WORK[etc] Web App Blog

Following our launch on the Google Marketplace, we'll be rolling out a number of tighter integration projects between WORKetc and Google Apps.

The first of these is a Google Email Contextual Gadget.  Essentially an Email Gadget lives inside of Google Apps Email and allows you to interact directly with your WORKetc account.  

Why this is cool

This means you can now attach any email within Google Apps Email, to a project, contact, sales lead or support case.  No need to leave Google Apps Email, no need to remember project codes.  Just click, point and select and that email is then sent across to your WORKetc account and displayed as part of your contact's activity history.

Similarly you can also create a new project, contact, sales lead, support case or ToDo from within Google Apps Email. 

But it gets even better.  The gadget will also pre-load the last 10 or so activities with that contact as well as that contacts' full contact details. 

Scenarios

Scenario 1
Let's say that you've exchanged business cards with a potential customer at a trade fair.  The following week, they have emailed yourself directly requesting more information.  Without leaving Google Apps Email and without logging into WORKetc, you can take that email and create a new contact, then create a new sales lead and finally send a ToDo for a colleague to mail out your information kit.

Scenario 2
If you are an account manager and one of your clients has emailed you with a support request, you can effortlessly turn that email into a WORKetc support case, from within Google Apps Email.

Scenario 3
You've have received an email from a contact requesting an urgent update on their project.  Since that project was one of the more recent interactions with that contact, a direct link is showing right their in Google Apps Email.  Simply click on the link to launch a new tabbed browser window, right into that project on WORKetc.

What it looks like, how it works...

So we still have maybe a week of programming and bug testing to get through first, but this is how it is shaping up.


In the above screenshot, the gadget sits at the bottom of the email.  If the contact can't be auto-matched with a contact in WORKetc, then simply click to create new contact within WORKetc.



If you choose to expand and use the gadget, you then have the option of attaching the email to an object (ie project, support case etc) within WORKetc.  You can also tab across and view the full contact information for that contact, or if the contact doesn't exist in WORKetc, enter those details on the fly.



You can also attach the same email to multiple projects, contacts and other objects.  We do some nifty checking in the background to ensure we're not slowing everything down by pulling down multiple copies of the same email.



Once a contact has been auto-identified (or manually attached) the 5 most recent activities (events) under that contact are displayed.  This lets you jump straight from Google Apps Email into the relevant object inside of WORKetc, with a single click.  Awesome productivity.



Now this is where it gets really cool.  You can use the familiar WORKetc "Create New" menu bar to turn repurpose the details of an email as a new WORKetc object such as a timesheet entry, new project, comment, contact, support case, expense item and more.

For example, you can capture an email from a potential customer.  Create a new contact, then create a new comment about the email, then create a new sales opportunity.  All this ends up in WORKetc, but you haven't left Google Apps Email for a second.  Again, this is going to have a major impact on productivity.

So - please give us a week to finish coding and some internal testing.  We'll announce when it is ready to go.  In the meantime, please feel free to join in the Google Apps Integration discussion.