REQUEST A DEMO

Author: Gary Sherman

Chief Technology Officer, Vice President of Products

Gary Sherman
Gary Sherman
About:

Subscribe to Gary Sherman's RSS feed and never miss a post.

Posts by Gary Sherman:

HTTP request from cbbatch on UNIX

April 15, 2010 While answering some questions about integrating Clarify with web apps, I got a follow-up question (off the list) asking about how to make an HTTP request from cbbatch on UNIX. He didn’t care about the response – the page actually is just a php script that triggers a process on the web server; nothing visual is shown. Here’s my reply: I would use curl to make the HTTP request. curl is a command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax. It's available for Windows, Mac, and a boatload of flavors of UNIX. The curl website: http://curl.haxx.se/ I’ve used curl in a couple of previous posts. From cbbatch, just shell out and use curl to make the HTTP request. Like this: Sub test() Dim shellCommand as String Dim processId as Integer Dim url as String Dim curl as String curl…

Solution Workflow

April 14, 2010 When we talk about workflow within our CRM systems, we commonly talk about cases, subcases, part requests, etc. But every queueable object within our Clarify/Dovetail system can have its own workflow. Including Solutions. Many people don’t think about a workflow around their knowledge. I wanted to touch on this, and show an example of a business process, or a workflow, for Solutions. Quick recap: what is a Solution? A Solution is a description of a known problem with one or more workarounds and/or resolutions. It is a piece of re-usable knowledge. Some refer to it as a KB or KnowledgeBase article. Here’s what a Solution looks like within DovetailAgent: Pretty simple. An ID number, a title, a status, a description of the problem, and one or more workarounds/resolutions. Simple Workflow Here’s an example of a simple workflow for a Solution:…

Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management

March 18, 2010 While at SXSWi last week, I was in the audience for a panel on Customer Support in a 140 character world. It was a great panel of speakers, and the content didn’t disappoint. One of the panelists was Jeremiah Owyang.  He’s recently written a white paper on Social CRM – good stuff. Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management (blog post) Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management(white paper)

Veritest login issues

February 23, 2010 As part of being a Microsoft partner, specifically an ISV, we’re required to have our products tested. The testing organization is Veritest, a service of Lionbridge.Earlier this week, I created a login, and submitted a product for testing. At some point, I may revisit the hoops I needed to jump; through do this – it was crazy. But that’s a post for another day.After sumbitting the product online, I got an email from Lionbridge saying that I needed to complete a questionnaire before testing could occur. So off I go to login to their site to complete the questionnaire (I’ll hold off on the fact that I was never prompted to fill out a questionnaire when I submitted the product for testing. If this is required, then why wasn’t I told at that time?)I login using the same login name…

Would Clarify Bootcamps be useful?

February 22, 2010 One of the themes I’ve picked up on recently is that there seems to be a lot of organizations who still use Clarify /Amdocs, but not to its full potential. No where near its full potential. I’ve recently talked to a bunch of people who don’t really know how to use it fully, extend it, what functionality is available, or even how to maintain it. I’ve seen the same issue on both sides of the house: Technical IT resources who don’t know how to customize it, what all of the moving components are, what to do when something goes wrong, or even where to look for knowledge, Business resources who don’t fully know what the product is capable or what exactly they even have. For example, I’m amazed when I find out that people aren’t running Rulemanager – one of…

Messaging as an Enterprise Integration Pattern

February 19, 2010 With our recent release of Dovetail Carrier, we’ve been having more conversations around messaging as an enterprise integration pattern. (For more on Carrier, be sure to check out some of Kevin Miller’s recent posts on the subject.) In my feed reader this morning, I saw a new post from Gregor (a software architect from Google) where he discusses some of his thoughts about the right places for use of messaging. Good stuff. The list of advantages for messaging as a transport mechanism cuts to the heart of why we like messaging. For even more, be sure to check out Gregor’s site: Patterns and Best Practices for Enterprise Integration, where there’s plenty more details on messaging.

WebHooks in Clarify/Dovetail

February 9, 2010 What is a WebHook? From the WebHooks wiki: The concept of a WebHook is simple. A WebHook is an HTTP callback: an HTTP POST that occurs when something happens; a simple event-notification via HTTP POST. A web application implementing WebHooks will POST a message to a URL when certain things happen. When a web application enables users to register their own URLs, the users can then extend, customize, and integrate that application with their own custom extensions or even with other applications around the web. For the user, WebHooks are a way to receive valuable information when it happens, rather than continually polling for that data and receiving nothing valuable most of the time. WebHooks have enormous potential and are limited only by your imagination! (No, it can't wash the dishes. Yet.) That sounds like a business rule (in Clarify…

Dovetail is hiring a .NET Developer

January 29, 2010 We're expanding the development team on our line of existing products. You'll be working on a small team that develops applications for large businesses using some of the latest technology. You will be involved in all aspects of solution development, including analysis, design, development, testing, documentation, and support. We’re looking for a software developer with demonstrable C# (preferably .NET 2.0 or later) and HTML/CSS experience (ASP.NET MVC is a plus). Any experience with test-driven development or automated unit testing in general is a huge plus. Also, participation in the community (attendance of events, avid blog reader + commenter, or maybe you even have a blog yourself) will put you firmly in the running for this position. We’re looking for people that believe learning and continuous improvement are primary responsibilities of a software developer. We’re hiring motivated people for a terrific…

Clarify Technical Consultant posting

January 7, 2010 For any of you Clarify peeps out there looking for a gig, there’s a Clarify Technical Consultant available at IDC Technologies in Silicon Valley. Requirements: 4-5 years in the following amdocs modules Clarify Application: amdocs crm, clarify classic client, call center application, clear support application, clarify schema, clarify deployment in 3-tier environment tuxedo VB 6 Minimum 4-5 years of experience in Clarify enhancements Understanding the customer requirements Enhancements and testing Note: This isn’t a position at Dovetail, and I don’t have any vested interest in filling this job. I’m simply sharing an opportunity with my Clarify compadres.