Catalyst

A New Release - v5.2.0

Dan — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:36:00 +0000

We've just launched a new version of Catalyst CRM last Friday, with a couple of minor hotfixes in over the weekend. Changes to the system include:

Deleting marketing campaigns now works correctly.
All currency symbols now obey the Locale/Internationalization setting for each user.
The font on the calendar screen is now a bit larger, making it easier to read.
Custom fields can now be searched under an Advanced Search.
Some error messages were looking a little strange since 5.1.0, these have now been fixed up.
Some users were experiencing a minor error when upgrading from a trial to a paid subscription, this has now been rectified.
This new release also shows the new company branding for the move from "Leopard Software" to "Project Art".

There are a couple of other changes that were planned for the release, but in the end, we decided to hold them back so that we didn't delay the release. I don't want to give too much away as to what they are, but they do include some features that some of you have asked for. So we certainly want to get them in there as soon as possible! We'll keep you all updated as the next release progresses.

Leopard Software joins forces with Project Art

Dan — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 04:16:00 +0000

In July 2010, Kingdom Solutions (our company, owners of Leopard Software) aquired Project Art, a web consultancy business. Project Art has a long history with the web having been trading for over 20 years.

We've now decided to merge Leopard Software with Project Art, so we're dropping the Leopard Software name in favor of Project Art. The change will take place today, so whereever you see "Leopard Software", it will be changing to "Project Art".

Everything is still business as normal and nothing else will be changing, just the name.

For any questions regarding the change, feel free to contact us at sales@projectartcrm.com.

Catalyst v5.1.0 Released, Web Based CRM at it's Best!

Dan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:54:00 +0000

Some exciting news for our web based CRM system - Catalyst, we've just launched version 5.1.0. This new version brings some exciting new features to the system including:

Support for multiple currencies for Sales and anywhere where currencies are used. The current selection includes Euro, Pound and Dollar. We're keen to add more to the list over future releases, so if there's one you'd particularly like to see, let us know.
To access this feature, look for the Locale setting in your User Settings screen.
Minor tweaks and performance enhancements have been added to various screens.
The Catalyst branding and logo can now be replaced with your own company logo and brand.
To access this feature, go to the Account Images screen within the CRM Admin section.
Your Contacts can now access the system! For the moment, they will only be able to access Cases assigned to them, but we'll be expanding this feature into Projects soon.
To access this feature, click the "enable" link under External Access on the Contact screen. When clicked, an email will be sent to the contact with their access details.
Cases can now have estimated hours entered against them.
In addition to the estimated hours for Cases, you can also note hours as billable hours, and send a quote to a Contact for approval. This is done via the new external access feature mentioned above.
Cases are now sorted by the last updated date and time.

If you have any further questions about this release, or need any help getting things setup, just send an email through to our support team at support@leopardcrm.com

CRM System Performance

Dan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:33:00 +0000

Over the years, Catalyst has grown into a well featured CRM software system. Gradually, more features have been added that has given small businesses additional insights into their business.

As these features have been added, over time, we've noticed that the performance of the CRM system has gradually decreased. It's probably not something that most customers would notice, as we have fairly high performance expectations from the system to start with.

We recently did some investigation and in depth testing of the system to measure performance under heavy load. We've been able to obtain some very valuable data, and we're already seeing places within the system to increase performance and eliminate bottlenecks.

What this means is that over the next month or so, some performance enhancements will be coming to the system. We're going to ensure that any changes take place on weekends to minmize the impact to customers.

If you have any feedback for us, possibly you've noticed some screens that could perform faster, please feel free to send it in to our support team. It's likely that we already know about them, but many times customers can provide us with a perspective that we hadn't thought of before.

New Pricing Plans and New Features

Dan — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 03:48:00 +0000

Well, it's official, new pricing plans are now live! Prices start from $39 AUD (ex tax) per month, which is a substantial saving over the old pricing model. If you're requirements are a little bigger than a single user, you're set to save even more!

We're pretty excited to bring this change in, over the years, we've worked hard to make Leopard Catalyst a more affordable web based CRM package for small businesses.

New Features

This new release also includes some new features including:

A new user interface for Case Management, making things easier to use, and more efficient to use every day.
The email text that goes out to incoming cases is now able to be customised, and can be formatted in HTML.
Some minor bugs in the Event Management module have been fixed.

We hope you enjoy the new pricing and the new features. If you have any feedback for us on any of these changes, please send it through, we'd love to hear it.

New CRM Plan Structure Coming Soon

Dan — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:39:00 +0000

As a business, we try to continually listen to our customers. You guys always provide amazing insight into how your businesses run and how we can better server you. Over the years, this feedback has helped us fine tune our web based CRM product, Leopard Catalyst, so that it continually offers more value.

The recent months has had us re-evaluating our plan structure. For many of our customers, we feel that structuring our plans differently would provide better value, make things much simpler and also bring more flexibility. So, instead of a per user, per month model which we are currently providing, we'll be switching to 4 separate plans.

Each plan will have a set number of users included into the monthly price, so as you hire or replace staff within your business, you'll have more flexibiity and not have to worry about pricing changes.

More details will be coming soon as we come closer to the release. Stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy some web based CRM, Leopard Catalyst style.

Event Management, Version 5 and a New Name

Dan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:26:00 +0000

Many things have changed today in the world of Leopard CRM:

Name Change to Leopard Catalyst
Over the years, as each version of Leopard CRM has been released, we've been realizing the vision for developing a software product that aims to revolutionize small businesses. With a vision this large, the term "CRM" just doesn't cut it anymore, so, we decided to change the name to Leopard Catalyst.

A New Website Design
To celebrate the name change, we decided to revamp the website design. We love the new look, and we feel like it gives a more accurate representation of what the software is all about.

Version 5 Released
The big feature in this version is Event Management. You can now book attendees for conferences, workshops, training sessions or any kind of event that you can imagine. This version also includes some minor bug fixes here and there, some of them related to speed improvements in some sections.

New Price
Not only have we been working hard on a brand name change, a new website and a new version, but we've also been working to reduce our costs. Recently we've been quite successful in this area with some recent changes. This means that we can pass on the cost savings to all of our customers! All current and new customers will now be benefiting from a cheaper per user subscription price. We have also removed the minimum user requirement as a part of the price change.

We hope you all enjoy the new changes!

Good communication

Dan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:22:00 +0000

Good communication routines keep you in touch with your partners in business: your customers, your suppliers and, of course, those who care about you. Without it, you are only ever reacting rather than being proactive about what you can do to to improve the effects of whatever your partners are experiencing.

A CRM gives you tools which can help you to be that proactive business partner.

Think about what makes you buy...and apply that to what makes your customers buy from you...is good communication part of it? Developing and activating good communication routines takes time away from running your business, I hear you say. Yes, it does, but don't be so focused on the present and the minute that you forget to think broadly and for the future.

A CRM is a time effective tool that can assist you to maximise your precious time so that you have more time to spend with those who love you.

Novice CRM'ers

Dan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:34:00 +0000

If you have never used a CRM in your business processes it can take a little time to navigate your way through. A new customer of ours who in starting a new small business has decided to implement Leopard CRM early in her start-up process rather than later down the track. Her CRM journey is interesting to follow as initially she was not totally sure how best to manipulate her data in this new environment to get the most benefit.

While she understands the principles of tracking sales against time, customers and budgets, she has always done this either manually with good old fashioned paper and pen, or with the more updated spreadsheet method. As her customer base grew in the first few months she found both of these methods very cumbersome and time-consuming for many of her first customers wanted repeat business and this meant constantly repeating and transferring parts of her data between different spreadsheets. There had to be a better way!

Her research led her to investigate Leopard CRM with our 30 day free trial. She tells us now that while it took some effort to transfer her customer information and past sales data into the program it has been a learning experience that she feels was very worthwhile. Initially, she had some problems with realising that dates do matter as this is a major mechanism in being able to track your past sales and to forecast your future sales. Again, another learning experience when she had to go back through her past sales data and enter in the Closed Sales dates. Like magic, suddenly all her generated reports in the Sales function magically appeared!

So if you are new to using a CRM take some time to to fully investigate the power that is available to you. In the long run, a CRM like Leopard will save you time and therefore money, give you an improved understanding of your business operations, and enable you to track your customers' engagement with your business.

CRM and qualifying your choice

Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:11:00 +0000

When considering incorporating CRM software in your business processes, you should be asking yourself some qualifying questions:

Does the system do what you, as the client, thought it would do when you bought it?
Does the system allow you, as the user, to accommodate your needs in an easy and intuitive fashion?
Is the system easily configured to allow changing circumstances?
Does the system place significance on your value as a client by providing a mechanism for you to give your feedback or to request new features?
Is the system easy to use even for your staff who may not be comfortable with computers?

These might be simple questions but they assist you to differenciate between CRM offerings. If you can confidently answer 'Yes' to these then you are well on your way. A worthwhile and valuable CRM systen should be a CRM made easy.