Excel auto-complete

The Phoenix feature I'm most excited about is Excel auto-complete. This is form completion, contract management, custom reporting, and more. It can do a lot, but it's really quite simple. You upload an Excel file we call a shell then RPM will fill out that file when users select it from a download list. The shell is an Excel file with some formula and/or macro functionality. Maybe the best way to explain this is some examples:

• Order form. The first worksheet in the Excel file is an order form for a certain supplier. Macros are setup in Excel to populate the form from the second worksheet that will be just raw data filled in later by RPM. This Excel file is uploaded to RPM and that user indicates which columns are required and where it can be used. For this example that will be an "Order" process. We'll call this shell the "Qwest order form". That's it for the setup. Now when a user is viewing an order, they can click "Download Qwest order form" and an Excel file will open with all the information filled in.
• Custom report. It's not just a single order, agency, customer, etc. that can be loaded into an Excel file, it can also be a view. Say you have a "Missing accounts" view you built. You could build a nice Excel report with charts and formulas then upload it as a shell for account views. Now from the accounts page your users can select that report and the populated Excel file, complete with charts and graphics, will appear.

The possibilities are endless: non-disclosure contracts for reps, Invoices for customers, branded quote summaries, marketing blasts, staff reports, anything you can build in Excel.

One of the reasons I like this feature is it puts a lot of the work in Excel. Excel has a lot of functionality, and it would be a waste for us to spend time replicating it. Also, there is a lot of Excel expertise and training out there for people to utilize. We recently hired a dedicated Excel guru who is an expert in, among other things, replicating paper forms in Excel. We're planning on offering Excel form creation services once Phoenix is out. Currently, she's been making the Excel macro files for supplier commission data pre-processing that are available for free on our support site.

At this time the functionality is being built for single (details) and multiple (views):

• Commission items
• Agencies
• Reps
• Customers
• Accounts
• Staff
• Forms (Process management)

For those who don't use RPM, "Process management" is our generic business process and collaboration framework. It's being used by our customers today to track everything from recruiting to leads to quotes to orders to trouble tickets. We use it for RPM sales & support and it seems like every day someone invents a new use for it.