A technical preview of Customer Relationship Management

Today, we’ll take a look at the technical foundation of the upcoming TRAVERSE Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

Because CRM functionality must be available from many entry points, TRAVERSE CRM will be accessible using four different interfaces: the standard TRAVERSE shell, a browser, mobile devices, and via a plugin for Microsoft Outlook. While some basic functions, such as setting up codes and marketing campaigns, will likely be limited to the standard TRAVERSE interface, the majority of the functionality used on a daily basis will be accessible in the other interfaces as well.

The web application will be built on the ASP.net MVC (Model View Controller) framework. Although the use of HTML5 tags will support the use of the browser interface on some mobile devices, we will also provide native applications for these operating systems: Apple iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. A native app will provide more complete functionality, including synchronization with the mobile device for contacts, tasks, appointments, and so on. Both web and mobile clients will interface with core TRAVERSE entities using APIs implemented in WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). The service layer will follow the REST architectural style.

The browser interface will be driven by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which you can easily customize to change color schemes, menu layout, and more. You can also use HTML to adjust the basic screen layouts, such as adding corporate logos. In the future, we will provide web form management tools in the TRAVERSE Design Studio as well.

In addition to the standard menu-based security in TRAVERSE, the CRM application will be the first to support user-based data filtering. You can use an optional user-mapping tool to limit access to data in the CRM application. For example, you can configure a sales rep to see only her own contacts, or only contacts in her region. This extends to opportunities, sales history, and so on—when viewed from the CRM functions, that information will be restricted to activity for that user’s contacts. You might also configure a sales manager or executive to see all contacts and their activities. In the future, we will expand this row-based access control to other areas of TRAVERSE as well.