I think Mark is right when he says that you have to figure out what you need from a system, and then look at what system best fits your needs.

Thanks to all those who’ve made suggestions of other options on here. I’m looking forward to comparing these all with Infusion and seeing what works best for me.

You are so right. Most software applications are trying to sell it all, cater for every different variation of business. This software evolves as clients needs do, but just because one company thinks its a great idea, it does not mean that everyone does.

My concentration of business with Easy Seo and Net Age are both targeted towards small, medium business and they all have the same problem. They are limited with time, staff, skills, budget etc.

Thus they dont have the time to research how to use this advanced software, so they just leave it and never make use of it. (they also have to teach the staff)

John, I will go and have a look at Infusion as a solution for both myself and my clients.

Thank you.

It’s free and you can also customize whatever you want if you have access to programming resources. If you can upgrade this open source software, thousands of other small businesses can also benefit.

Luckily for me, I found an alternative: Entellium CRM. I believe it to be at least as good as Infusion or even better and the price is much much much more affordable.

I am surprised nobody talks about it much in the CRMosphere. I guess that makes it one of the best kept secrets out there.

NOTE: This is a true testimonial from a real customer.

I think you hit the nail on the head so to say when you said that it is hard to define exactly what small business owners want and need in a CRM system.

There are many CRM systems available but it is really up to the small business to choose a system that is best. Obviously if they want one that meets their needs exactly they may want to hire someone to design such a system for them.

I guess I might disagree with the premise of the post. The article assumes that CRM is just for the Sales or Marketing department. Or that maintaing a customer relationship is only through the sales process.

While automation is important, a big part of the “R” is maintaining all communication through the project or task. Having a centralized location for “everything” is so much more useful then having something that has “most things”.

For instance, if I search for a contract in our account, and I can’t find it, I KNOW it didn’t exist. Because if it did it would be there.

I think there might be an argument to be made to split these tasks into two programs (ie. automation for marketing, CRM for everyone else) and have some sort of communication between the two apps. I would disagree with that idea, but that’s what’s great about a market not maintained by a small number of incumbents, the customer gets choose what they want.

My point here is that marketing is only part of what a CRM does for a business.