Another CRM Question

NotBothered

Hi,

I am trying to find crm software suitable for my small business, this might be a silly question but is there such a thing as a one that is not cloud driven? Or cloud based.

What? Oh Rly!

http://www.onepagecrm.com/ <- This is "cloud driven".

NotBothered

Thanks I had looked at that but it is one that is in house or not using cloud that I am looking for!

onedmc

There are thousands of CRM systems not on the cloud. There are more not on the cloud than on it.

I'm sure if you go into PC world you can pick up Goldmine or ACT, I think the latter now owned by sage. If you'r a techie you could download sugar CRM and use it.

If your bigger u could look at Microsoft (small business) , Pivitol (medium business) or Siebol (Large business)

Plenty of websites that do comparisons

NotBothered

So people keep telling me all I was finding was the other! But as you have prob noticed I'm not very tech minded so alot of this is over my head!
Great thanks, sage looks like it could be a goer!

CompanyBureau

Act by Sage is great. Very cheap and does what is says on the tin. I believe goldmine is expensive and has loads of bells and whistles you probably don't need. I'd recommend John Bloxham Consulting for licencing and installation: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbloxham

DoMyBooks

If your not very technical you may be used to the Microsoft office interface. Theres a few different plug ins that can turn outlook into a basic CRM package

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144341/first_look_outlook_addons_bring_crm_to_email.html

blueblondie

Thanks for all The help!

RATM

Zoho.com - clound based and free

Oracle

For anyone in business I'd advise they think very carefully about the whole "cloud" concept. Do your research and familiarise yourself with what the service is, it's potential upside and very real downsides.

Cloud Computing is the current favour of the month in IT. The latest Internet and media buzzword. I believe for many businesses cloud computing can represent a danger.

Here's a small example. let's say you've converted all your desktop and laptop computers to the cloud. They no longer have any software applications on them, except a browser. Likewise you've no longer any server or shared network drives, you've migrated them all to the cloud. But what happens if your internet connection is disrupted, down or is cut unexpectedly? Then no work can be done, no files can be stored or shared.

Imagine the lost productivity even this small incident could cause, let alone the lost sales. Even with redundancy and a backup connection, if you lose internet connection, your work is still disrupted to a far greater degree, the more dependent you are on the cloud.

DoMyBooks

Oracle wrote: »

For anyone in business I'd advise they think very carefully about the whole "cloud" concept. Do your research and familiarise yourself with what the service is, it's potential upside and very real downsides.

Cloud Computing is the current favour of the month in IT. The latest Internet and media buzzword. I believe for many businesses cloud computing can represent a danger.

Here's a small example. let's say you've converted all your desktop and laptop computers to the cloud. They no longer have any software applications on them, except a browser. Likewise you've no longer any server or shared network drives, you've migrated them all to the cloud. But what happens if your internet connection is disrupted, down or is cut unexpectedly? Then no work can be done, no files can be stored or shared.

Imagine the lost productivity even this small incident could cause, let alone the lost sales. Even with redundancy and a backup connection, if you lose internet connection, your work is still disrupted to a far greater degree, the more dependent you are on the cloud.

Personally I'd disagree with you. We use some cloud accountancy solutions here and the one time in the last year the internet went down we hopped in the car and went to a local hotel. Business was disrupted for the whole of 15 minutes.

The 'danger' you mention is rarely a problem for the following reasons :

If you use the likes of drop box your files are stored locally and in the cloud. If the internet goes down you can still access all your files.

In most cloud packages taking you can back up locally. We use capsule CRM for certain tasks and it has the option to export the entire database to a .csv file. This also allows you to keep a local copy of your data. Albeit not in an ideal format but good for disaster recovery.

In a previous job we used an on premise solution and during a software update our data became corrupt, the software provider wanted us to send it to Dublin for 3 days to be 'repaired' at considerable cost.

Herbalist

If you are looking for an in house solution that is not cloud or online based ACT might be worth taking a look at as it is installed locally. I am connected to the company.

www.act.com is the US website but you can view the product there you can also test drive the software at http://www.runaware.com/clients/sageuk/index.jsp?app=50act

When looking at an in house rather than a cloud solution it is important to ensure that your hardware meets the minimum requirements and that you put a stringent back up policy in place.