Touch Ahead Software Releases Updated EquityTouch®
2.1
Popular CRM deal sourcing application receives update; including Keyboard Navigation in Search Results, Color Coding, and other enhancements.
Boston, MA, May 26, 2010 - Touch Ahead Software, LLC released EquityTouch® version 2.1 this past Friday. EquityTouch, a customer relationship management (CRM) software application is unlike other CRMs on the market in that all transactions or communications are recorded as "Touches" that are then easily referenced to multiple companies or individuals. Ideal for Private Equity and Venture Capital firms, EquityTouch allows users to easily organize and chronicle the deal cycle.
Founder and Senior Partner, Nancy Keddy says that the updates provide additional functionality and ease of use. "EquityTouch makes you feel like you are using an application locally, yet it is on the web." The newest version contains multiple program enhancements such as Keyboard Navigation, Color Coding, and Advanced Relevance Sorting. "These additions give users a more efficient method of working through their data, making them more productive," says Keddy.
EquityTouch 2.1 Updates Include
- Keyboard Navigation in Search Results
- Users can now use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate search results.
- The feature offers ease of use, eliminating the need for multiple mouse clicks. Users can move back and forth with simple keystrokes.
- Color Coding in Search Results
- Company search results can now be configured to be color coded based on Company Type.
- The Color Coding option is available under the Administration section.
- Advanced Relevance Sorting
- Companies with the exact search string in their name or alternate company name will be placed at top of the search result list.
- The results are then sorted by where the search string appears in the Company Name.
Current EquityTouch users automatically received the update. Any technical questions/concerns can be directed to Touch Ahead Support via email (help@touchahead.com) or phone (1-866-960-9301).
For additional information on EquityTouch or to request a demo, please visit http://www.touchahead.com/equitytouch.html.
About Touch Ahead Software LLC
Touch Ahead Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions company, focused on providing unparalleled benefits of advanced technology to the alternative asset community. The benefits include higher user satisfaction and increased deal sourcing productivity by utilizing user-friendly collaboration tools, as well as a dramatically reduced cost of ownership and time for implementation. Touch Ahead Software is the developer of EquityTouch, the premiere deal CRM service for the financial and other specialized industries. For more information, please visit http://www.touchahead.com.
Press Contact
For more information, please contact:
Cathie Briggette
Touch Ahead Software LLC
(p) +1 866 960 9301
(e) cmb@touchahead.com
Touch Ahead Software Releases EquityTouchTM 2.0.1
New version update includes additional file support and a revised import tool
Boston, MA, April 5, 2010 - Touch Ahead Software, creators of EquityTouchTM, a deal sourcing and collaboration tool for private equity and venture capital firms, just released the newest version update, 2.0.1. The update will come out just three weeks since EquityTouch 2.0 became available on March 19. The new release includes support for Excel® 2007 files (.xlsx), and an upgraded import tool.
The import tool is accessible under the "Tools" tab in EquityTouch. Brian Le Blanc, VP of Software Engineering at Touch Ahead, states that the tool offers easier migration of data from multiple sources. "Clients keeping data in Outlook® or Excel can easily migrate said data to EquityTouch" says Le Blanc, "The updated import tool can now map data into the new grid controls available in EquityTouch 2.0."
The ability to map data into grids allows for a more customizable lay-out and more refined search results when researching data in EquityTouch. Current users will not have to do anything on their end to receive these updates. Prospective users can contact Touch Ahead Software for more information and to set up a demonstration at sales@touchahead.com
About Touch Ahead Software LLC
Touch Ahead Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions company, focused on providing unparalleled benefits of advanced technology to the alternative asset community. The benefits include dramatically reduced cost of ownership and time for implementation, as well as higher user satisfaction and organizational profitability through deal sourcing and powerful collaboration tools. Touch Ahead Software is the developer of EquityTouchTM, the premiere deal CRM service for the financial and other specialized industries. For more information, please visit http://www.touchahead.com.
Press Contact
For more information, please contact:
Cathie Briggette
Touch Ahead Software LLC
(p) +1 (866) 960-9301
(e) cmb@touchahead.com
(w) http://www.touchahead.com
Touch Ahead Software Releases EquityTouch®
2.0
EquityTouch, the popular private equity/venture capital deal sourcing software receives Outlook integration, advanced search options, and other enhancements in new release
Boston, MA, March 15, 2010 - Based on the "Touch" concept, EquityTouch is unlike traditional customer relationship management (CRM) software systems. With EquityTouch, Touches are any transaction or communication involved in daily business activities that include emails, events, phone calls, and meetings. These Touches are then organized in the application by company, contact, and Touch type for easy reference. The newest version contains multiple application enhancements and customizable options that allow users to import data easily with fewer keystrokes and mouse clicks.
Outlook®
Integration: EquityTouch 2.0 features a downloadable plug-in for Microsoft® Outlook. Users who are running Outlook 2003 or 2007 can install the plug-in to push emails, calendar events, and contacts directly into EquityTouch from Outlook. The EquityTouch Outlook integration allows users to push emails/events to EquityTouch as a Touch, and all recipients become participants of the Touch. EquityTouch then matches all email/event recipients to contacts already existing in the application. If a match is not found, a pop-up window appears that allows them to either create a new contact or manually match them with an existing contact to resolve the difference.
"Or" Searching: Version 2.0 of EquityTouch allows users to perform "or" searches under the Advanced Search tab. Previous versions would allow for single variable searching in all fields. "Or" searching now allows users to select multiple variables in a single field. The new feature is accessible under the Advanced Search tab.
Created/Modified By: EquityTouch 2.0 also includes "Modified By" and "Created By" searching that allows users to look up information based on what other users have been working on in the application. A created and modified date and time stamp will appear on company and person summary pages as well. These options are available under the "Company" and the "Person" search fields in Advanced Search.
Enhanced Filtering: The new release also contains improved filter settings that allow a user to save their filter settings under the "Touches" tab. Users can select the Touch types they would like to see, and then select "Apply Filter." Once the search is run, the user can save the filter under tools settings.
Current EquityTouch users will automatically receive the update. The only action required on the user side is the option of downloading and installing the Outlook plug-in. Any technical questions/concerns can be directed to Touch Ahead Support via email (help@touchahead.com) or phone (1-866-960-9301).
For additional information on EquityTouch or to request a demo, please visit www.touchahead.com/equitytouch.html.
About Touch Ahead Software LLC
Touch Ahead Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions company, focused on providing unparalleled benefits of advanced technology to the alternative asset community. The benefits include dramatically reduced cost of ownership and time for implementation, as well as higher user satisfaction and organizational profitability through deal sourcing and powerful collaboration tools. Touch Ahead Software is the developer of EquityTouch, the premiere deal CRM service for the financial and other specialized industries. For more information, please visit www.touchahead.com
Press Contact
For more information, please contact:
Cathie Briggette
Touch Ahead Software LLC
(p) +1 866 960 9301
(e) cmb@touchahead.com
Touch Ahead Software Releases Tradeshow Tool For Flagship Program
EquityTouch, the popular private equity/venture capital deal sourcing software, receives update with Tradeshow Tool for quick and easy data importation
Boston, MA, February 12, 2010 - Touch Ahead Software, creators of EquityTouch, a deal sourcing and collaboration tool for private equity and venture capital firms, has added a new feature to their flagship product. EquityTouch now includes a Tradeshow Tool that allows users to easily upload information collected from tradeshows, expositions, and other large business gatherings into the application.
Brian Le Blanc, VP of Software Development, explains that the tool is a result of a request from one of EquityTouch's subscribers. "A client came to us with a pain point. They wanted to automate the process of importing company data from trade shows that they often attend. In their previous application, they would search for each company manually and add the ones that were not represented by way of a form that they had to fill in." The Tradeshow Tool makes data entry into EquityTouch much more efficient.
Now, EquityTouch clients can take contact data from tradeshows in the form of an excel file or comma-separate value (.csv) file and import directly into the program. Once uploaded, EquityTouch then checks to see if the new contacts are already in the system and updates profiles with information gathered from web-based business databases built directly into the EquityTouch software.
The new tool saves users a lot of time and eliminates multiple contacts in the system. It also allows subscribers to locate and pinpoint new investment opportunities by sifting through pages of data in a matter of seconds compared to manual reference that can take hours. Le Blanc says, "Now they only need to specify the location of the file to import, and EquityTouch automatically searches for matches in either their own data or in a third party data provider. The process couldn't be simpler."
About Touch Ahead Software LLC
Touch Ahead Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions company, focused on providing unparalleled benefits of advanced technology to the alternative asset community. The benefits include dramatically reduced cost of ownership and time for implementation, as well as higher user satisfaction and organizational profitability through deal sourcing and powerful collaboration tools. Touch Ahead Software is the developer of EquityTouch, the premiere deal CRM service for the financial and other specialized industries. For more information, please visit www.touchahead.com
Press Contact
To schedule a press briefing, please contact:
Cathie Briggette
Touch Ahead Software LLC
(p) +1 617 303-0480
(e) cmb@touchahead.com
Release Notes
|
Product |
EquityTouch |
|
Release Number |
1.3.0 |
|
Release Date |
12/04/09 |
|
Support |
TouchAhead |
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose
This is a major feature release. Changes have been made based on requests gathered from user feedback and on initial planning. There have been updates throughout the system that also include several bug fixes. All users of EquityTouch
™ will see these changes.
No action is required on the client side to implement these changes.
Brief Overview
-
Ability to add, remove, and edit Employees from the Company Summary page.
-
Ability to change the Primary Contact from the Company Summary page.
-
Ability to merge duplicate companies and people.
-
Easier method for adding multiple attendees to a Touch.
-
Changes to the Advanced Search including the ability to search for blank/null values and the ability to search for other people’s touches.
-
Change method for calculating the “Next Step” value.
-
Introduction of Security Groups (admin level).
-
Ability to configure Dashboard Statistics (admin level).
-
A few other design/display enhancements.
-
Assorted bug fixes across the application.
New Features
- Ability To Add, Remove, and Edit Employees From Company Summary – You can now add, edit, and remove employees directly from the Company Summary page.
1. Adding Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click
the Add Employee” button in the bottom left corner of the Employees
section.
This will open the New Employee form at the top of the page. Filling out this form and hitting “Enter” will save this new Person to the Company.
2. Editing Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click the “Edit” button in the top right corner of the Employees section.
This will open this section in edit mode. You can make changes to the person’s first, middle or last name; his/her title, primary phone number, and email address. Click “Save” to save your changes.
3. Changing Primary Contact – You can now change who the primary contact is at a company from the Company Summary page. In the Employee section, click the radio button next to the appropriate employee. His/her name will become bolded and it will bubble to the top. This name will now appear in search results for that company.
4. Deleting Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click the ‘X’ on the far right of the person’s row. You will be alerted that this person has been removed from the company. His/her current role of employment with this company will be made into a past role and he/she will no longer be visible on the Company Summary page.
5. Ability To Merge Records – You can now merge both People and Company records. This is done from a search result and only 2 records can be merged together at once.
To merge two companies or people, first select the two records by checking the checkboxes in the left column of the search result. Then, click the ‘Options’ menu and select ‘Merge Selected Items’.
A window will pop up with all the information displayed in 3 columns. A preview of the merged record’s information will be displayed on the left, the primary record’s information will be displayed in the middle, and the secondary record’s information will be displayed on the right. To swap the primary and secondary companies, click “Swap Primary Company” in the top part of the panel.
To merge using the default values click ‘Merge People’ or ‘Merge Companies’ in the top left. To change what information is included in the merged record, click the radio buttons on the field you would like to swap. If you would like to remove certain information from the merged record, click the ‘X’ next to the field you want removed. You will see the Merge Results column update with the new information.
Some information is hidden to start (communications information, custom fields). To see this information, click “Show Phones, Emails, and URLs” or “Show Custom Fields”.
When you are ready to merge, click ‘Merge People’ or ‘Merge Companies’ in the top left.
Notes:
o All touches are kept when records are merged.
o All groups containing the deleted record are updated to include the merged record if it is not already in the group.
o Fields that can contain multiple values (phone, location, etc) will default to be updated to include all values from both records being merged.
o The primary record is selected by taking the record with the most recent change (Touch or info). This is the one which will remain after the merge. The secondary record is the company or person being merged from. This record will be deleted after the merge.
o After merging people or companies, a touch will be attached to the merged record containing both records’ information. The touch type will be “Company Merge” or “Person Merge”.
o In the resulting Company or Person record, email addresses, phone numbers, and URLs will appear in the order of the select list they belong to.
Note about People records when merging Companies – When you merge two companies, the employees of those companies will be auto-merged based on an exact match on email or full name. You are not given an option to mix and match Person fields when merging Companies.
· Add Attendee Panel – A simpler way of adding attendees to a touch has been added. On a new or existing touch, click the ‘Add Attendee Form’ button.
A window will open up with 3 sections.
o Users - The section on the left is a list of all users in a certain user group of EquityTouch. The first time you use this it will be the default group ‘All Users’. You can change which user group you would like to see by clicking on the following menu and selecting a different group:
o Current Company - The section in the top right is a list all people at the Active Company.
o Other Relationships - The section in the bottom right is a list of all people that have a role with the Active Company, have a previous role with the Active Company (past employees), and anyone who has ever been involved with a touch with the Active Company or Person.
To the left of each person will be radio buttons corresponding to different Touch Roles. To include someone on the Touch, just check the appropriate circle for him/her. You will see them be added to the Touch fly out. To remove them, click the ‘X’ on the Touch fly out next to his/her name (this is the same as removing them without this new tool). When you are done, close the ‘Add Attendee’ panel by clicking the ‘x’ in the top right corner.
· Improvements to Advanced Searching – Several improvements have been made to Advanced Searching that allow you to search for other EquityTouch user’s touches and search for blank/null values in fields. Some procedural and display issues have also been addressed to make the process smoother.
o Other People’s Touches – You can now search through other EquityTouch
™ users' touches. To do this, look for the “Search In” field under the Touch section of the Advanced Search panel.
This drop down previously contained two options: My Touches and All Touches. In addition to those two, it now contains every user of EquityTouch
™ . Selecting a user will narrow the search down to that person’s touches.
o Searching For Blank Values – You can now search for fields that have no values. In drop-down lists the option will now appear in the Advanced Search panel. For text fields, type into the field. In a range (date, numbers), the text is only required in the ‘From’ field.
Note: Searching for in either the Company Name or Person Last Name fields will search for the string ‘’ and not for records with no entries (as those two fields are required and cannot be blank).
o Hitting ‘Enter’ Starts Search – While in the Advanced Search panel, if you hit ‘Enter’/’Return’ the search will start. Note that this will not work if you have a drop-down list selected. In this case the drop-down list will toggle open and closed.
o The Advanced Search Panel Closes on Search - Once the search is complete, the Advanced Search panel will close, displaying the search results.
- Change to ‘Next Step’ Calculation – The ‘Next Step’ date is now the date of the incomplete touch that is closest to the current date. If two incomplete touches are equidistant from the current date, the touch in the future will be displayed. This value will be updated for a Company if a new touch is added and nightly if one is not.
- Security Groups – This release contains the first steps necessary for implementing Security Groups. A Security Group is a group of users set up by an application Administrator that can be used in the application. With this release it will be used in the new Add Attendee functionality (adding People to Touches). All users will belong to the group “All Users” by default. This functionality will continue to become more important with future releases.
- Person Title Added To Relationships Tab - On the Company Relationships tab a Person’s current title is now displayed.
· Changes to the Intermediary Panel – Changes have been made to the Intermediary panel on Company Summary pages. This section now includes the Intermediary’s title, Company, phone, email, and the start date of the intermediary role with the company.
· Dashboard Statistics Now Admin Configurable – Under Customization -> Dashboard -> Statistics Panel in the Administration section. An application administrator can configure the default date range for statistics, the touch types to include, the company types to include, and the touch roles to include.
· Email/Invitation Defaults Admin Configurable by Touch Role – The ability to specify defaults (checked/not checked) based on Touch Role for Email and Outlook Invitation when adding attendees to Touches is now Admin Configurable. Previously all roles that were not ‘Initiator’ were included under ‘Participant’. The administrator can now configure for each Role. This is in the same place it used to be (System Settings -> Mail and Calendar).
· Tag Email Functionality Now Admin Configurable – Under System Settings -> Options -> Mail and Calendar there is now a setting called ‘Send emails with Tags’. Turning this on will send an email to the recipient of a tag.
· Options Button Change – The options button has been changed throughout EquityTouch
™ to the following:
Bug Fixes
- Pagination Saved Preference – The ‘Results Per Page’ setting is now saved across sessions.
- Custom Field Invalid Character - Saving ampersand (&) to a custom field no longer throws an error.
- Company Name Invalid Character – Saving ampersand (&) to a company name no longer throws an error.
- Deleting Company Address Bug - Deleting a company address immediately updates what gets returned in search results. Previously this would not always get updated.
- Export To XLS on Advanced Search - After running an Advanced Search on custom fields, exporting to XLS will now export the correct fields. Previously incorrect results were exported.
- ‘Groups’ Filter Preference Saved Across Sessions – The most recent selection for the Groups filter on the dashboard will now be saved (All Groups, My Groups, Company Groups, People Groups, Shared Groups).
- Saving Touch Without Attendees Alerts User – If you save a touch without any attendees you will receive a message explaining that you need to have at least 1 attendee on the touch. Previously the edit touch panel would say ‘Saving’ but nothing would happen.
- Adding A Relationship No Longer Changes Person’s Header - Only changing the Employee role will change the information displayed in the Person’s header (area above the tabs).
- Options Menus Close Correctly – Sometimes options menus closed prematurely if the mouse hovered over certain areas. This has been fixed.
- Deleting Initiator on Touch Already Sent To Outlook – If a Touch has been sent as an Outlook invitation, and the initiator of the Touch changes, a new invitation will be sent. The old Outlook meeting will remain. Previously, removing the initiator in this situation would have thrown an error.
- Next Step View Available from Stats Search - After clicking on a number in the stats section of the Dashboard, you can now select ‘Next Step View’ as a search result view.
- Drag and Drop of Custom Financial Fields Works - In the Admin section, you can click and drag custom financial fields into order in ‘Financial Fields Layout’.
- Person Summary ‘Save Changes’ Message - The ‘Are you sure you want to navigate away without saving your changes’ dialogue is only displayed if something has changed.
- New Group from Selected Bug - This did not always display the correct number of groups being added. This has been fixed.
- Google News Module Bug – Editing search terms in the Google news module automatically refreshes the search results.
EquityTouchTM New Features and Bug Fixes
|
Product |
EquityTouchTM |
|
Release Number |
1.2.0 |
|
Release Date |
8/07/09 |
|
Support |
Touch Ahead |
Purpose
This is a feature release. Changes have been made based on requests gathered from user feedback and on initial planning. There have been updates throughout the system that also include several bug fixes. All users of EquityTouchTM will see these changes.
No action is required on the client side to implement these changes.
New Features
Web Services Integration - This tool allows for newsfeeds and social networking tools to be integrated at the Person and Company level from within EquityTouch™. On the summary pages for people and companies, there is a section labeled "Web". Below it are any icons representing web components your system is configured for.
Clicking on an icon will open up a new window containing the feed for that service. Clicking the edit/options button in the top right corner of these windows will allow you to edit and save the search criteria that gets sent out to these services.
Consequently, the "News" tab has been removed from both Company and Person records. The Web Services Integration section is configurable to contain any information that would have previously been on that page. Also, the associated web components have been removed from the Options menu on the summary tab.
People Custom Fields - Custom fields are now available for Person records. Previously these were only available for Companies. These are configured by your system administrator.
- People Groups - You can now create groups of people in EquityTouch. Previously you could only create groups of Companies.
A group of people is any set of people you want to keep together who may or may not have a common characteristic. These people do not have to be employed by the same Company. People groups work just like Company groups. You can now decide which type of group to create on the "New Group" form (this can be opened by clicking "New Group" from the Actions menu or "New Group from Selected" from a search result.
To save a search, you click on the ‘Options' menu from the search results page. From here you can select ‘Save Search'. A form will open asking you to name your search. Enter a name for your search and a brief description of what the search contains. If you would like to share this search with other people you can ‘Tag' them from this form (see the ‘Tagged Searches" section for more information). Finally, click "Save Search" to save. You should now see your new search in the "Saved Searches" section of the Dashboard.
If you want to edit the name or description of your new saved search, you can do so by clicking on it in the "Saved Searches" section. The search will run. When it is done running, click the ‘Options' button and select ‘Edit Search'.
-
Tagged Searches - ‘Tagged' searches are searches you can share with other users. Any user "tagged" to a search will receive notice that you have shared a search with them and can either view and save your search or ignore it (see the "Tags Panel" section for more information).
You can tag someone on a saved search when you first save it, or by editing it later. To tag someone on a saved search when you create it, simply click on his/her/their name(s) under the ‘Tag Recipients' section of the ‘New Saved Search' form (see the "Saved Searches" section for more information).
Their name will then be added to the "Tag Recipients" list.
To tag someone on a search that is already saved, first click on the search in the "Saved Searches" section. The search will run. When it is done running, click the ‘Options' button and select ‘Edit Search'. Now, click on the person's name you would like to tag and hit ‘Save'.
-
Tagged Groups - ‘Tagged' groups are groups that you can share with other users. Any user "tagged" to a group will receive notice that you have shared a group with them and they can then either view and save your search or ignore it (see the "Tags Panel" section for more information).
Tagged groups are not collaborative. In other words, if you tag someone on a group, and they make changes to the group, they will see those changes but you will not. For information on collaborative groups see the "Shared Groups" section.
To tag someone on a group, first open the group by clicking on it from the "Groups" section of your dashboard. Then, from the options menu, select "Send Tag".
A form will open up on which you can give a name and comments for the tag. Any user you tag on this group will see the name and comments. To add users, simply click his/her name from the list on this form. To finish, click "Send Tag".
When you share a group with someone, they will be notified in his/her ‘Tags Panel' (see the "Tag Panel" section for more information).
You can share a group when you first save it or at any point after that by editing it. To share a group with someone when you first create it, simply click on his/her/their name(s) under the "Collaborators" section of the new group form.
To share a group that is already saved, first open the group by clicking on it from your dashboard. Then, click the ‘Options' button and select ‘Edit Group'. Now, click on the person's name and hit ‘Save'.
- Tags Panel - The Tags panel displays any searches or groups you have been "tagged" on but have yet to take action on. You can see what type of tag it is by looking at the "Type" column. The name of the person who tagged you will be displayed under the "First" and "Last" columns.
Clicking on a Tag will open up the search or group.
Once an item is in your Tags section, you can do three things:
- View the tag - Click on the name of the tag to view it. It will open up as a search result.
- Accept the tag - To accept the tag and keep the Saved Search or Group, click on the icon under the ‘Actions' column. This will look like a push pin for searches and a handshake for collaborative groups. Clicking here will add the search to your "Saved Searches" section or the group to your "Groups" section.
3. Delete the tag - To delete the tag, click on the ‘X' in the far right column of the Tag.
Bug Fixes
- Company Summary Report Bug - All participant of a Touch are now listed on the Company Summary report. Previously, this report would only include the initiator of each touch.
- Free Text Search on Custom Fields - A free text search for companies will now search through all custom fields of a company.
- Preferences Saved on Logout - All custom preferences are now saved on logout. This includes positioning of custom fields and groups (after dragging and dropping) and minimization/maximization.
- Removing Roles Bug - Previously, if you removed all current and previous roles from a Person he/she would become "orphaned" and opening his/her record would throw an error. You are no longer allowed to remove a pervious role if it is the only role assigned to that person.
- Increased Speed when Exporting Touches to XLS - The Export to XLS report for touches runs much faster than it used to. Previously, it would timeout somewhere around the 2,000th touch but has now been tested to perform quickly (< 1 minute) on 10,000-14,000 touches.
- Location Drop Down List Re-Ordered - This was updated to list American states ahead of Canadian provinces.