This is the holy grail of online CRM systems which kept organizations like PICnet in the world of offline databases like FileMaker Pro. With our internal tracking of domain names, databases, pipeline and sales, server configurations, etc, we needed something that could pool all this data into one place.

With SugarCRM 5, we have finally found an affordable open source system that gives us the ability to store and manage this data internally. Our PICnetters are now able to pull up the records of our client organizations, and see on one screen the offerings we’ve provided to them, as well as all their related data in place.

Let’s just say that our support department was doing virtual cartwheels when they found out they could grab all this data.

If you’ve got any SugarCRM 5 modules or customizations that you think are worthwhile, let us know! We’re most interested in learning more about reporting engines like ZuckerReports.

These great changes come with the joy of construction, which has been delayed a little over the past few weeks. We’ve got our construction helmets from our NTC appearance last year, which should come in handy during the months of February and March (and maybe April…and May). Luckily we won’t be using any of the sledge hammers ourselves, but I’m sure that at the end of some days our team might be more than happy to lend a hand.

During the construction, we’ll likely be cutting back on in-house visits to the PICnet HQ. Not to fret, however, because once this project is complete you can expect a big open house bash with your PICnet friends.

Before and after photos to be used in the reality TV building makeover show of your choice will be available soon in our Flickr stream.

But what if Gladwell got it wrong? What if his interpretation of Stanley Milgram’s Six Degrees of Separation experiment was short sighted, and based on a data set that was too small?

Duncan Watts, a research who now does work for Yahoo Research, was interviewed in Fast Company magazine’s February 2008 issue. In his interview, he was able to effectively have me question whether or not these influentials really had any more power than the average Joe and Jane.

More importantly for us at PICnet, we have for a long time focused our discovery process on building personas for highly connected individuals for our clients. The goal is to determine what those highly influential individuals in an organization’s community want to be communicated with, and to determine the most effective path to doing so in online communications.

If Watts is right, however, the effects of luck and “right place, right time” might be much more influential than our Influentials.
For instance, Watts describes the spreading of trends quite differently than Malcom. In The Tipping Point, Malcom describes trend spreading like a virus, with key individuals spreading the disease to many others.

Watts, on the other hand, thinks a better example is to think of trends more like forest fires: every year there are many forest fires, but only a few become large enough to make the headlines. When looking back on those large fires, no one says, “that was a special match that lit that fire,” they look at the confluence of conditions that made it ripe for such destruction.

In the end, Malcom concedes we still know little of the big picture. “I think that all books like The Tipping Point or articles by academics can ever do is uncover a little piece of the bitter picture, and one day - when we put all those pieces together - maybe we’ll have a shot at the truth.”

WRTC’s new Non-Profit Soapbox site has an emotionally moving Memorial Quilt, which gives families of donors an ability to share their stories with the world.

Many thanks to our friends at Free Range Studios for their beautiful design work.

Kayako

As those who use Kayako know, there aren’t much of any reporting tools in eSupport product. Actually, there’s none. Luckily, Kayako has a well-supported forum community, from which I’ve been able to pull the following great SQL queries to run some basic reports.
Detailed Report by Client by Time Range

SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(t1.dateline) AS time_spent_entry_ts, t1.timespent, t1.timebillable, t5.fullname AS staff_worked, t1.notes AS billing_entry_notes, t3.fullname AS ticket_requestor_name, t4.title AS ticket_requestor_group_name, t4.usergroupid AS ticket_requestor_group_id, t2.ticketmaskid AS ticket_id, FROM_UNIXTIME(t2.dateline) AS ticket_posted_ts, t2.`subject` AS ticket_subject FROM swtickettimetrack AS t1 LEFT JOIN swtickets AS t2 ON (t1.ticketid = t2.ticketid) LEFT JOIN swusers AS t3 ON (t2.userid = t3.userid) LEFT JOIN swusergroups AS t4 ON (t3.usergroupid = t4.usergroupid) LEFT JOIN swstaff AS t5 ON (t1.forstaffid = t5.staffid);

Summary Report by Client by Time Range
SELECT SUM(t1.timespent) AS time_spent, SUM(t1.timebillable) AS time_billed, MAX(t4.title) AS customer FROM swtickettimetrack AS t1 LEFT JOIN swtickets AS t2 ON (t1.ticketid = t2.ticketid) LEFT JOIN swusers AS t3 ON (t2.userid = t3.userid) LEFT JOIN swusergroups AS t4 ON (t3.usergroupid = t4.usergroupid) LEFT JOIN swstaff AS t5 ON (t1.forstaffid = t5.staffid) WHERE t1.dateline BETWEEN UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-03-01') AND UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-03-31') GROUP BY t4.usergroupid;

Detailed Report of Tickets with Custom Fields
SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(t1.dateline) AS time_spent_entry_ts, t1.timespent, t1.timebillable, t5.fullname AS staff_worked, t5.mobilenumber AS staff_phone, t5.email AS staff_email, t1.notes AS billing_entry_notes, t3.fullname AS ticket_requestor_name, t4.title AS ticket_requestor_group_name, t4.usergroupid AS ticket_requestor_group_id, t2.ticketmaskid AS ticket_id, t2.ticketid AS ticket_index, FROM_UNIXTIME(t2.dateline) AS ticket_posted_ts, t2.`subject` AS ticket_subject, t6.fieldvalue AS billing_name, t7.fieldvalue AS po_number FROM swtickettimetrack AS t1 LEFT JOIN swtickets AS t2 ON (t1.ticketid = t2.ticketid) LEFT JOIN swusers AS t3 ON (t2.userid = t3.userid) LEFT JOIN swusergroups AS t4 ON (t3.usergroupid = t4.usergroupid) LEFT JOIN swstaff AS t5 ON (t1.forstaffid = t5.staffid) LEFT JOIN swcustomfieldvalues AS t6 ON (t1.timetrackid = t6.typeid AND t6.customfieldid = '2') LEFT JOIN swcustomfieldvalues AS t7 ON (t1.timetrackid = t7.typeid AND t7.customfieldid = '3');

“Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now — without exceptions.”

This Soapbox site works in conjunction with our friends at Democracy In Action and Wired for Change.

It’s important to my business management methodology to follow my mantra of MBWA: managing by walking around. I want to be in each of our offices at least a few days each month, making sure PICnetters have face time with me while also spending time doing partner and business development meetings in our three cities.

I think it’s great that other technology companies can have their entire teams working virtually. That’s not the way we work at PICnet though, as I’m a true believer that water-cooler time is the place where new ideas are sparked, and that team building needs to happen both online and offline, daily.
After our client organizations, the next big benefactor of all this growth is JetBlue, to which seat 20A on flights 318 and 321 between IAD and OAK normally are forced to deal with my presence. As my friends and family know quite well, my bi-costal life is a bit taxing, but has both its benefits and drawbacks.

I’m currently living about two weeks a month in San Francisco, and two weeks a month in DC. Normally, I try to pick up New York on my way from west to east, kind of a multi-day layover if you may (not that I have anything against you, my PICnet NYC friends!). The travel keeps me on my toes, but also makes it difficult to be part of multi-week activities.

For example, I have a hankering for taking dance lessons to try to impress my girlfriend and friends at weddings. Of course, these lessons aren’t compacted into a one week intensive routine. No, they expect you to live in the same city for two, sometimes four months in a row.

On the flip side, there’s probably nothing more renewing then getting a chance to settle into a new city for a few weeks, and feeling like you get to start over from scratch. You start to yearn for those things in “the other city”, like my burritos in the Mission, or a night in Adams Morgan. It definitely makes you enjoy and savor your time in each city, and take them for everything they’ve got.

If there’s one piece of advice I can give to those trying to live a ridiculous bi-coastal life, it’s the following: do whatever you can to have a wardrobe in each city. Nothing is more savoring than flying cross country with just a laptop!

We’re excited to announce the launch of FONA’s new Non-Profit Soapbox site! Congratulations to the FONA team for their hard work.

I know, I should be using Google Desktop, with all sorts of Web 2.0 gadgets, widgets, thing-a-ma-bobbers, etc. I’ve used Google Desktop for a few years actually, but I was finding that in exchange for the 3GB of disk space that it started taking up, the benefits were a little limiting. I wanted to be able to sort my results in a variety of ways, to search things other than just basic Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook contents.

In short, I wanted more control of my desktop search.
It was hard deleting my 3GB of Google Desktop; it felt like I was betraying the Web 2.0 world. When I installed Windows Desktop Search (WDS), I realized how badly I missed the double-press of my Ctrl key to bring up that useful Google search window. It didn’t take long, however, to enjoy the detailed search results provided by the new WDS.

After about 6 months, WDS is fully embedded into my daily work life, and I can confidently say that I recommend to other Windows users (darn, did I let my usage of Windows just slip out there?). I’d recommend that those looking to go beyond the search abilities of Google Desktop take WDS for a spin.