Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of Tour de Force. This technical bulletin discusses many of the key concepts associated with Tour de Force, as well as defines the different record and item types related to Tour de Force.
Note: Many of the screen shots in this document are screen shots associated with the interface between Tour de Force and Microsoft Outlook 2010.
- Overview of Tour de Force
- Records and Items Associated With Tour de Force
- Understanding Account Records in Tour de Force
- Understanding Contact Records in Tour de Force
- Understanding Opportunity Records in Tour de Force
- The Other Record Types Associated With Tour de Force
- Understanding the Primary Item Types in Tour de Force
- Record Types Versus Item Types in Tour de Force
- The Other Item Types Associated With Tour de Force
- Overview of Tour de Force
Tour de Force is designed to help organizations manage the interactions with customers, prospects, and vendors by organizing, automating, and synchronizing business processes and policies. Tour de Force gives companies the ability to manage all of the facets needed for building and maintaining strong business relationships. Since Tour de Force is tightly integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Tour de Force also gives users the ability to become efficient and effective in time management.
The ultimate goals of Tour de Force is to provide users with the capability of discovering, attracting, and winning new customers; retaining and nurturing existing customers, as well as enticing former customers back into buying. To become efficient in Tour de Force, users must understand the relationship between the different record and item types associated with Tour de Force.
- Records and Items Associated With Tour de Force
- The core or main records associated with Tour de Force include:
- Accounts
- Contacts
- Opportunities
- The other record types associated with Tour de Force include:
- Contracts
- Events
- Support
- The primary item types that exist in Tour de Force include:
- Activities
- Appointments
- Documents
- Tasks
- The other item types that exist in Tour de Force include:
- Assets
- Expenses
- Literature
- Notes
- Quotes
- Tickets
- Understanding Account Records in Tour de Force
In Tour de Force, an Account record typically represents a relationship with a company or an organization that needs to be managed.
Account records can be the following:
- Customer
- Prospect,
- Vendor or Supplier
- Channel Partner,
- Distributor
- Competitor
- Any other relationship that exists within an organization.
In Tour de Force, Account records are the highest record type and nothing can be entered into Tour de Force without an Account record.
- Understanding Contact Records in Tour de Force
In Tour de Force, a Contact record typically represents an individual or person in a company or business that purchases or supplies product and services from an organization. Contact records can also be other people that need to be managed in Tour de Force such as a vendor representative.
In Tour de Force, a Contact record cannot be entered without an Account record. Therefore, a Contact record has to be associated with or linked to an Account record. For example, when a business card is received, the company associated with the contact has to be created in Tour de Force as an Account record before the Contact record can be created in Tour de Force.
Note: Contact records created in Tour de Force are not Contact records in Microsoft Outlook, as well as Contact records created in Microsoft Outlook are not Contact records in Tour de Force.
- Understanding Opportunity Records in Tour de Force
In Tour de Force, an Opportunity record represents any potential revenue-producing event or project for a company that needs to be managed over time.
In Tour de Force, an Opportunity record cannot be entered without an Account record. Therefore, Opportunity records are always linked to an Account record. For example, when a lead is received, the company associated with the lead has to be created in Tour de Force as an Account record before the Opportunity record can be created in Tour de Force.
Note: An Opportunity record can only be created and linked to one Account record since each record or item in Tour de Force can only have one Parent Item.
- The Other Record Types Associated With Tour de Force
The other record types that are associated with Tour de Force include Contracts, Events, and Support records.
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Event Records
In Tour de Force, an Event record is a record that gives companies the ability to create, manage, and analyze the return on investment associated with any type of occasion that a company hosts or participate in such as training, open houses, golf outings, tradeshows, and advertising campaigns.
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Contract Records
In Tour de Force, a Contract record is a record that can be used to track and maintain customer or vendor contracts such as Special Pricing Contracts or Maintenance Support Contracts.
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Support Records
In Tour de Force, a Support record is a record that can be used to track and maintain customer related issues, as well as internal issues such as IT or technical support.
- Understanding the Primary Item Types in Tour de Force
In Tour de Force, the primary item types that exist include Activity, Appointment, Document, Email, and Task items.
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Appointment Items
In Tour de Force, an Appointment item is an item that allows users to manage when and where the users need to be throughout the day such as a conference call, an onsite visit with a customer or prospect, a training class, or even a golf outing.
Note: An Appointment item is associated with a specific day and a specific time, and is typically used to document what needs to be accomplished during the meeting.
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Task Items
In Tour de Force, a Task item is an item that allows users to manage something that needs to be accomplished by a specific date such as a preparing a quote, following up on a quote, performing a demonstration, and sending literature or marketing material to a customer or prospect.
Note: A Task item is typically associated with a specific day and not to a specific time, and is generally used to document something that needs to be accomplished by a due date.
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Activity Items
In Tour de Force, an Activity item is an item that allows users to document what was accomplished during an Appointment item, as well as to record what was accomplished when a Task item is completed.
Note: An Activity item is typically used to document what happened during onsite sales call meetings, as well as to record phone conversations with customers and prospects that have value or need to be shared with other individuals in the company.
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Document Items
In Tour de Force, a Document item is an item that allows companies to store and manage files such as quotes, invoices, and specification documents.
Note: Multiple files such as Word, Excel, and PDFs can be attached or linked to a Document item.
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Email Items
In Tour de Force, an Email item is a copy of an electronic message sent from one user to another user.
- Record Types Versus Item Types in Tour de Force
The main difference between the record types and the item types in Tour de Force is that records and items can be linked to another record, whereas records and items cannot be linked to another item.
When a new record or item is created, a Parent and a Child Relationship is automatically established between the new item or record and the record used to create the new item. For example, when a new Contact or a new Opportunity record is created in Tour de Force, a Parent and Child Relationship is created between the new Contact or the new Opportunity record and the Account record.
Note: When a new Contact record is created in Tour de Force, the Account record associated with the new Contact record is the Parent record and the new Contact record is the Child record.
Note: When a new Opportunity record is created in Tour de Force, the Account record associated with the new Opportunity record is the Parent record and the new Opportunity record is the Child record.
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Any of the item types can be created and linked to any of the record types in Tour de Force.
For example, an Appointment, a Task, or an Activity item can be created and linked to either an Account record, a Contact record, or an Opportunity record.
When an Activity item or one of the other item types is created in Tour de Force, a Parent and Child Relationship is created to the source Account, Contact, or Opportunity record associated with the Appointment item.
Note: Since Account records are the highest record type in Tour de Force, Accounts records do not have a Parent.
When an Activity item or one of the other item types is created and linked to a Contact record or an Opportunity record in Tour de Force, a Grandparent and Grandchild Relationship is created between the Account record associated with the Contact or the Opportunity record and the Activity item.
Note: The Grandparent, Parent, and Grandchild Relationship is extremely important when viewing and analyzing data in Tour de Force. For example, Appointment items that are created and linked directly to an Account record can only be viewed while reviewing Appointment items linked to the Account record. An Appointment item created and linked directly to a Contact record can be viewed while reviewing Appointment items linked to that Contact record, as well as when reviewing Appointment items for the Account record associated with that Contact record.
- The Other Item Types Associated With Tour de Force
The other record types that are associated with Tour de Force include Assets, Expenses, Forecasts, Literature, Notes, and Quick Quotes records.
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Asset Items
In Tour de Force, an Asset item is an item that gives companies the ability to create, manage, and analyze.
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Expense Items
In Tour de Force, an Expense item is an item that allows users to enter and track the costs associated with managing business relationships. The Expense Wizard allows users to enter all of their expenses in order to print expense reports.
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Forecast Items
In Tour de Force, a Forecast item is an item that allows companies to enter line item estimates on Opportunity records that are typically associated with Vendors, Product Groups, or Revenue Classes.
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Literature Items
In Tour de Force, a Literature item is an item that can be used to .
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Note Items
In Tour de Force, a Note item is an item that allows users to enter and manage comments or observations associated with business relationships.
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Quick Quote Items
In Tour de Force, a Quote item is an item that gives users such as inside sales teams the ability to create and provide quotes to customers and prospects quickly. Quotes are created in the Quote Manager module.
Version: 5.x of Technical Bulletin 5608
©2012 Tour de Force
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