|
|
|
The Minding Your Own Business Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts |
Small biz CRM recommendations? | Views: 2461 |
Feb 11, 2007 12:12 am | | Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Gloria Tsang | | Hi all, I'm looking for a hosted/web-based CRM for our business. We don't really plan to use it as a salesforce or client management tool, but a central dashboard for internal organization. Right now we have 3 full-time staff telecommuting and a few contractors. We often email, cc, bcc (you name it) when we write to our clients, which drives me crazy as I am wasting time reading emails I don't really need to read.
I'm hoping to find a CRM solution which can 1. track and tag Outlook emails to a client 2. pull financial data from QuickBooks and tie to a client 3. aid in project management
So far, I've checked out Act (really bad review) and Salesforce. Would love to learn more from your experience.
Regards, Gloria Private Reply to Gloria Tsang |
Feb 11, 2007 2:53 am | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 David Norcross | | Hands down. !ntellect by Chaos Software . www.chaossoftware.com
Affordable, fast, stable, two years free upgrades too many features to mention here. Just an awesome product. I used ACT! for years and was a beta tester before the 2005 mess and have used all of the others extensively and !ntellect is the best in my opinion.
David Private Reply to David Norcross |
Feb 11, 2007 3:41 am | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Reg Charie | | Hi Gloria.
I have heard that David's recommendation is excellent.
I am famillar with CRELoaded which is a content/customer/affiliate package with an open source license.
CRELoaded is excellent for customer management with all communications and transactions being centralized in a customer management page. Copies of communications stay in the database and can also be forwarded to Outlook accounts.
There is an affiliate sales program built in so this could be used to track sales from your agents and sales staff.
While there is an admin "Create Client" there is no "Import" feature from QB. I Imagine this could be done by a programmer as it is only adding files to the SQL database. How many clients do you have to transfer?
CRELoaded is a great package. I have built about 23 sites in it. I have a demo of the program at http://dotcom-productions.com/cms/index.php?cPath=71_72 which will give you access to the admin. When you are in the admin go to http://www.dotcom-productions.com/cre-6-2-05/admin/customers.php?selected_box=customers to see the customer database.
I enabled my instant messenger and email info for you on my Ryze home page should you like to chat.
Reg http://DotCom-Productions.com Private Reply to Reg Charie |
Feb 11, 2007 4:27 am | | re: re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Gloria,
This is really unique. The two gentlemen recommending products to you recommended the same products to me. And, guess what? I use both of them. But, I use them differently.
I use !ntellect as a Customer Relation Management tool for my computer. I use it to manage my email programs and organize everything I do on my computer. With !ntellect, you can actually link everything you need to do through a single screen on your computer. It is really a great management tool for everything you need to do on your computer.
What do I use CRE-Loaded for? That is for my website. Admittedly, I still have more to learn about CRE-Loaded than I currently understand. Imagine being able to change the look of your web site at the click of a button or recall all manner of web site traffic data. I have really been amazed by what Reg has shown me. I just wish I understood it all as well as he does. You know, good web sites do not happen by accident. They happen by design. And, CRE-Loaded gives you the tools not only to create amazing web sites, but the tools to keep track of what is and what is not happening.
I recommend you get both !ntellect and CRE-Loaded. I did.
Lamar Morgan CDMM http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
Feb 12, 2007 1:52 am | | re: re: re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Gloria Tsang | | Guys thank you for your suggestions. We will look into the 2 programs !!!
Gloria HealthCastle NutritionPrivate Reply to Gloria Tsang |
Mar 02, 2007 5:08 am | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
Praveen Athani | | Hey Gloria, I am Praveen, I just wanted to tell you that there are number of CRM solutions available online. you can try them and if satisfied buy them . and also they are subscription based, so you can stop using them if you are not happy. one such CRM is Impel CRM. why dont you try it Private Reply to Praveen Athani |
Mar 02, 2007 7:22 am | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Amit Desai | | Hello Gloria,
your best bet would be SugarCRM. its a free open source web based application which does all you want.
i am using it since last 3 months and its does the job well is what i can vouch for. its really amazing and best part absolutely free its open source :-)
only thing you would need is a technical guidance to download the software and configure it to your needs
Amit Private Reply to Amit Desai |
Mar 05, 2007 7:14 am | | re: re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
Praveen Athani | | hi Amit,
I want to clarify one thing? how strong these open source applications are in terms of functionality, security etc. can they address complex business issues?
Private Reply to Praveen Athani |
Mar 05, 2007 8:02 am | | re: re: re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Amit Desai | | Hi Praveen,
these opensource application are absolutely strong. the key is to analyze the application pros and cons before you start using the application.
If you have tech skills withing your organization its even better to spend a day with those guys to understand its technical architecture.
These application can certainly handle complex business scenarios.
its important that you conduct proper analysis and research before you hook onto an opensource application.
Amit Private Reply to Amit Desai |
Mar 08, 2007 12:32 pm | | re: re: re: re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
Praveen Athani | | thanks amit Private Reply to Praveen Athani |
Mar 14, 2007 6:28 pm | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
 Clifton Holmes | | Have you checked out http://www.freecrm.com. They have free and paid options. Good luck with your search. Private Reply to Clifton Holmes |
Aug 14, 2007 3:42 pm | | re: Small biz CRM recommendations? | # |
Vicki P | | Hi Gloria! Finding a good CRM can definitely be a challenge. I’ve been in business in the financial industry for several years and it took some time to find a good CRM and one that was as flexible as I needed it to be. On breakthroughbusinessdevelopment.com, I found a CRM that met all of my needs – It is web-based, so I can access it anywhere; outgoing email is entered into the client history automatically and they are currently in the beta-testing stage of a full Outlook integration which includes an archiver that is searchable by client; has a detailed organizer that enables me to link actions to the client, so any calls/correspondence with that client is loaded into that client’s history; you can delegate tasks to others on your team by adding an action to their organizer; there is a feature that schedules your call rotations for AAA, AA, etc. clients, so that there is adequate contact with each client; I can access the system on my web-enabled PDA; and is compatible with Albridge and working on integration with Quik!—and they’re always innovating their system, so that it becomes better with every improvement they make. Check out www.breakthroughbusinessdevelopment.com for more information and ideas. Their CRM will change the way you do your business—for the better!
Private Reply to Vicki P |
 |
|