Comments on: The perfect CRM would be really simple, but not too.

By: Simple CRM

Simple CRM — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:57:43 +0000

Changing culture and/or process (as if there's a difference, in some cases) is next to impossible. That's why some companies foot the bill for a custom-designed CRM solution even when they know there are thousands out there off the shelf.

By: Exact

Exact — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:11:03 +0000

A year on and the World of CRM has all changed and yet it's not changed at all, traditional values still hold true and keeping it simple and giving customers what they want as opposed to what the vendor needs to sell to improve the share price.

John makes a good point in regard to what the customers want though I felt the napkin may have scored higher.

Cloud Computing - offers many advantages to useers, they step away from a locally installed application that rapidly goes out of date to a browser based solution that has a lower cost of ownership.

Pitfalls to avoid include excessive charges for hosting and being denied the ability to self host.

Keep your eye on the backend database, will you ever be able to manage it, if it's SQL and it's local then no worries. In regard to getting what each department wants then be sure you can control the desktop experience as well.

Once such solution that may fit the bill for some is http://www.wiredcontact.co.uk/

Paul

By: Web Based Contact Management

Web Based Contact Management — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:00:54 +0000

i was considering act as a crm solution...but its just so expensive!!! plus i needed to set it up on a server. i opted for web based HyperOffice instead which provided me good contact management functionality plus integrated productivity and extranet features.

By: goforsale

goforsale — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:56:39 +0000

I remembered a research made a few months ago when I read this article. Most of the small biz owners (up to 10 personnel) said that, “Softwares in market related with small biz are very complicated than expected.
We can not operate it effectively and must hire someone to operate it.. As a result total software costs (including efforts and personnel costs) are not our Number 1 concern to deal with.. We are just waiting for easier and cheaper solutions”

By: Kristian

Kristian — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:12:57 +0000

yesterday I decided to go with Heap CRM…

threw GCal out the window (how long can a man wait for completable tasks/todo list anyway ..)

Heap has its limitations, but the user experience is simply awesome and it does most of the things I want it to, and then some. With closer Gmail integration and some improvements to group/category management it would be nirvana ..

By: John Jantsch

John Jantsch — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:57:38 +0000

Kristian, Great insights, I think that’s the problem with software in general, everyone wants what they want!

By: Kristian

Kristian — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:51:20 +0000

I’m a solo operator, have been looking for a simple combo for so long. So many have some, none have all.

Cool solutions I’ve come across; Heap, Relenta, Zoho, Highrise, Pipelinedeals.

But need
- ICal export (not giving up my Gcal!)
- Gmail integration (contact-to-gmail history)
- Drip series e-mail/automation
- Simple forecasting
- Simple – and lightning fast – notetaking during conversations

These simple features are currently only available in Etelos CRM – and it is far from sexy or fast, sometimes taking minutes to load.

So I’m using Etelos – and hoping for a worthy challenger.

By: Josh C

Josh C — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:26:04 +0000

I work at a company that just produced LogicBright CRM. We are a small company (under 20 people) and ran into the same problems that every other person seemed to have. We needed a basic contact and lead management system that was easier to figure out than Salesforce and Sugar crm, but more sophisticated than Highrise and ACT.

We don’t have all the features of some of the big names have because we felt it would complicate our product. Sorry if this sounds “sales pitchy” I am simply trying to say that sometimes keeping things simple is actually more efficient.