A READER ASKS: Email Correspondence Integration Products

From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker 10, 9 & 8 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

A READER ASKS (and owner of a number of our InBizness products)
Email as part of Correspondence module. What would you suggest as an email sender-- a plug-in or what? Do you like the program from Proof group that lets you send mass HTML emails, or is this overkill given that fundamental correspondence tracking for letters, etc is already built in to InBiz CRM. I definitely want to do email marketing.

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DWAYNE RESPONDS
I don’t feel there is a single correct answer for this one. The SeedCode / fmSpark FileMaker Mail Merge product isn’t something I’ve used yet. I have looked at the six minutes of instructional videos on their web site but haven’t downloaded the demo. Their FileMaker Mail Merge products seems way too heavy for most of my customers needs. Thing is, if you have heavy email / mail merge needs, this certainly looks like the best product on the planet to address those needs.

A link to their product below ...
http://www.seedcode.com/cp-app/ste_cat/fmSpark

That is the rub isn’t it? What are the requirements of the database in regards to correspondence? Another thing to consider is what is your audience willing to do? If you look at the two minute introduction video of fmSpark, you will see well over two dozen mouse clicks. That is pretty heavy but again each of those clicks is leading up to an impressive end result. Will your customers / users take on that much overhead for correspondence? Are they already doing that much overhead manually today?

If you are considering using the fmSpark product with InBizness for your customers needs, I’d recommend this simple thing. When you are sitting with the customers, pull up the two overview videos and look at them together. If the customer is pretty jazzed about what they see, you have your answer. If they are not jazzed about it, I wouldn’t suggest trying to sell them on fmSpark.

I wouldn’t point them to the web site but go over the video together. This helps facilitate the discovery process of needs analysis and ultimately the product acceptance criteria. I would try to go over this with the sponsor and some of the end users. It is a wonderful product but don't let its impressive feature set dissuade you from good old needs analysis interviews!

In regards to email plug-ins, incremental enhancements to FileMaker have really reduced the need for email plug-ins for sending email. They haven’t done a thing for receiving emails into a database and that might be something to consider. If you have a need for receiving emails, then you might consider a plug-in for both tasks. If you are considering a plug-in implementation, download the demos first. Some of the plug-ins you see recommended by developers out there, I would NOT recommend for the casual FileMaker developer. Although these products are powerful, their documentation is sparse, confusing and time intensive to consume.

Personally, I’ve had good luck with mailit from Dacons LLP.
http://www.dacons.net/fmplugins/mailit4/
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2010 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

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