Ask HN: Good software for managing a small team of sales engineers

Do you already use Salesforce.com for other sales-related activities? What system your sales people use? Is there a central repository for customer information? If yes, then I will suggest consider using the same system.

Do your SE enter or keep information somewhere else too?

As a SE, I can only say that don't force them to enter same information multiple times in different systems for different purposes. Nothing bugs me more than wasting my time entering same information multiple times and spending time on admin tasks, instead of spending more time focusing on customer.

Yes, we already use salesforce.com, but the SEs don't have access to it--too expensive.

I've worked as an SE as well, and I'm definitely not looking to add to the team's workload. Right now they're filling out a weekly spreadsheet and sending it to me, which sucks for them and for me. I'm looking for some way to make it easier for them to enter their time and for me to look at the data across multiple weeks, either by account or by SE.

Why does weekly spreadsheet suck for them? Are you interested in tracking time or the specific activities SE did with an account?

Any software replacement for spreadsheet for SE will be swapping time spent on filling spreadsheet to filling online form unless software pulls information automatically from what SE already doing in other repositories.

If spreadsheet has standard format, it may be of help to have a file upload tool that imports the data from uploaded spreadsheet to a database. And, if you have database expertise, you can manipulate the data in database whichever way you prefer for reporting purposes or have a few standard reports developed for you.

The spreadsheet has a standard format, but using it means that they need to sit down at their computer rather than being able to do it on their phone (i.e. right after a meeting), and that they overwrite a previous instance of the spreadsheet, which leads to mismatches between accounts and activities, which requires me to go back to them and reconcile things wasting time for both of us.

It's possible to use the spreadsheet as basis for upload, but if I'm going to do that, I'll build my own front end too. I'm hoping to find something that will work rather than roll my own.

I am working on a software, which may fit your needs. Basically it is a twitter + stackoverflow combo for coworkers. I believe it can help you to see what are they doing, and help them share knowledge. What do you think?

I'd definitely willing to have a look. Is there somewhere I can get a demo?

Trello is pretty flexible. I love it and my clients find it easy to use. It runs on all devices big and small so they can use it on the road. I wrote a tool (yes I am pimping it, it is what I do these days) called reportsfortrello.com that will show you what they are all up to. Both my site and Trello are free. There are other tools that will track time and tasks with Trello as well. Checkout boardtrail.com and burndownfortrello.com for more solutions.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

I'll have a look--I had a quick view of trello, but it seemed like it was more task oriented than what I wanted--I really need something that lets the SEs efficiently enter after-activity reports, and provide a quick holistic description of the state of an account on a periodic basis. I'll have a look at the two solutions you mention, thanks!

http://www.cynapse.com/cynin

http://www.getflow.com/