For example, our integration to track Desk.com cases as a Pivotal Tracker story lets you set rules about which sort of cases should be logged as new stories in Tracker: only those with a particular priority, or a specific label, or that were received via a particular media channel.

I am sure in each integration you set up, you will have a specific idea of which subset of data you need to have shared across your apps. This feedback form lets you easily tell us what improvements you need in order for our integrations to save you time and reduce your workload.

In all of these cases, our feedback forms have been designed to take no more than 20 seconds to complete. This way, we won’t interrupt your workflow, but you will get to weigh in on what you need from our data syncing and task automation services.

Of course, if you want to make more contact, click on the support button throughout CloudWork’s interface or email me.

In addition to our user experience feedback options, we have more engagement opportunities coming up. Our weekly newsletter alerts you to our latest integrations and news. You can also follow us on Twitter and Google+ for more on managing integrations and building business processes and optimal workflows.

And look out for our news about upcoming Google+ Hangouts! These are being designed to help you network with other CloudWork users and to learn how to powercharge your business processes by using app integrations.

I can’t wait to hear from you!
Mila Nikolova
CloudWork User Experience Manager

The post How’s That Working Out For You? User Experience Wanted! appeared first on CloudWork Blog.

This initial set of Google Drive integrations help you make use of Google’s data storage capacity by letting you automatically save backup copies of your documents from Basecamp, Evernote, Trello and others.

We are currently working on a second wave of integrations to allow you to auto backup files from your CRM apps, and integrations that automatically transfer new Google Drive docs to other apps, like Dropbox.

Check out our Google Drive integrations now, or contact us to discuss what apps you need to use in your Google Drive automatic backup workflow.

These latest integrations send automatic backup copies to Google Drive including:

• FreshBooks invoices
• Evernote attachments
• Basecamp files
• Trello card attachments
• Dropbox files.

These integrations extend the power of your project management, finance and note-taking apps. Many business apps include ways to backup your data regularly, but are often limited to the data in your apps, not the attached files.

Google Drive offers free data storage in the cloud and makes an excellent base for keeping a backup of all your files. While our integrations do not move all your current files across, you can click and connect your apps in CloudWork and automatically backup all attachments and files you add from now on.

Please follow us on Twitter to hear more about the latest integrations with Google Drive, or contact us to suggest a Google Drive automatic backup that makes sense for your business.

Get started with Google Drive integrations now

The post Google Drive Automatic Backup Integrations: Now Live appeared first on CloudWork Blog.