Task and Time Management Solution,
To Do List and Shared Calendars

To Do Lists, Task management, time management and shared calendars are core to running your business and in getting the most use out of your eLink Advantage on-demand business management system. All of us are constantly receiving emails, letters and phone calls which need action, some straightaway, some at a precise time on a given day, some that can be phased in later subject to a deadline date, some can be delegated, some need to be shared, and some we keep postponing!

The trick is to deal with them in the most straight-forward way with on-demand systems, to find information quickly or to move the information to the right person fast with the absolute minimum of work, confusion or delay. eLink Advantage business management system provides an automatic email notification to any other user(s) affected.

For the most efficient task and time management example, our favourite example is a telephone message left on our VoIP telephone system because this arrives as an email with a .wav file attached to it. We listen to it to find out who the caller is, then convert it into an action with the .wav file attached inside a document folder, attach the contact (in doing so, the action attaches itself to the relevant company,) select the relevant project(s), sales opportunity or marketing campaign, then decide what needs to be done and who is best to do it. Time and date stamp any comments you want to make, add any other relevant documents and files, set a deadline date and then allocate the action to the relevant person. Apply it and FORGET about it until its back to you, for you to do something. (The deadline date acts as a control point for you.)

An auto notification is sent to the allocated user alerting them to the task. The action is a direct click from within Outlook (or Lotus Notes) to show all the information. All the details, documents, .wav file, contact details, company and project details are still connected to it so everything is only a click away. Of course, this user could be anywhere connected via the Internet, and could be with an associated company or partner, if so authorised.

This user does the work they’re responsible for, and possibly sends an email (from the action) to the contact briefing them on current progress; adds his comments and re-allocates the task to the next person. (If this is a regular sequence it can be set up as a workflow.)

If the action becomes an agreed meeting it can be converted into a diary entry, using the shared calendars, and other users can be invited to the meeting (in which event they get a invite which they can accept or decline direct from their MS Outlook screen and where the result shows automatically in the diary entry.)

While this is happening the action is already linked to the contact and company (and project(s), sales opportunity, and marketing campaign) audit trail so that any interested (and authorised) person can be aware of the current situation. All the information in the action is automatically in the corporate knowledge base and searchable and reportable.

The To Do Lists and shared calendars taken together, as they can be shared by members of a group, can be made available to an out-sourced team (eg telemarketing, telesales or accounting staff) or to virtual assistants to form a cohesive Task and Time Management solution.

The benefits of the eLink Advantage Time and Task Management solution are:

• improved staff productivity as its all within one integrated system

• improved staff morale as they can see the information they need and feel part of the team

• the information is up-to-date, immediately available and on-demand

• comprehensive audit trail of all actions and documents all leading to

• improved customer relations

• improved sales, cash flow, profit

The system stands on its own as your task and time management solution or because of the interconnection with other modules available within the eLink Advantage business management system, it can be used as a starting point for a more comprehensive business management solution.

Your initial solution can be amended and extended by you on-demand, live on your system at any time, it will grow and adapt to match how your organisation grows and adapts to your market.