CRM Systems

JG1

Hi

Can anyone recommend a good CRM system - need something that will deal with quotes, sales, databases etc. I have no experience of using these systems but Goldmine has been suggested as has an online facility salesforce.com.

Thanks

axer

JG1 wrote: »

Hi

Can anyone recommend a good CRM system - need something that will deal with quotes, sales, databases etc. I have no experience of using these systems but Goldmine has been suggested as has an online facility salesforce.com.

Thanks

It depends how indept of a system you need.

I use phpBMS because it is simple to use but it is not as powerful as some.

What exactly do you want out of the CRM?

BenjAii

Sugar CRM trumps Salesforce in being open source and thus free.

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

Though I've only played around with it, I believe it has a good reputation.

niceirishfella

I've used Goldmine - yeah, its good,but only as good as how data is imputted into it by others.

Culchie

I use Clarity, highly recommend it.

boomshackala

BenjAii wrote: »

Sugar CRM trumps Salesforce in being open source and thus free.

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

Though I've only played around with it, I believe it has a good reputation.

Free? its 40€ per user per month...

ARE there any decent free ones out there?

CallieO

Have a look around Zoho suite

www.zoho.com

CRM - free for up to three users

The rest of the collaborative suite is quite useful too.........

boomshackala

Found one free up to 3 users;

http://crm.zoho.com

Edit thanx Callieo, just saw ure post there

Mr Clonfadda

Goldmine isn't as good as it used to be. Functionality wise it has been left behind by others.

What CRM is very much down to what you want to do and how much money you have.

However, as niceirishfella puts it, If you don't maintain your information it won't be any good S**t in S**t out!

CallieO

As a business information management is crucial.

Every business should have a portal at least and repositories of information and managed access levels.......basic.

Information is an asset.


It should not be owned by employees ......and transferred with them on moving to the competition:rolleyes:

niceirishfella

Nigel Sage wrote: »

Goldmine isn't as good as it used to be. Functionality wise it has been left behind by others.

What CRM is very much down to what you want to do and how much money you have.

However, as niceirishfella puts it, If you don't maintain your information it won't be any good S**t in S**t out!

+1
Its a while since i used Goldmine (thankfully)!:)
Whilst i find contact/information systems usefull - i have a very portable cost effective portable piece of kit i use personally - my BIG DIARY!:D

ninty9er

Not free, but it can be adapted and expanded with Customer info etc..

http://sage.ie/solutions/coretime/features.asp

Vikinghar

Hi, I have about 25k entries in Goldmine and I want a better system. A better system that will accept the Goldmine data direct. (Typing allergy) Any suggestions ?

Mr Clonfadda

Nothing will accept goldmine directly but Goldmine's main reseller in Ireland, Delta Systems, was bought by Sage Ireland a few years ago.

I migrated from goldmine to Sage crm with a special piece of software they had and managed to get all the data accross without too many hiccups.

Main problem was all my contacts without company names ended in the same contact record!!

amen

Free? its 40€ per user per month...

not a regular poster in this foum but the above quote got me thinking.
Your CRM stores your customer data and is the most important data for your organisation . Using the data correctly will allow you to determine good leads, increase sales, make timely business decisions etc.

I'm not sure how many staff you had but even three would only work out at approx €1400 per year for the above service which seems quite cheap. How much do you spend on ESB/Telephone/Accountancy etc ?

Don't forget that you do store data electronically you meant to register with the Data Protection commisioner!

Vikinghar

Thanks Nigel Sage. It makes perfect sense to let Goldmine flounder and for Sage to promote it's own. That's business!! But are there any other CRM alternatives that will have that facility??

fintan

boomshackala wrote: »

Free? its 40€ per user per month...

ARE there any decent free ones out there?

open source version is free

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/community/sugarcrm-community.html

Vikinghar

fintan wrote: »

open source version is free

http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/community/sugarcrm-community.html

I've just had a wee look at the above link and I see very little about it that is free. Even the demo pages are ramming a 30 day free trial down your throat. Does the free version have significantly less functionality than the paid for versions? I am assuming, Fintan, that you are a regular user? How does it compare to the rest of the field mentioned in this thread? Always curious, always asking:D

fintan

Vikinghar wrote: »

I've just had a wee look at the above link and I see very little about it that is free. Even the demo pages are ramming a 30 day free trial down your throat. Does the free version have significantly less functionality than the paid for versions? I am assuming, Fintan, that you are a regular user? How does it compare to the rest of the field mentioned in this thread? Always curious, always asking:D

Better link is here:
http://www.sugarforge.org/

Used sugar crm ages ago, does the job fine. I now use salesforce and am a very happy customer

Mr Clonfadda

Vikinghar wrote: »

Thanks Nigel Sage. It makes perfect sense to let Goldmine flounder and for Sage to promote it's own. That's business!! But are there any other CRM alternatives that will have that facility??

Goldmine isn't owned by Sage Only the irish Distributor. Goldmine is still sold and developed.

I only am aware of links for Sage CRM systems. I am sure however other manufacturers have goldmine imports. We used a company called greytrix for additional functionality they might have export/import routines for other CRM packages.

jmalone

Hi there,

The Main differences between Sugar CRM Open Source and Professional (paid for) are as follows:

The Following Features are only in Professional:
* Team and Role Based Security
* Reports
* Quotes

Other than the above, the products are essentially identical (same source code - which is fully available to you if you go for Professional or Open Source).

One major advantage of SugarCRM over Salesforce is your ability to go on premise (ie: run on your own server). This options is not available with Salesforce.

If you need any further info you can give me an email or call:

John Malone
<snip>

schmoo0_0

Hi Nigel/Vikinghar, There are several differentiators between CRM systems and it depends on what outcomes your client or business needs. SageCRM is as .asp or on-site. Good for reporting & marketing whereas others charge extra for thiese. MS Dynamics is comprehensive and good for customer service piece. Salesforce has security and data ownership issues as well as being costlier in the long run. Hope this helps and if you need more, let me know. Owen.

AARRRGH

Have a look at http://www.sagecrm.com

JustOk

As for me, there are two major CRM players: salesforce (on demand version only) and microsoft dynamics crm (on demand as well as on premise). They both are not free of charge but, its wrong to expect something good and pay nothing for that. its like choosing between merc and micra, you get what you paid for.

patftrears

JustOk wrote: »

They both are not free of charge but, its wrong to expect something good and pay nothing for that. its like choosing between merc and micra, you get what you paid for.

crap, open source software is just as good if not better than commercial stuff.
You can even get commercial version of opensource software, with support packages that are better and much cheaper than the commercial stuff.

Merc vs micra is premium vs standard. people should buy a car to get from a to b, not show off.
'Value for Money' the micra wins hands down.
'Reliability' the micra win again
'Maintenance & on going costs' the micra wins
theses are the things people should look for when buy something.

Vikinghar

I ended up reccommending Sage CRM (on site, not web based) and Sage 50 accounts package. the main reasons for this are; 1) both are fully integrated, 2) support is local and 3) it was easy to upgrade my knowledge from databases and ealier versions of Sage a/c's to facilitate training (saved a bundle).

r0nanf

vTiger is another open source option - you can host yourself also. It's built off the Sugar open source programme just has a few differences. I quite like it but support community is not as big as Sugar

robbie1876

http://www.salesforce.com/products/editions-pricing/personal-edition/

One of Salesforce's best kept secrets is their 'Personal' edition - a completely free and fully working version of the best CRM and sales lead tracking software I have ever tried. Personal edition has all the cool Google Apps and AdWords integration that Salesforce offers (although you can't install third party apps such as Google Calendar Sync).

Hope it is some use to some of you.

JustOk

robbie1876 wrote: »

http://www.salesforce.com/products/editions-pricing/personal-edition/

One of Salesforce's best kept secrets is their 'Personal' edition - a completely free and fully working version of the best CRM and sales lead tracking software I have ever tried.

I just took a quick look at the salesforce link you posted and found out this info -

Q. Can multiple people share a Salesforce CRM Personal Edition account?
A. No. Each Salesforce CRM Personal Edition account may only be used by a single user at a time. Salesforce.com's Group, Professional, and Enterprise Editions allow for easy, real-time sharing among multiple users.

Does it mean that its impossible to share data among employees? If yes, then it looks useless for firms with more than 1 person.
Also, how much do group and professional editions cost?
thanks.

robbie1876

Ah yes, I should have mentioned that Salesforce personal is just for one user. I used it for a while when it was just me doing sales stuff. Trying to figure out costing for the various editions was not a lot of fun, I wish they would make the costs transparent.

In the end I rang a sales person and got group edition for up to five users for €75 a year in total, not per user. An option I was looking at was exporting to Sugar and saving the money, but I took the lazy option I suppose.

One complaint I have with Salesforce is speed. It is just that bit annoyingly slow, in comparison to other cloud apps like Google apps. Otherwise it's definitely worth the money I'm paying for it.

edanto

robbie1876 wrote: »

One complaint I have with Salesforce is speed. It is just that bit annoyingly slow, in comparison to other cloud apps like Google apps. Otherwise it's definitely worth the money I'm paying for it.

Not sure what browser you're using, but I've found SF to work much quicker in Chrome than in FF. No idea why, and you still need to use IE to create email templates every now and again.