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Searching for a CRM
- 2 May, 2007
- 8 comments
But like any growing enterprise, commercial or social, we've passed the point where that kind of chewing-gum-and-coat-hanger contraption can hold together reliably. Now we're looking for a capital-S Solution... one that's capital-R Robust and capital-C cost capital-E effective.
Our search has zeroed in on three tools: 800-kilo-gorilla Salesforce, Google-based upstart Etelos, and open-source heartthrob CiviCRM. Each has their advantages and drawbacks, costs and benefits, dimples and warts... and we're getting a pretty good handle on those.
But there's only so much a spec sheet (or even a demo account) can tell you. What we don't have yet – and here's where you come in – is the inside scoop. So we're turning to our community and asking you to dish. Are you already using one of these tools -- or another CRM solution we should consider? Do you love it or hate it, and why?
We're particularly interested in hearing from other small businesses, dev/tech types, and Mac users.
Please tell your story in the comment area below, and you'll earn our eternal gratitude. (We'd offer an iPod Nano for the best one, but we know that you can't be bought for such paltry trinkets.)Work Smarter with Evernote
Get more out of Evernote with Alexandra Samuel's great new ebook, the first in the Harvard Business Press Work Smarter with Social Media series!
Comments
Donald Lobo says
Rob Cottingham says
Donald Lobo says
Integrating with desktop apps is obviously important but also quite a big challenge (primarily because there is not a lot of open source software in the integration area as yet).
CiviEvent has iCal support and hence u can sync it with your iCal / Google Calendar etc.
With regard to email, 1.7 has a RESTful api which we hope will make some simple sort of integration with a client like ThunderBird easier. Someone just posted on our forums about rudimentary ThunderBird support.
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,97.0.html
We hope a few other folks step up and scratch their itch and build integration stuff with other mail clients (including Mail.app). We will definitely support and work with folks with regard to the CiviCRM end of things and build the api layer needed to make this easy. SalesForce/SugarCRM have a major step up in that respect, but i think we'll cross that barrier in the next year or so with support for major mail clients
lobo
Rebecca says
Simon Pavitt says
Gerry Kirk says
I have used Zoho CRM (zohocrm.com) to some extent, and its a bit like a swiss army knife. You can customize the look, data, workflows and there is decent support for mass email. Integration? There is for MS Outlook and Office, but not much beyond that. You can also download your own copy of the software if you want. I dislike the task feature and the somewhat clunky interface. Sorry, but I have to say Zoho is definitely better than CiviCRM for CRM.
Highrise (highrisehq.com) is getting a lot of raves. I really like the email integration, the intuitive way information is organized and presented. You can tag individuals and people (think 'lead', 'hot', etc). I wish it was integrated with Basecamp (basecamphq.com), which I use for a number of projects. I expect there will be an API for it like Basecamp. There are all kinds of potentially useful add-ons for Basecamp, so expect the same some day for Highrise. I'm still in test mode, not sure if this is truly what I need.
Gerry Kirk says
GetApp.com says
Getapp.com has a comparison and review model for all the top online sofware for business. Would like to see CiviCRM in there as well. Check out the CRM app comparison page. Someone from CiviCRM should get listed on the site too. I hope this is helpful to your readers.