If you find that you have some time between projects then I thoroughly recommend that you use these few weeks to develop your knowledge of Sage CRM. 

Sage has made available a stack of free material that is hosted on YouTube and organised by subject on the Sage CRM eLearning platform.

We have grouped nearly 200 videos in themes to create a set of flexible online courses that allow you to learn whenever you like.

You can use these recorded lessons to help you get the skills you need to become a confident user, administrator, consultant or developer within a very short time.

You can choose a “stream” to get started. And depending on your role, you may want to choose to specialise in a particular area.

If I just focus on the technical track. You probably know that it is easy to start using Sage CRM. The screens are clearly laid out and with just a little experimental clicking every user can find out how to add new data, search for data, record tasks and merge letters and even send emails.

But consider the following. Choices must be made as the product is installed. Users’ rights and security have to be set up. The workflow that people will follow when recording sales opportunities and customer service requests need to be designed. New fields, screens and lists may need to be added to the system which is required to look right in both desktop and mobile interfaces. And users will need to know how to create email templates and new documents that can be used for creating PDFs for quotes and orders. Of course, much of what needs to be done is just a simple click or choice in a drop-down box.

But Sage CRM is a large system, a very large system and the range of tasks that can be done and indeed need to be done can be daunting. It is one thing to know how to send an email, but another to know how to set up a marketing campaign.

If you work with Sage CRM then its range of features and the very configurable interface can present a very steep learning curve but as a Business Partner, you are expected to be the expert in Sage CRM.

There are excellent detailed classroom and web-based courses run by each of the Sage teams around the world. But if your training was 9 months ago would you still remember how to implement a conditional workflow rule? Or could you be sure whether List gadgets in the Interactive Dashboard block get their definition from static or dynamic groups?

The eLearning platform within the community allows you to access free training to revise any of the technical topics that you need to know as a Partner. You can check the documentation and watch the videos whenever you want. It covers everything from adding an address to configuring web services and these all cover the complete syllabus for Partners. This syllabus has been broken up into 10 different modules. Each module has several topics which cover a separate idea, concept or feature. For example, within the workflow module, you can study topics about escalations, notifications and types of rules and don’t worry everyone is supported by videos and articles to guide you through the learning.

The online lessons and guides within the Technical stream are available at any time, and anywhere, allowing you to partake in training at your own pace and convenience.

Sage CRM eLearning is available free of charge to everyone.