eScoreBoard v4

Code Day!

2010-06-12T14:28:00.001-04:00

As the World Cup starts, we to are excited for a major summer event as well...the launch of eScoreBoard 4.0!!!

Earlier today our developers and engineers, after nearly a year of hard work, released eScoreBoard 4.0 to the world. As big as a moment as this is for SAM and our team, we realize that it is even bigger for our clients. We didn't reach the finish line today, rather, we just got to the start line.

Go to eScoreBoard 4.0

Highlight Video

To introduce yourself to eScoreBoard 4.0, please watch our introductory video by clicking on the image above. Additional resources are linked below.

SAM Website

Video

Manager Highlights

Producer Highlights

Already a client?

To schedule a complimentary eScoreBoard 4 demo for your team, please contact your National Account Manager or Intergration Manager at 800-254-4726 for details.

Not a client, but wish you were?

Please contact our sales team at 800-254-4726 or sales@samInspires.com to schedule a demo.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the new eScoreBoard,
- The eScoreBoard Team

eScoreBoard Release Date & New Feature Demos

2010-05-27T15:54:00.006-04:00

After months of hard work, the eScoreBoard Team is ready to start sharing the fruits of all their labor. Details of our upcoming release as well as free product demos are detailed below.

RELEASE DATE:

Saturday, June 12, 2010

MAINTENANCE WINDOW:

eScoreBoard will be down starting at 7 AM on the morning of Saturday, June 12th. Even if you left an eScoreBoard window open, you will receive an error message when you try and submit any information. We anticipate the update to eScoreBoard 4 to take a few hours and should be up-and-running around 12 PM on Saturday, June 12th.

CHANGES YOU NEED TO MAKE:

None. Your same user ID and password will work. You'll continue to receive activity reminders and scheduled reports as previously scheduled.

DEMOS:
Each week from now through July we will host 2 weekly demos focusing on the new features of eScoreBoard 4. One demo will present eScoreBoard from a manager's point-of-view while the other from a producers.

Each demo will last approximately 30 minutes, with 20 minutes dedicated to product review and 10 minutes for Q&A.

UPCOMING DEMOS:
Fri, May 28 @ 12 PM ET - Producer demo - Register Now!
Tue, June 1 @ 12 PM ET - Manager demo - Register Now!
Fri, June 4 @ 12 PM ET - Producer demo - Register Now!

For the complete demo schedule, please visit our demo page.

Looking forward to sharing eScoreBoard 4 with you all.
- The eScoreBoard Team

My Administrators

2010-05-20T17:22:00.000-04:00

One of the most common challenges with setting up eScoreBoard for our clients is determining who has access and at what level. Well, I guess it's more of a financial challenge because each user requires a license and who really want to pay more if you don't have to, especially in this economy.

We created "administrator" accounts in eScoreBoard 4 to address this issue. Any licensed user can create an administrator account and give someone else in their office access to their account. You can even control the level of access the administrator has (what pages they can or can not see) . The administrator will have a single user id and password but can access multiple licensed users if desired.

This feature will be really helpful for a manager preparing for her weekly one-on-one's with her producers or for the office assistant who is responsible for assuring each producer has their activity numbers in each week.

Stay tuned for our next post where we'll share with you some of the support material we are putting in place to aid our clients with the roll out of eScoreBoard 4.

All the best,

- The eScoreBoard Team

Administration: Office Settings

2010-05-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

Hello fellow eScoreBoard'ers. In today's post we want to share with you a new administration page that has been added to eScoreBoard, Office Settings. Since this page controls settings for the entire office it only appears for the General Agent / Managing Director of each office and home office personnel.

All of the setting shown above are available in the current version of eScoreBoard, but any changes required you to contact our support team. Now in eScoreBoard 4 you'll be able to edit them via the UI.

The page is broken down into the following four sections:

Calendar Setup - Here you can choose what day of the week your work week starts.
Email Reminder Settings - Here you can set on what day activity email reminders are sent to your producers (Keep in mind emails must be enabled for each producer.)
Report Setting - Allows you to select which report options are available to view on a standard report
Other Settings - Contains the setting for the number of users listed in the "Top Producers" section of the dashboard. The value can be a number or a percent.

That's all for today. Please check back in a couple days for our next update.

All the best,
- The eScoreBoard Team

Reports: Action Plan

2010-04-29T16:14:00.000-04:00

eScoreBoard is an great tool and without a doubt the best activity tracking tool out there, but just because you have a tool, doesn't mean you have an activity management system. One way, shape, or form, the system should include the following:

Business Planning - Like our SAM Business Planner booklet
Goals Setting
Weekly or Daily Activity Tracking
Weekly Review

Most of our users are quite familiar with setting goals and having their producers report his/her activity, but frequently the one missing piece is the weekly review. In eScoreBoard 4, we've update and renamed our reviews section to "Action Plan".

The "Action Plan" represents the activity management portion of a producer and manager's weekly one-on-one. (If you are a manager and you are not having weekly one-on-ones with your producers, give us a call, we need to talk.) In the screenshot above you can see that each week we ask the producer to conduct a self assessment (Part 1), and the manager to complete a strategy section (Step 2) for the producer. Even your most veteran producers can benefit from a manager/coach/independent opinion.

When the producer and manager meet to discuss their findings and set goals for the coming week (Part 3), the information is recorded as show below. Finally all meeting notes, detailed suggestions, and comments are documented (Step 4).

Remember, activity management is a system and even the best systems require a little TLC. If you want to see your producers' production increase, especially your green producers, its incumbent upon management to lead and show the them the value of activity management.

All the best,

- The eScoreBoard Team

Behind the Scenes: Validation Rules & Permissions

2010-04-27T16:04:00.001-04:00

Hello fellow activity management gurus. By now everyone should have reviewed their final Q1 numbers, both in terms of closed business and activity. Hopefully, you've worked with your producers and they have made some strides through April to continually improve and grow their business.

Today we are going to take another behind the scenes look at eScoreBoard. The last time we were "behind the scenes" we told you about hardware. This time we want to highlight a couple of improvements that are a part of eScoreBoard 4 but you may not find them by just clicking around the website. The two we want to visit are:

Daily and weekly validation rules
Permissions

Daily and Weekly Validation Rules
Just as a refresher, a validation rule is a either a "warning" or "prevent" that is setup for your categories when a producer inputs his/her activity. For example, you may want to "warn" your users when they input closing interviews greater than 10 for a week and you may want to "prevent" them from entering a value greater than 20. This function is available to ensure good data is getting eScoreBoard. Like the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out.

Previously in eScoreBoard 3, we only had one set of rules that applied to both daily and weekly users. At the time this made sense as the vast majority of our users were reporting weekly. Now that we have a ever-growing contingency of daily reporters, we've added a seperate set of rules for this group. Going back to our previous example, we may "warn" daily reporters when closing interviews are greater than 2 and we may "prevent" any value greater than 4.

Permissions
New to eScoreBoard 4 are some behind the scene controls to limit the access for different levels of users. Maybe you do not want your producers to be able to update their account information or modify their goals. Now we have the ability to set each page to either disabled, read-only, or full access (default), for any level of users within your company.

Setup of either of these items can not be done through the user interface. Please contact your SAM account manager or integration manager and they will be happy to setup this up on your account.

Remember, what get's measured, tend to get done.

All the best,
- The eScoreBoard Team

Reports: Producer Summary Usage Report

2010-04-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

One of our favorite additions to eScoreBoard 4.0 is our producer summary usage report. This report combines information about (a) how the selected producer is setup and using eScoreBoard, and (b) how they are progressing toward their annual goal (commission, GDC, etc.).

The report is broken down into the five tables.

The table at the top provides background information about the selected producer (manager name, start date, etc.)
The "Usage Review" table provides information on the frequency of the producer reporting along with the frequency in which the producer and manager complete the weekly Action Plan (aka Review)
The "Goals Review" table displays how many weeks goals have been setup, the producer's annual goal and how much production is needed for the remaining weeks to achieve his/her goal
The "YTD Performance" table compares the producers actual versus goal while also sharing how far ahead (or behind) they are relative to their goal
Finally, the "Commission" table (or GDC, or the goal setup for your account) shares the producer's production level over the various listed timeframes

This report acts as a great starting point for the producer's weekly one-on-one. First, you check to be sure they are utlizing eScoreBoard, next you check to see how they are doing versus their goals, and then finally you can jump into specific activity evaluation and performance.

Remember, activities drive results.

All the best,

- The eScoreBoard Team

Reports: Leaderboard

2010-04-15T09:13:00.000-04:00

Jumping back into the blue Reports section, we have a new report to share with you: the Leaderboard report. This report is quite simple; it lists out the top performers in either your agency/firm or your company (depending on how your account is setup), for each category.

To generate the report you select your desired timeframe as well as the number of users you would like to be listed under each category/ratio. The report will generate the list for each and every category and ratio.

Here is a sample of what the report looks like.

You may notice that the report will display additional users if a tie exists.

We've had clients who would compile this report manually each week and now its here for everyone to benefit from. Sharing and posting this information within your office each week is a great motivator. Tieing rewards, either manually or via eRewardBoard, to activity performance is a sure fire way to rally the troops.

That's it for today folks. Hope everyone has already filed their taxes and we hope you have an enjoyable rest of the week.

All the best,

- The eScoreBoard Team

Down to Business: Hardware upgrades

2010-04-13T16:57:00.000-04:00

As part of our upcoming release of eScoreBoard 4, we are also undergoing a significant hardware upgrade. We'll refrain from boring you with pages of technical jargon, but we do want to share with you some of the highlights of these upgrades.

Our web server will receive the following upgrades:

Processor - Upgrade from a single-core to a quad core processor
Memory - Upgrade from 1GB to 4GB RAM
Framework - Upgrade from .NET 2.0 to .NET 3.5

Our database server will receive the follow upgrades:

OS - Upgrade to a 64-bit platform
Processor - Upgrade from a single-core to a quad-core processor
Memory - Upgrade from 2GB to 12GB RAM
Software - Upgrade from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008

The bottom line....the performance you see in eScoreBoard 4.0 will be much improved. Faster loading pages, faster loading reports and an overall better experience.

We'll be back to product features on Thursday with our next post.

Until then, remember that with activity management, you are in control,
- The eScoreBoard Team

Bundled Reports

2010-04-08T17:01:00.001-04:00

Today we are going to give you a bit more information about one most requested new features; Bundled Reports.

The main driver behind the request was managers with a large team were getting too many emails from eScoreBoard. Let's admit it, ten years ago email was cool and new, and now, we just hope we can get through our inbox by the end of the day.

Bundled reports simply group existing reports into a single report. This report can easily be exported or scheduled as a single email. Bundled Reports are a new report type under the"View" sub-tab in the blue "Reports" section.

Depending on your role in eScoreBoard, the contents of the bundle will vary.

If you are a producer you will have the following Bundled Reports:

Current Perfomance - Includes a standard report for the last 4 weeks, Funnel for the last 30 days, and Gauges for the last 30 days.
Quarterly Perfomance - Includes a standard report for last quarter, Funnel for the last 90 days, and Gauges for the last 90 days.
Annual Perfomance - Includes a standard report for last year, Funnel for the last 365 days, and Gauges for the last 365 days.

If you are a manager you will have the following Bundled Reports:

Weekly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last week. and a standard report for each producer that reports to you for last week.
Monthly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last month. and a standard report for each producer that reports to you for last month.
Quarterly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last quarter. and a standard report for each producer that reports to you for last quarter.
Annual Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last year. and a standard report for each producer that reports to you for last year.

If you are a General Agent or Managing Director you will have the following Bundled Reports:

Weekly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last week. and a standard report summarizing all of your producers for last week.
Monthly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last month. and a standard report summarizing all of your producers for last month.
Quarterly Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last quarter. and a standard report summarizing all of your producers for last quarter.
Annual Team Performance - Includes a standard summary report for last year. and a standard report summarizing all of your producers for last year.

Hope you found this post helpful. We'll talk to you again next week.

- The eScoreBoard Team

Usage Reports: Goals

2010-04-06T15:08:00.001-04:00

Switching gears a bit, we are now going to reveal some of the new reports designed for eScoreBoard 4.0. First up is the usage report for goals. This report will highlight which producers do and do not have goals setup in eScoreBoard. As you know, a producer without goals, is like a ship without a map.

One of the new sub-tabs in the blue Reports section is titled "Usage". If you click on this sub-tab you can then select from three different usage reports that are available.

After selecting this report you can then select the timeframe for which you'd like the report to cover.

In the report below I selected "Year-to-date". Here I am logged in as a managing director / general agent level account. By expanding the managers that report to me, I can see all of the producers in my office and which ones have goals setup. Additionally, I'll see a summary percentage for each manager as well as one for the whole office.

As you can see, this report shows a 100% goals setup percentage. With the goals set, I can move forward on using the tool to its fullest potential.

Check back on Thursday to learn more about Bundled Reports and how it can save you time and reduce the number of emails you receive!

All the best,

The eScoreBoard Team

Dashboard: Changing Views

2010-04-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone who attended LAMP had a wonderful time in Las Vegas. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth and attended our eScoreBoard 4.0 demo. We got a lot of great ideas from you and we are looking forward to adding many new features in future releases.

Back to the task at hand, one of the new features for eScoreBoard is the ability for managers to change their view of the Dashboard. Previously, managers only had a single view of the Dashboard that contained some summary information for their team.

Now managers will not only have the ability to view summary information for their team, but also they can select any user below them in their hierarchy and view their information. Simply use the dropdown in the top left-hand corner of the page to select the user you want to view.

Please check back next Tuesday for our next post. We'll be changing gears a bit and jumping into some new reports that have been added to eScoreBoard.

Remember, with activity management, you are in control!

- The eScoreBoard Team

Dashboard: Adding and Removing Widgets

2010-03-18T15:24:00.000-04:00

One of the many new features of the Dashboard is the ability to minimize, or remove a widget. Widgets that allow this feature will have a small triangle in the right-hand side of their title bar. By clicking on this arrow you will open up a small context menu, as highlighted below.

By selecting "Minimize" the widget will be reduced to just it's title bar. By selecting "Close" the widget will be removed entirely although it is not lost forever.

Near the top right of the Dashboard you'll see two links: "Add Widget" and "Reset". The "Add Widget" link will let you select which widget(s) you would like to restore. The "Reset" will reset the layout of your Dashboard to it's initial state.

Until our next post, keep prospecting and keep on closing.
- The eScoreBoard Team

Dashboard: What-If Calculator

2010-03-11T11:44:00.003-05:00

Activity management is not exclusively concerned about number crunching what happened in the past. In fact, reviewing the past is, in and of itself, not valueable unless you are taking the information and changing your actions going forward.
One of the new widgets we added to the Dashboard focuses on the future. It is the "What-If Calculator". This calculator is pre-populated with your average activity for the last 90 days.

The calculator has three inputs (Seen, Sold and How Much) that are mapped to your categories and ratios along with two outputs (weekly and annual commission), which also are mapped to your goals (commission, GDC, GDR, etc.).

The inputs can be updated so you can see (or can share in the case of a manager) how your weekly commission can change significantly with just a slight increase in activity. For example if the producer above were to increase his Closing Interviews by just 0.5 per week (that's just one extra closing attempt every other week) his/her annual commission would increase by over $9000!

Small changes, big results.

If you have any questions about the upcoming release of eScoreBoard 4, please feel free to leave us a questions here, or to contact your account manager.

All the best,

The eScoreBoard Team

Dashboard: Widgets galore!

2010-02-18T16:43:00.000-05:00

Hello eScoreBoard users and enthusiasts. In today's blog we are changing focus a bit and looking at the Dashboard. The dashboard is currently going through numerous updates for our upcoming release of eScoreBoard v4.0. The three biggest changes are:

Allowing managers to view the dashboard of their producers
Allowing users to customize their dashboard by hiding/showing each widget of the dashboard
Adding a half dozen new widgets to the dashboard

This post will focus on #1 and we'll address the others in future posts.

One of the biggest requests we've had regarding the dashboard, is the ability for the managers to view their producer's funnels & gauges. Not only will managers be able to do this, but they'll actually be able to get the producer's complete dashboard view, including projections, SAM Action Plan notes and several other widgets.

eScoreBoard management users will now see a dropdown lists near the top-left of the dashboard. This list (pictured above) will allow the manager to see a summary review of the dashboard (similar to their current eScoreBoard view but with some additional widgets), or they can select a single producer and see the funnel, gauges and other widgets that the producer would see.

Check back soon as we continue our discussion of the dashboard.

Reports Tab: The Leaderboard

2010-02-11T13:00:00.020-05:00

Everyone loves top five lists. Everybody. Its my theory that this is why the Leno versus Conan debate has hit us so hard. Who will read us our top five lists now? And if we didn't have a deep, undeterred love of top five lists, why was John Cusack movie High Fidelity such a classic?

Now that we're in agreement, I'm excited to introduce the Leaderboard Report! This report will be housed in the Reports > Basic sub-tab, and will display the top five individuals for each category of your regular reports, for any timeframe that you select.

Top Five Reasons You'll Want To Use The Leaderboard Report Regularly!

1. You'll be able to look at the top five performers across a whole array of timeframes quickly and easily!

2. All the Categories and Ratios that you already know and love!

By including the skill ratios and vital signs in the order that they appear on any other report, you'll be able to compare and contrast your agents in a template that is familiar to you and easy to read.

3. You're not just limited to the Top 5

Select and review any number of individuals (1 to 5) depending on your needs and interest.

4. No custom categories left behind

No one wants to go to the trouble of adding in custom categories just to have them missing from these reports, right? Right.

5. Makes it easier to spot treads and highlight strong players!

Which makes it easier for managers to effectively manage your team, and makes it more clear cut to producers where they stand versus their peers.

The SAM Action Plan

2010-02-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

The Review tab has gotten a face lift!

With a renewed focus on your weekly review, we're excited to introduce the SAM Action Plan tab! The SAM Action Plan sub-tab of the Reports tab enables users to review their own numbers and list strengths, challenges, and solution. The review is visible to the adviser (the author) and to the manager.

And for added ease of use, you can email this review to anyone so that you'll have it in front of you when planning for your upcoming weeks, or when meeting with managers or agents.We'll dig deeper into this tab soon, so stay tuned!

So, how do you fill out the SAM Action Plan?

Individual: Select the person or sub-group of people whose data should be used to generate the report. From the two dropdown menus to the left of Individual. Select the year and week, which you would like to review. Select the year and week, which you would like to review. In the first dropdown menu select the year you would like to review and in the second drop down menu select the week to view.

Part 1 is the Producers Prep: Last Week Review section, which the producer will fill out. The three standard questions in this section are:

1. Is there anything on your mind?
2. What went well this week? How will it impact your short/long term success?
3. How was your performance on last week's action plan?

Part 2 is the Manager Prep: Strategizing section, which includes boxes to list the strengths,
challenges, and solutions for the week. Manager's will list Strengths in the box on the far left hand side, Challenges in the box in the middle, and Solutions on the right hand side. This section will allow you to give unique and specific advice to an individual.

Part 3 is the Action Plan for the Following Week. To fill out this section, select the key activities an individual should focus on for the following week. From the dialog box on the left hand side, highlight activities that should be improved upon, click on add in the middle of the two dialog boxes, and the specific activity will be moved to Key Activities For the Following Week.

Part 4 is the Notes/Comment section. Use this section to expand on the information you've provided above, add explanation around your successes and concerns from the previous week, make free form suggestions and comments, and to reinforce your agreed-upon plan for
the upcoming week.

Building Morale By Building People

2010-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

The best leaders recognize their responsibility to set the tone from the top that people count. They expect their people-building philosophies to be adhered to at every level throughout the organization and they make sure that systems and processes are put in place that help to foster continual growth and well being.

They recognize contributions both formally and informally and, most importantly, the leaders themselves model an environment of growth through actions that demonstrate caring, support, and trust. Here are few easy-to-implement examples of what others have done to set the tone:

Care enough to connect. Taking time to talk with people is part of the process, but it is listening that conveys true caring. This listening format gives every associate a chance to talk with him, which provides a chance for managers to listen for important information from which to learn—then lead.
Offer self-discovery and coaching programs. We've seen it time and time again. Great organizations really work on proving self-discovery and coaching programs.
Do what’s right and tell the truth. What I had to learn early on is what people expect more than anything else out of the leader is honesty. Treat them as adults and communicate.
Encourage employees to give of themselves and support their efforts. Encourage everyone to get involved in charitable activities. They get a larger view of who they are to the extent that you are giving to other people, you feel better about yourself.
Strive to promote balance. If you don’t have balance, then it affects everything—your personal life and your business life.

It doesn’t matter what your industry is, rather it’s private, public, government, nonprofit, or
educational. The point is, as a leader, you become more significant to your role when you
care enough to recognize a nd build others at all levels within your organization. If those at the CEO level can do it, so can you.

Reports Tab: Usage Reports

2010-01-21T12:30:00.000-05:00

There are so many great things to discuss about the usage reports. They're one of my favorite new features in our already bursting-from-the-seams reports section.

This section will be available to all users of all levels, and contains a set of new reports that will give you usage information on:

Who has their goals setup
What the reporting percentages
Who has completed the SAM Action Plan (I'll be filling you in on The SAM Action Plan soon enough!)

The steps to running these dynamic reports are simple.

The first dropdown will list all usage reports and, depending on the report that you are running, a second dropdown menu will appear for you to select the specifics of your report. And that's it. Hit submit and your report will generate, giving you the chance to fully analyze how your team is doing with fully utilizing eScoreBoard.

The Most Important Key to Success?

2010-01-18T13:00:00.004-05:00

If you want to know the most important key to success, you might be surprised to know that it is activity management (ha, or maybe not, since you're here on an activity management blog!).

Activity management helps you to work on the most worthy tasks and to get through them quickly.

Activity management is not some obscure notion, but an important business strategy that can be followed to gather a huge amount of success. Many businesses have failed because they are inefficient - activity management can increase that efficiently.

Knowing how to manage your time effectively will help you achieve the goals you want with the least amount of effort. The keys to time management are to focus on your goals, work on those tasks that make you the most money, reduce those tasks that cost you productivity, and implement these strategies into your business.

Focus on Your Goals: Focusing on your goals helps you to plan each day's tasks so that they move you to your goals. If you do not include these into your daily work you will not be moving forward as fast as you wish to. Once you have designed and assigned time frames to your goals you simply break them up into milestones and then further break these milestones into daily tasks. As your day progresses you should attempt to get as many done as possible.

Tasks that Make You Money: Some of the work makes you a lot of money while the rest is simply maintenance that support your business making operations. In many cases it makes sense to try and shift as much time to money producing tasks while spending the least amount of time on those tasks which waste your time. In other cases it makes sense to hire someone to work on these mundane tasks so you can refocus on more important things.

Higher Productivity: In order to focus on what is most important you have to be able to schedule your time accordingly. Keeping organized, writing down your daily tasks and setting away time for you to complete each major task is important. You will want to build into each day a little cushion time in case you don't get everything done. Each day you should analyze how well you have done focusing on your goals and try a little better tomorrow.

Reports Tab: Basic Sub-Tab

2010-01-15T13:00:00.001-05:00

The Basic Sub Tab

When clicking on the blue Reports tab, you'll find yourself taken directly to the Basic section.

Look familiar?

It's almost identical to the View section in layout and style, but with a few new reports to help you quickly access and analyze data for you and your team.

Reports Types
We've added more reports to the Basic Tab so you can

Standard - These reports are the most basic and commonly run reports; and they'll still be the default report you land on when going to the Reports Tab.
Advanced - These reports allow you to specify which data to include in the report so your report reflects exactly what you're looking for. For example, if you want to see all producers who did not achieve 100 dials last week, this is the report for you!
Bundled - New! - This is a single report that groups 2 or more existing standard reports together for quicker and easier review of the reports you use the most! We've developed three pre-sets of bundled reports for you to select from, created based on the most frequently generated reports.
Comparison - This report enables producers to view your activity across two timeframes, side-by-side. Similarly, managers are able to compare their direct reports.
Graphs - Updated! - The graph section of "Reports" lets you generate all the graphs used in eScoreBoard 3.0, but with updated images and graphics for a more dynamic view of your information. These graphs are created from skill ratios of your activity data in your account.
Leaderboard - New! - For Managers, this report let's managers select a timeframe to display the top five performers in each category.
Projections - This report allows you to generate a projection of possible future sales performance based on historical sales and goals. Once you generate a projection you will see two tables displayed: 1) projection of possible future commissions (or whichever goal your version of eScoreBoard is setup for) if future performance is the same as past performance, and 2) a projection if future performance is the same as goals

Next up: Usage Reports - so check back later this week!

Introducing: The Reports Tab

2010-01-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, you got your first look at the Report Tab.

This week, we're excited to give you an in depth look at what is new and exciting in the world of eScoreBoard v4.0 Reports.

Take a look!

Starting today, we will be delving into each sub-tab throughout the next few weeks to give you a full, backstage VIP tour of the Reports Tab: what's new, what's changed, and how this section will better help you in running your business!

The Four Fundamental Plans

2010-01-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

There are four fundamental plans that any Agent or Producer needs to construct to increase their production and quality of life dramatically. It doesn't matter where you are on the success continuum; whatever level of success you at in your career today is because of where you are in relation to the construction of these plans.

If you are a new Agent, you have a lot of work ahead. If you are inconsistent in your production and income, you might have a rough outline but few details. If you are consistent in your earnings, you have filled in a few of the details, but the big growth for you will come when you complete the construction. The plans:

Activity management

Business management

Personal management

Time management

Starting from the bottom - or the foundation - time management is something that nearly everyone struggles with. This is why it is one of the most profitable book topics and speaking engagement topics! The implementation of a solid time management plan alone will increase your revenue by well over 30% in the next year if you area new or inconsistent agent/producer.

A business management plan is essential to determine the results of your efforts. Too many people run businesses that are only marginally profitable. That's bad enough! The worst part is that they don't even know it. They don't have a system of checks and balances to monitor the business results. As you expand your business, you must be able to monitor the physical and financial results of your team's efforts. You must have clear standards and practices to evaluate performance and results.

A personal management system is probably the hardest area to work on. This one takes dead aim at you. It is where you are personally in your journey of success. Are you investing in your largest business asset... you? Are you holding yourself accountable enough for the things you need to do? Are you able to look at yourself and your performance with a discerning eye? Being honest with yourself and where you fall short is one of the hardest things to do, at any stage of the game.

Now, we must construct an activity management plan. This is where each day's activities are monitored, counted, and measured compared to your results. There is a clear a cause and effect relationship between activity and results. The question is what are the ratios of connection. What can you expect the return to be?

Remember, when performance is measured, performance improves.

You need to count, track, and calculate your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly numbers for contacts, leads, appointments, listings, and sales, etc. The sheer act of measuring raises the awareness and improves the results you achieve.

And now a note for Managers...

2010-01-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

If you’re like many managers today, managing salespeople, then it’s probably easy for you to understand what I heard from a sales manager recently. To quote him, “This ain’t the business as usual anymore… is it?”

Change is inevitable… winning is an option!
He was right. Things have changed. We think for the better! And yet, the frustrations that managers like the one I mentioned are expressing are very real. Everyone seems to agree that in order to create and sustain an effective business model requires a higher level of initial selling engagement, multi-influencer decision coordination, a more consultative selling approach and more “hands on” employee and deal management and coaching. So what is an effective, professional sales manager to do?

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
Here’s the good news. Even though the marketplace is evolving, effectively managing the people and process can be simplified by utilizing tried and true activity management strategies and techniques.

Activity Management: You may not have years of historical data to use as activity management benchmarks. And yet, the old concept of motivating, measuring, analyzing and coaching to generate effective activity is still a good one.

Words to Live By

2009-12-30T10:46:00.002-05:00

The best-selling author of Swimming With The Sharks, Harvey MacKay has said:

"Time is free, but it's priceless.
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you've lost it you can never get it back."

At the start of the new year, this feels all that much more familiar. We all have 86,400 seconds in our day, yet many people still seem to struggle with effective time management skills. We allow time to control us, rather than controlling how we spend the time we have.

However, what we're struggling with has less to do with time management and more to do with activity management.

This makes great sense, since time is a fixed asset - no matter how much we'd like to manufacture more, it isn't possible. All we can do is properly manage the actions we take within each segment of the time that is available to us.

The fact of the matter, is that we DO have enough time. What we don't have is enough focus on planning productive action. We simply need to organize in our minds the tasks that move us forward in our lives, and manage those activities. Once we take a serious look at all of the details in our minds, we can effectively determine what we can delegate, what actions take precedence over others, and what we can simply decide not to do at all.

There is freedom in the knowledge that you are living the minutes of your life with intentional action. Finding ways to implement effective activity management leads to stress free productivity, causing you to live your best life.

2010 New Year, New Decade, New Goals? Building A Stronger Business & Life Style

2009-12-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

This time of year, there are people lined up around the block with ideas on how you can change your business, change yourself, change your look, change your relationships, or just change for the new year.

But amid the noise of so many articles, suggestions, rules, and information, there are always a few articles that have really stood out to us, including this one.

In a recent article posted by Acumen Management focused in on creating goals for yourself, but not goals or achievements that are just about you. Instead, remember that the real success in life is the ability to positivity impact the lives of others and how YOUR life will grow because of the feeling you get from helping someone else.To make this a better place or help someone make their lives more livable. Make that a part of your yearly plan as well!

And to all a goodnight!

2009-12-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Your Annual Check-Up

2009-12-21T12:18:00.003-05:00

The holidays are just a few days away (everyone got their shopping done? Great!) and the New Year will be here in a little over a week! With time flying, Maris Haster, CLU, FLMI, Vice President of Client Development stopped by to share her insights on reviewing 2009 as you get ready to excel into 2010!

The end of year process will allow you to finalize your annual numbers and records tracking as well as provide historical documentation for future years. It is always helpful to know that you can look back at your SAM Planner from one year to the next to see where you have been, where you currently are and where you need to be. You will never lose sight of performance or lose track of important numbers and names!

A Look Back…

Make sure that your Quarterly and Annual ScoreCards are updated for your weekly, monthly and annual totals, so that you'll have a comprehensive annual track and important perspective on your entire year sales activities and results.

Review your actual performance to your annual goals for activities and production.Your next year’s Goals should be adjusted based on current performance as well as next year’s needs.

Where are your successes and what needs to be improved?

Finalize and review your Business Management Records:

Check the status of all prospects and opened cases. This becomes your “hot list” of prospects and cases to be developed next year. Your “hot list” should be added to your January contacts and “will do” list.
Make sure that you have posted all business submitted, issued and paid in the Business Record or in the Business-in-Transfer follow up list. Follow up regularly on any pending business.
Update your Recommendations/Referral Tracker and review your entire list from 2009. Make sure that you transfer forward any referrals that were not contacted or developed. Check the quantity and quality of existing referrals to determine a strategy going into 2010 for increasing the number secured and the type of referral (profile of your ideal prospect) requested.
Finalize your Mileage and Expense Reports for the year. Take a copy of these report pages and file with your tax records and receipts for ready access when completing your tax return for 2009.

On eScoreBoard, run a “This Year” report as of December 31st for your annual business assessment. This report will be vital for your 2010 Planning and your “look ahead” steps.

A Look Ahead…

Prepare your 2010 Annual Business Plan and Action Plan in the first section of your Planner. To complete your Action Plan activities and production, review your 2009 annual business assessment report from eScoreBoard and/or your Annual ScoreCard from your Planner. This review and historical perspective of your key business metrics, high payoff activities and production results will assist in your look ahead.

Post your new activity and production Goals into the Activity Management ‘at-a-glance’ pages for the first week of the year so you will be set to post these each week .

Post your new activity and production Goals for 2010 into your eScoreBoard “Goal” tab, “Set Goals” sub-tab.

Make certain that your eScoreBoard Reports are scheduled to provide you with a weekly, monthly and quarterly report in your email inbox on the day and time you wish to receive it (add them as a “Favorite” on your dashboard, too!).

These SAM guidelines will assist in a smooth transition of your year-end efforts into the start of a hopeful new year. We don’t want to leave your business success to chance….we want you to Succeed on Purpose!

Best wishes to you for a prosperous new year in 2010 and beyond!

Time - The Great Equalizer

2009-12-18T15:30:00.004-05:00

Time, the only resource that is possessed evenly, by everyone, in the same measure.

24 hours per day, no more, no less (not even for Jack Bauer) - so if you're managing your activity, you're really mastering time management, as well.

With that in mind, I wanted to recommend a great article that we've come across recently.

Some have amassed fortunes in their use of time, others nothing. Some will argue, I suppose, that this results from the unequal distribution of the other resources. Whereas that may be very true, experience shows that poor use of the resource of time has hindered the progress of many.

Tell us what you think!

Holiday Gift!

2009-12-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note for all you patience information gatherers out there: you can now download, save, print and pursue the new eSB4 tabs on-the-go and at your leisure!

Introduction to eSB4 (pdf)

And it's that time again... Your Questions Answered!

2009-12-10T10:00:00.056-05:00

You've heard me say it before, but the vast majority of features and changes to eSB4 are a direct result of the user feedback we have gathered (and you have volunteered!) throughout 2008 and 2009 (yes, this project has been in the works for a while!). We are working hard to keep you up-to-date as the roll-out edges ever closer.

With that in mind, lets get directly to your questions about the Activity page.

"Hello, I''m a manager and I've added a few custom categories to to the Activity page. I hope these aren't going to disappear when we switch to eSB4. Should I be worried?"

- This is a pretty reoccurring question - I'm sorry I haven't gotten to it sooner! Generally, you all want to know what is going to happen to your custom categories, scheduled reports, custom reports, and groups when we switch over to eSB4. We'll be testing the behind-the-scenes stuff for the next 2 months to ensure that from the first day of the switch to eSB4, it'll be business as usual for you and for all our users.

This means, all of your scheduled reports, custom categories, goal profiles, and groups will be automatically included in the switch to eSB4. Ok, that being said. If something goes wrong and something seems to be missing, do not panic. Everything is uber backed up on our servers. Any "known issues" and when they'll be fixed will be reported on this blog. Or, you can call us as always for assistance. (800) 254-4726.

"Hi! I really like the new activity tab with the calendar.
I noticed that there is a timestamp underneath the Activity form. Is this a new feature too?"

You're half right! The Timestamp (First Reported and Last Updated) is a fairly new feature that we added to the Activity page over the summer (so don't feel bad if you hadn't noticed it!). So far, the feedback on this feature has been strong, so we'll be keeping it in eSB4.

"Good morning - had a quick question about the new activity tab. I saw that there is a notes section under the activity form. I've been on the system for over a year and I've never had a notes section to fill out. Will I have this in eSB4? I think it's a good feature to help me qualify my numbers a bit. How can I go about getting this notes section added to my account?"

Well good morning to you to! The notes section (right under the activity form) is a customizable function. This means that your home office or eScoreBoard administrator selects whether your team should have access to fill out notes each week about your activity.

While these settings can (and might) be modified by your office/administrator in 2010, its ok to assume that if you currently have access to this form in eSB3, you'll still have access in eSB4. Similarly, if you don't have access to it in eSB3, you probably won't in eSB4. But, feel free to discuss with your manager - if this is a feature that could be of help to you or your team, let us know! We'll be able to go over your options of having it added to your account... or at least point you in the right direction!

If you have more questions, please don't hesitate to email m e or leave a comment. All questions will be answered, and all will be revealed :-)

Introducing The Activity Tab

2009-12-09T10:10:00.006-05:00

The Activity Tab is the heart and soul of eSB4.

It is by far the most popular tab in all of eScoreBoard. Why? Because no matter who you are, what your role is in the company, the main gist of eScoreBoard is the regular recording of your sales activities.

Show of hands (it's OK, it's anonymous) how many agents out there usually just visit the Activity Tab in eScoreBoard? We'll tell you in future posts about the other sections of eSB, and why you should be visiting them.

Here's what happens: You receive your weekly email reminder, click on the link and up pops a screen on the Activity Tab and for the current workweek. You input your numbers. You click submit. Up pops a box saying "Activity has been successfully submitted." Annnnnd you're done.

It couldn't be easier. Which is exactly how we like it. So, that leads to the question, how could we improve on this simple, intuitive process? Well, I'm glad you asked.

eSB4 Activity Tab

At first glance, this is the page you've come to know and love. Entering your activity is still a 3-step process*.

Select the timeframe
Enter your numbers
Click Submit

So what's new then? That would be the calendar to the left of the Activity form. You've seen this calendar before, both on the Dashboard and the Goals pages. It gives you a quick at-a-glance view of which weeks you've submitted your activity for (in green), which weeks you still need to report (in red), and the weeks you are out of the office (yellow).

We hope that with this added information right in front of agents, you'll fine it easier to fill in missing activity numbers (thus cutting down on those ~~annoying~~ helpful "why haven't you reported yet" emails). Plus, the more data you include in eScoreBoard, the more accurately we can provide in-depth analysis of your sales performance, and help you to improve your business!

*The notes section below the activity reporting form is currently a custom feature in eScoreBoard. It is not new in eSB4, but will still be an option for your firm or company to use. If your firm or company opts not to use the notes section, you will not have this box on your Activity page.

The Goals Tab Preview: Set Time Off

2009-12-04T13:20:00.009-05:00

The Set Time Off Tab

I'm going to go out on a limb here - this tab may look a little familiar. Yes, at it's simplest we have updated the Vacation Tab to the Set Time Off Tab. Ta-da.

Here's why: vacation is fun, exciting, a chance to travel or not travel, it's an opportunity to relax or maybe get stuff done. But when you're not in the office for reasons that aren't vacation-related, and you have to mark it as vacation, well, that's not fun for anybody.

We want you to Set Time Off whenever you have a full week away from your sales activities. Be that for training or a conference, because of something fun like vacation, or for something less fun like medical reasons or family emergencies. It's as important in eSB 4 as it's always been to accurately reflect when you're in the office working hard and when you're away. This helps to maintain the integrity of information in the system and provide you the most accurate feedback and analysis of your information.

Introducing The Goals Tab

2009-12-02T11:39:00.016-05:00

Are your ready for a breakthrough year like you've never had?

We're not big believers of New Year's resolutions around here. Not because we don't believe in the value of resolutions. Just the opposite! We are believers in the power of goals as something you need to be focused on all year long. Saving your resolutions for noise makers and the ball drop in Time Square is fun, but not the most helpful way to improve yourself and your business.

Still, we are firmly swept up in the holiday season, and are all too aware that 2010 is less then a month away. The start of a new year! The beginning of a new decade!And of course, a great time to start thinking about your goals.

So (drum roll? anybody?) here is your aforementioned and long promised first look at the eScoreBoard 4.0

Goals Tab.

First thing you may notice, it that it's very much business as usual here in the Goals Tab.You've got your Overview Tab where you can review your goals (and where managers can review everyone's goals), as well as the calendar view to quickly see which weeks have goals set, don't have goals set, are marked as vacation, or are weeks prior to your hire date.

We'll get into the second tab, Set ~~Vacation~~ Time Off, a bit more later on this week (new name = it's own blog post!). But as you can see from the Set Goals and the Goals Profile tabs, we aren't throwing too much new stuff at you.

In fact, we have worked hard to tweaked the layout to make things just a bit cleaner and clearer, while keeping the functionality very much in place. eScoreBoard without goals isn't much use to you (check out our articles on goal setting here and here), so early on we developed a very easy and effective process for you to input your goals, and we resisted the urge to play too much with that proven formula.

A Happy And Healthy Thanksgiving To You And Yours!

2009-11-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

While I plan some great updates for you all for next week (hint: tis the season for goal planning!), I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. And don't forget to check out The SAM Repor t. The November issue just arrived online (and maybe in your email box) today!

Administration Tab Preview: My Administrators

2009-11-20T13:04:00.005-05:00

eScoreBoard Administrators, Point People, Training Directors, Secretaries, Assistants - lend me your ears! Or eyes!

One of the suggestions that we heard throughout the planning process for eSB4 was the need for log-in access for users who don't necessarily need to report activity. And we completely agree.

Enter, the new My Administrators Sub-Tab.

Now, under the Administration Tab, you will see a new tab called My Administrators. For the first time in eScoreBoard, managers will be able to create accounts for the people that make eScoreBoard run so smoothly – the administrators and point people! With these accounts, you’ll be able to log into eScoreBoard with your own unique user id and password (no more sharing!) and have access to the tools and sections you need to assist with overseeing your team.

While many of the specifics will depend on your home office, Administrators will be able to run reports and review activities, as well as set up scheduled reports. This frees up the manager to do more of the managing, and gives the Administrator more of an opportunity to really learn eSB4 and how it can help your team, as well as you can also help with setting up goals.

And of course, your administrators will be able to handle many of the functions on the Administration Tab – from adding, editing, and deleting users, to setting up groups, to even setting up other administrators.

Even better, we’re keeping the creation of these accounts super easy. From the Administration Tab > My Administrators Sub Tab, you’d just select the "New" button and provide some basic personal information (the username will automatically populate, just like when you set up a new user!). Then you will select what whose accounts this Administrator needs access to review… and that’s it!

Administration Tab Preview: Using Your Groups

2009-11-19T10:36:00.010-05:00

The eSB4 Administration Page

The Administration Tab has always been the place to go for a detailed look at your personal account settings and to make changes to your team (adding a new user, deleting a user, editing a user - you get it, right? This is old news?). For eSB4 we wanted to add functions to give you more options in managing your team, while making the process a bit easier.

So now when you go to the Administration > My Profile Tab, all of the Groups that you have created will show up on this page. In eSB3, you would have had to go to the Administration> My Groups or to the Reports section to see which Groups you've set up.

Even more importantly, when adding a new user to the team - or when editing an existing user - you'll be able to add a user to a group just by checking a box. If you decide to review the account information of an existing user and see that a box is checked, that means the user is already in that group.

And to keep things all the easier, setting up the Groups will be largely the same. The Groups Sub-Tab of the Administration Tab allows you to break from the typical structure of the eScoreBoard and group various people together. Some examples of groups might include: producers who have identical levels of service or producers who may need special attention.

Administration Week

2009-11-16T13:05:00.019-05:00

I mentioned it late last week, but this week I'll be showcasing some of the new features and functions on our Administrations Tab (that's right, the red tab where you change your password).

I'll be taking questions, posting screenshots from eSB 4, and going over some "How-To" info, starting with:

"Hi there, I''m a manager and I've noticed on your blog and on your training materials, there is often mention that I should be able to add new users and delete new users from the administration tab, but I can't! Why not? And will this change in eSB4?"

- Thank you for your question! Being able to add a new user, edit user information, and delete a user from the Administration Tab is a customizable function. This means that your home office or eScoreBoard administrator selects whether your team should have access to adding/editing/deleting, customizing to how they believe we can work together to keep the most updated information in eSB. While these settings can be modified, it's ok to assume that if you have access to adding/editing/deleting account information in eSB3, you'll still have access in eSB4. Similarly, if you don't have access to one or all of these functions in eSB3, you probably won't in eSB4.

More Good Things Coming Your Way

2009-11-12T11:20:00.000-05:00

Really, we can’t say enough nice things about soon-to-be-released new version of eScoreBoard 4.0. Because not only will it make your life easier, but having such a powerful tool at our fingertips will make our lives easier, too. There’s your answer to the old question: Do the folks at Sales Activity Management use their own products? Yes, we most certainly do!

Integration Manager, Joe Saukulyak thinks that, “there are many usability enhancements included in eScoreBoard 4 that will give our clients a more customizable experience when using our great product. In particular, the Personalized dashboard will add to the already intuitive use of eScoreBoard and will give the managers/producers the ability to view what they use most.”

Varun Amin, one of our SQL Developer, has very little time these days to discuss eSB4. Since, you know, he’s developing the darn thing. But he’s looking forward to the new bundled reports. “This feature is going to make it a lot easier for managers and producers to know what reports they should be looking at on a regular basis, especially for those that aren’t so familiar with all the various reports that are available. And I think it’ll also make things easier by having all the information available on a single PDF or email.”

They’re both right, but no one has touched on my favorite new feature: the Administrator Accounts. These accounts are going to be, in a word, awesome. All the eScoreBoard administrators out there are about to be empowered! But I’ll have a full update for you on this next week.

Reports Tab Preview: Bundled Reports

2009-11-06T16:02:00.002-05:00

Who doesn't love a little bundle of joy? Particularly when it comes with the opportunity to decrease the amount of email you receive each week!

We're creating several pre-determined bundles by the level of your account (a set of bundled reports for agents, a set for managers, etc.) that will let you run a single report to get information that use to be in three separate reports. That's right - one step instead of three.

And to make your life even easier, when you schedule this bundled report, you'll receive all of this information in a single email!

Current Performance Bundle
    * Standard report for the most current four weeks
    * Last 30-Days Funnel Report
    * Last 30-Day Gauges Report

Quarterly Performance Bundle
    * Standard report for the last quarter
    * Last 90-Days Funnel Report
    * Last 90-Day Gauges Report

Annual Performance Bundle
    * Standard report for the last year
    * Funnels Report for the past 365 days
    * Gauges Report for the past 365 days

Good Things Coming Your Way

2009-11-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

Halloween is now more than a week past, which means that Thanksgiving is going to be here in a blink a of the eye (November slides into double digits tomorrow, our minds boggles at the mere thought). And in the next few days and weeks you’ll be seeing a lot more information on specific new functions within eSB4.

Can’t handle the anticipation? You’re not the only one! The entire SAM team is excited for the unveiling of eSB4.

Rick Camerano, our Integration Manager, is particularly excited about a new feature offices will be able to have added to their producers’ and agents’ Dashboard.

“I am looking forward to the “What if Calculator.” This is going to be a great tool to help new producers establish the necessary habits to succeed and identify any minimal changes in their prospecting activities to increase their productivity to their desired production levels.”

National Account Manager and newest member of the SAM Team, Rick Ramos is looking forward to the enhancements we are making to the Reports Tab.

“As a former producer and a user of the SAM system I’m excited to see how the new charts, gauges and graphs will impact our clients on a daily basis. One of the greatest obstacles of activity management is not having a daily reminder of our goals. I think the visuals that the latest version of eScoreboard provides will prove to be a great motivational tool for our users.”

Happy Halloween from SAM!

2009-10-27T15:23:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween Weekend!

I wanted to offer a quick "treat" about eSB4 and address another popular question.

"What will we need to do to get on the new version of eScoreBoard?"

This is an easy answer - nothing. We're doing the hard work behind the scenes to get the new version up and running.

As we get closer to the switch date, we'll be providing specific information of what changed, but you'll still log on with your user name and password, just as always. And just as always, all your reports, activity history and information will be in the system.

How's that for a treat?

Tis the Season - Working with SAM to Update Training Materials

2009-10-15T14:55:00.000-04:00

It's as cyclical as picking out a great Halloween costume and reviewing your end-of-year goals.

If we are busy updating training materials (and we are!), there's a good chance that many of the Training Directors and Administrators out there are also deeply involved in their own training material updates right about now.

But here's the thing, Training Directors and Managers:

If you have any internal training materials that you currently use for eScoreBoard 3.0,
we would be happy to assist you with their update to eSB4!

Just contact your account manager or call us at (800) 254-4726 so that we can coordinate getting a copy of your materials and discuss any updates, changes, or edits.

Key updated functions and features

2009-10-12T11:56:00.001-04:00

Since our recent eScoreBoard v4 announcement, you've all been great sending us emails and comments. With that in mind, keep them coming! I'll be getting into the habit of answering your Frequently Asked (Or, Really Good) Questions shortly. In the meantime, we'll keep the updates coming. And as always, please feel free to call into the eScoreBoard Help Line at (800) 254-4726.

But back to the influx of emails. I wanted to start with addressing the main question that I've been getting.

"What is going to change in eSB4?"

The short answer:

"A lot."

But what kind of person would I be if that's all I left you with? The truth is, we at SAM have spent a good chunk of 2009 surveying users, brainstorming with our development teams, and meeting with clients to get a variety of perspectives in order to determine exactly what will be changing in eSB4. We've asked you to tell us what's good, what's great (because who doesn't like to hear what's great?) and what's not so great. And many (many, many) of you happily complied.

The result was a lot of great ideas for us to improve, and a few things that we will be sure to keep the same.

This is by no means an all-encompassing list, and please rest assured that I will continue to give you information, details, and training on these features and many more as we move along in development. After all, that's what this blog is here for! Here are just a few of the new features and functions we're currently working on:

* Bundled Reports: eScoreBoard 4.0 will now group multiple reports into a single PDF, so there will be fewer emails sent to your in-box.

* Coaching Reports: Recommended coaching reports will let you spend less time figuring out which reports to view, and more time with your producers!

* Administrative Users: Create separate accounts for administrative assistant and/or training directors to help manage your eScoreBoard, so you can delegate administrative functions and have more time to focus on coaching.

* Personalized Dashboard: You will now be able to add and remove components from the dashboard to display the most pertinent information to your specific needs, and for quicker access to the information you need most.

* New Charts, Gauges, and Graphs: eScoreBoard 4.0 will contain a new and improved collection of charts, gauges, and graphs to provide a more dynamic display of information.

On the flip side, here are some of the VIP things that we promise not to change:

* We will still be available online, 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

* Logging your activity is still a quick and painless three-step process. And by "process," we mean 1) select the time frame, 2) type in your weekly (or daily) numbers, 3) hit submit. Done.

* We'll still be here to help you, through email, telephone, online help guides, mail, courier pigeon...you name it! Just because we're getting better, doesn't mean we're going to smile, wave good bye and wave you off on your way without the support to back it up. So you'll still be able to reach out with all of your questions, concerns, and comments as we all make the change to eSB4.

Coming 2010: eScoreBoard 4!

2009-10-09T16:20:00.001-04:00

For those of you on our email list, you may have recently received our *official* announcement of eScoreBoard v4. For everyone else, you can sign up for the SAM Report Newsletter and our email list on the homepage, or just check back here from time to time.

- - - - - - - - - - -

eScoreBoard is now undergoing extensive enhancements to better help you run your business like a business! With your feedback, eScoreBoard 4.0 will make the world's most popular activity management software more powerful and easier to use than ever before.

When

Second Quarter of 2010

Who

All eScoreBoard and eRecruitBoard users

What

More information will be available soon, so please check back often.

Welcome !

2009-10-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new eScoreBoard version 4.0 blog. This is a new offering from Sales Activity Management, which is aimed at providing updates, insights, and training information on the upcoming release of eScoreBoard version 4.0 - eSB4, for short.

Amidst the toughest economic climate of our lifetimes, we aim to provide resources that will help to fuel activity management, inspire action, and drive growth for you and your team.

If you currently use eScoreBoard, then you know it is the only online performance measurement system of its kind. First and foremost, it is a personal productivity tool, but it also provides timely performance data for managers and mentors to help producers succeed on purpose.

By instantly converting the activity management data from the planners into useful information, the eScoreBoard can help the user self-analyze performance, compare results against goals and identify opportunities to improve.

These resources you will find on this blog will include periodic updates about the latest features and updates, plus training materials, step-by-step guides for fueling a culture of activity management, and monthly mini-webinars (starting in 2010).

I’d love to hear your ideas, comments, and feedback on any aspect of eScoreBoard v4 and the information I'll be providing. Please feel free to send me your thoughts at Holly.Heller@escoreboard.com.

eScoreBoard v4

Code Day!

eScoreBoard Release Date & New Feature Demos

My Administrators

Administration: Office Settings

Reports: Action Plan

Behind the Scenes: Validation Rules & Permissions

Reports: Producer Summary Usage Report

Reports: Leaderboard

Down to Business: Hardware upgrades

Bundled Reports

Usage Reports: Goals

Dashboard: Changing Views

Dashboard: Adding and Removing Widgets

Dashboard: What-If Calculator

Dashboard: Widgets galore!

Reports Tab: The Leaderboard

The SAM Action Plan

Building Morale By Building People

More on Reports - Your Questions Answered! - Part II

More on Reports - Your Questions Answered! - Part I

Reports Tab: Usage Reports

The Most Important Key to Success?

Reports Tab: Basic Sub-Tab

Introducing: The Reports Tab

The Four Fundamental Plans

And now a note for Managers...

Words to Live By

2010 New Year, New Decade, New Goals? Building A Stronger Business & Life Style

And to all a goodnight!

Your Annual Check-Up

Time - The Great Equalizer

Holiday Gift!

And it's that time again... Your Questions Answered!

Introducing The Activity Tab

The Goals Tab Preview: Set Time Off

Introducing The Goals Tab

A Happy And Healthy Thanksgiving To You And Yours!

Administration Tab Preview: My Administrators

Administration Tab Preview: Using Your Groups

Administration Week

More Good Things Coming Your Way

Reports Tab Preview: Bundled Reports

Good Things Coming Your Way

Happy Halloween from SAM!

Tis the Season - Working with SAM to Update Training Materials

Key updated functions and features

Coming 2010: eScoreBoard 4!

Welcome !