Bizroof CRM started as a contact management application for SMEs, and initially only targeted the US market. After just over a year since launch, we are now serving 5200 clients worldwide, and the application itself is fully internationalized. However, our servers seem to handle a lot of traffic recently, and that brings down the average server response time by 8% roughly. That is a problem… But, that is a good problem to have and an easy one to solve.

As you may have noticed, we’ve moved the entire application under SSL.FM in order to implement our new architecture, and the Bizroof.com will be used only as a gateway site.

Behind SSL.FM, there are 4 application servers with 8 CPU each, and they are talking with 2 master MySQL database servers, which are then connected with 2 salve database servers for data backup and statistics purposes.

If the application was a car, we’ve replaced its V6 engine with a V12. Hope you enjoy and let us know if it is still easy to handle.

I’m excited to let you know that we’re rolling out a new feature which allows you to upload profile pictures for your contacts and events.

Over the next couple of days, some of you will see change-picture buttons appear when you hover over the default profile icons (see screen shot below) within the people, companies, events and users modules. Click “Change” and you will be able to upload an image for that record.

The uploaded picture will be displayed in all the listings and search results (see screen shot below)

An even bigger image will be shown on the detail information screen (see screen shot below)

Initially, we only rolling this out to small groups of users to help us test the new feature, so in the early stages many of you will not see it.

We now have 5,200 users using our CRM application on a regular basis, and about 42% of them reside in non-US countries, and 26% of them do not speak English as their first language. Currently 17% of our users are from the UK, China is next (9%), followed by Germany (7%), then Japan (5%). One of our goals for this year is to support the native languages of our users, and we decide to kick off the task NOW!

Bizroof Internationalized Checklist:

Date Format DONE!

(Options: 20/08/2008, 08/20/2008, August 20 2008, August 20th 2008, 2008-08-20)

Time format DONE!

(Options: 19:30, 7:30pm)

Time zone DONE!

Currency DONE!

Week start on DONE!

(Options: Sunday, Monday, Saturday)

Full name format DONE!

(Options: Jason Smith, Smith Jason)

Multi-lingual Working On!

You can change your default currency setting on your account detail page (click account details on the left hand side of your dashboard) and change the rest of them on your profile page (click your name on the top left corner).

Hi Santa,

You must be very very busy at the moment. I bet you are reviewing your list to make sure everybody gets the right present. I bet you have always been watching to see who is naughty or nice throughout the whole year.

Santa, I wish I could do you a favor and make your life easier. If you have time, please have a look at our CRM application. It is web based, and you can access your data from anywhere anytime. Also, we support multiple users. So, every elf can have an account, and then they can share data with you in real time. Additionally, you can track their locations in Bizroof.

Our contact management module is powerful and easy-to-user. If you store your big list on our system, you can then tag them the way you want. You can search contacts by their addresses whenever you are coming to town… Also, your contacts can be added onto your events, which will be shown on your calendar. By the way, if you use Google calendar or MS Outlook, you can synchronize our calendar with theirs.

Since our basic accounts are free, there’s no reason not to explore further. You can click here to take the tour.

Santa, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to you. You are so kind and always watching us……

Kind Regards,

Francis Green

We just rolled out a new contact us form, which ensures that your messages arrive the most relevant departments via the shortest route.

Due to the high volume of messages, you may have to wait couple of hours to get replied. But, we guarantee to answer every question comes to us.

We respect your feedback and develop the system just for you. By the way, we won’t use your data for any purpose without your permission.

You can now subscribe to your events feed so that other calendars which supports the iCalendar format can stay up-to-date with Bizroof.

The following is a list of applications which support iCalendar: Apple iCal, Mozilla Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Live Calendar etc.

We just upgraded the bizroof blog to wordpress 2.6 with the K2 theme 1.0-RC7.

And here is a list of wordpress plugins we are currently using:

1. AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget (Reason: promote blog)
2. Akismet (Reason: stop spams)
3. FeedBurner FeedSmith (Reason: redirect blog feeds to our FeedBurner)
4. Google XML Sitemaps (Reason: inform search engines whenever blog updated)
5. K2 Disable Widgets (Reason: integrate the K2 theme)
6. WP Google Analytics (Reason: track bog statistics)

Give us a shout if you think we missed any great plugins.

Matt

WHAT’S YOUR WEAKNESSES, SMART SALESPEOPLE?

Good salespeople always know what, how, when to talk to their customers. Wow, that must take ages to learn! How the hell could they remember all the previous conversations with their customers?

Hmm… that is not that difficult… I can simply take notes about phone calls and have a look at them just before I pick up the phone again. Ain’t I smart?

But what if you are not the only person talk to the customer? What if your colleague take a day off and the boss want you to do his work on that day?

Hmm… I don’t know then, what do you reckon?

You need a database to store the contacts and conversations collected by all the people in your office. You will soon discover the magic of that database which tells you everything you need to become a smart salespeople.

GOOD PRODUCT + EFFECTIVE MARKETING + ? =  REPEAT SALES

We have a brilliant product. We invest heavily on marketing. BUT, the sales report makes me cry. I need advice.

If you think your potential customers believe what you tell them, you are in danger. They do digest your message, BUT they prefer to trust what their friends tell them. Therefore, you need to focus on your existed customer and MAKE THEM HAPPY, and they will definitely pass the “happy” experience to their friends.

How could I make them happy?

Simple, you just do whatever you promised, even tiny stuff. The straightforward approach is to populate the “promises” onto an easy-to-use calendar which makes you confident to say “I’ve done it all!”

WHAT DOES BIZROOF PROMISE?

We try the best to provide a best way to store, organize and share information.

We try the best to make you succeed.

The application is made with PHP and javascript, and we use a MySQL database. Amazon’s S3 is used for storage of files upload by users. Prototype and script.aculo.us provides us with easy-to-use and sexy user interface. We use Zend Framework APIs to support web services (such as Google, Flickr, Yahoo and Amazon). Meanwhile, we support microformat and RSS.

Wordpress helps us to build our fantastic Bizroof Blog which is powered by K2 theme, and iconshock provides all the icons we need.

It is not hard to write a long list of great ideas. If you are lazy, you can just visit some business startup forum or network sites to steal them. Sitting around your office, sipping latte and looking at the idea list, now what? You probably thinking how the hell you can convert a idea into a product…. It is probably pain in the neck to get it built. But, if you find the right person to do it, you can still get it done without any problem.

And now, you feel released and excited about the beta launch… You are in danger if you think you make a solid step in the direction of making money, seriously. The real battle is just about to start, and the new product is no more than a weapon. Come to think of it this way, any senior web developers like myself can clone an application like ebay, facebook, amazon etc within months, but could any of them make me a millionaire? Not now, and not in a million years.

As time is ticking away after the beta launch, you will loss your enthusiasm and start to doubt about the product. The big question marks will be all around your office – what have I done wrong? Nothing wrong but you didn’t realize the fact that either the idea nor the product itself will make you rich.

9 months back, I was in that situation…. But, I was lucky, I found a great mentor who showed me everything from a new angle, including:

1. Think globally from day one
2. Understand your competitors as much as you can, including their strengh, weakness and targeted markets
3. Ask yourself how are you going to provide the best customer service
4. Ask yourself what could be the worst case scenario in terms of markeing approach, and then how you can improve on
5. Don’t make assumptions. If you don’t know say I don’t know, and then try to find the answers

Regards,

Matt