Aug 27 2010. We are working on the mobile app. One of the bigger themes from user comments in here is that we should support not just iPhone but a range of mobile devices. We think HTML5 is the way forward and we are currently prototyping with HTML5 frameworks to make sure we can get a native feel to the mobile application.

We'll share more details when we have something to release or test.

Dec 23, 2010. We are getting very close to a beta release for the mobile app. I know there's a lot of interest in this, so here's what is confirmed:
1. it's an HTML5 app
2. It synchronizes to a database on your phone so you can lookup and add contact details offline
3. it will support iPhone and Android phones initially. BB support MAY come later, but no promises. Windows mobile is looking unlikely given Microsoft's lack of support for HTML5 so far.

We'll update this again when it's available as a beta release. It's close.

Feb 16, 2011. The mobile app is in beta with a smal group of users. We'll open it up to all users as soon as we can.

April 21, 2011. The beta is now open to everyone. Read our blog post with details on how to get started:

http://capsulecrm.com/blog/comments/launch_of_capsule_mobile/

We are now looking for some feedback on this one. How would you like the security model to work? We want to keep this unobtrusive for customers that don't need the extra security levels so any suggestions along these lines would be great.

For now there are two options when you have a contact that provides services under multiple organisations.

*Option 1*
Record the contact under their main organisation and record any additional relationships in the about field of the contact.

*Option 2*
Record the contact multiple times, one for each organisation they work for. So in Capsule you will have:
* Bob Smith, Owner at Bob Smith Ventures
* Bob Smith, Adviser at High Flying Startup

Use option 2 if it's important that you can see the contact from each organisation.

We are considering adding more flexibility in this area, but it's not as straightforward as it might sound (e.g. need a way to link constrain tasks, emails and notes to the appropriate organisation) and so we don't have a timeline for delivery at this stage.

Jan 2011 - We implemented a number of improvements to the search last year including adding cases and opportunities to the search results and allowing search by email address.

A popular request that is left to be done is the ability to do a 'full text' search across emails and notes. I'm renaming this suggestion to reflect that this is what is left of this original suggestion. Other search related suggestions should be raised as a separate request. Thanks

we have looked into merging and concluded it's not quite as straight forward as it might appear. Various implementations we've looked at aren't without their problems.

I'd like some feedback from supporters of this feature on the following ideas and concerns:

Our initial thought was to match based on email address. However, if there are already multiple contacts in the database, what to do... do we ignore, or do we update each? If the name is different on the record being imported do we overwrite? Would it be better to match on name + email? Many of you are looking to import 100+ records at a time so presenting a choice or showing differences per record isn't really viable.

If the updated data in the import contains a 'work phone' column, should we update existing 'work phone' records or should we add a secondary 'work phone'. What if the 'work phone' column is blank for a particular customer, but populated on their contact record in Capsule? Should we remove the existing number or ignore? Same thing applies to other contact details, tags and also custom fields, but for custom fields we don't have the option to add a secondary value, we can only overwrite.

I'm also concerned about the destructive nature of an import that overwrites. e.g. a user has a file that accidentally has data in the wrong columns such as an email address in the phone number field. Possibly we should be building an undo function alongside the import. However this would significantly increase the development effort. My current thinking is the user would need to resolve by re-running the import merge on the corrected file. Anyone see any issue with this?

May 2011

We don't have any plans to implement 2-way synchronization of Google Contacts at this stage.

The current 1-way from Capsule to Google works well for keeping your contacts and email addresses up-to-date inside Google Apps.

I understand some users have requested the 2-way sync so they can tie in with Google's mobile sync allowing them to update contact details on their phone and have those changes sync'd back to Capsule via Google contacts. However this creates a complex and potentially unreliable chain. We have since released a mobile phone app which provides a better solution for accessing and updating contacts while on the move.

We've also recently released a gmail gadget that makes it easy to see details about your contacts right inside Gmail.

If you are voting this up, please let us know more about why 2-way synchronisation is important to you and how you would use it.

Thanks.

Jan 2011 - We've looked into synchronisation between Outlook and Capsule for contacts and tasks/calendar. It's a significant undertaking and not one that many software development companies take on. Xobni have nicely summarised some of the challenges to creating an outlook plugin in their post on the google blog:
http://googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2010/06/xobni-brings-gmail-contextual-gadgets.html

For now we are not planning to build a plugin for Outlook.

However, there are existing integrations that you may find helpful:

1. Your Capsule tasks can be included in your Outlook calendar using Capsule's iCal feed. Instructions are available on the calendar page of your Capsule account.

2. Emails that you send or receive via Outlook can be attached easily to your contacts in Capsule using the dropbox:
http://support.capsulecrm.com/customer/portal/topics/81009

3. Google provide a plugin for Outlook users that provides synchronisation between Google Apps and Outlook:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/outlook_sync.html
This would enable your contacts to be pushed to Google Apps then to Outlook.

4. A number of users have mentioned that their end goal is to sync their Capsule information with a mobile phone and that Outlook would become the conduit for this. Our preferred approach is to provide a Capsule mobile phone application. You can follow progress on the mobile phone app here:
http://capsule.uservoice.com/forums/5384-general/suggestions/163447-create-an-iphone-mobile-application?ref=title

Thanks for all the feedback so far in this request. The current heading for the request is a bit loose so makes it hard to define exactly what's required here. Here's a summary of what I've got so far:

There's a couple of requests in here for boolean operators which is already getting votes over here:
http://capsule.uservoice.com/forums/5384-general/suggestions/296068-add-boolean-and-or-operators-to-the-list-functio?ref=title

David has mentioned a few specific reports:
1. Number of new leads generated in a period by source
2. Number of leads contacted in a period
3. Number of leads that generated an opportunity
4. Number of opportunties closed, by lead type/source/period

Jeff has requested control over what's included in the export

I have also had the following requests through our support channel:
- Number of customers handled in a day by user (based on notes). I think this can be handled in the same was item 2 on David's list.
- Customer report based on tag, date range and user

Is there anything key missing for anyone else following this request?