CRM - Just a basic customer database please?

[macmacman]

Hi everyone

I hope you are well.

We are a very small business but with quite a few customers. We have 400 now and deal with every aspects of them from the their first call (potential customer!) or "opportunity" as they are sometimes called, then we quote them, record what we have quoted them and for what for, then we add a day to chase them up and then we hopefully turn the quote into a booking/new customer! This is all managed on, yes you guessed it... excel!! Worked well for the first few months, but now its a bit of beast. Its fairly simple, using drop downs and sum of formulas and that’s about it!

As we grow we (3 of us) want to be able to work on the database separately and in real time and in different parts of the country so it has to be online based. Emailing each other the excel file is a nightmare.

So what i am looking for is a basic, easy to use, cheap online based CRM package, but then aren't we all!? I have done the rounds speaking to developers and got some BIG prices. You know its going to be big when they want to spend the day with you discussing your requirements! That’s not for us and not necessary right now. Spoke to netsuite which seems good.

All we need really is a way to manage the following process….someone contacts us> makes an enquiry> give them a price> chase it up > turn enquiry into a customer. There obviously need to be flexibility in the system to tailor it us but that’s the backbone to it.

Surely there is something out there?

Many thanks
George

 

[Interconnect IT]

You don't need to develop anything!

There's hosted solutions, where you pay monthly.

Alternatively, SugarCRM is pretty damn good for Open Source. Astonishingly so, in fact. We don't use it yet, but probably will at some point.

Not necessarily easy to implement and configure, but I've seen worse.

 

[garyk]

All we need really is a way to manage the following process….someone contacts us> makes an enquiry> give them a price> chase it up > turn enquiry into a customer. There obviously need to be flexibility in the system to tailor it us but that’s the backbone to it.

Surely there is something out there?

Many thanks
George

There is but many focus on the pre-sale aspect, lead/opportunity/quote and lack the financials to turn quotes into orders or add customers to your sales ledger.

What accounting system do you use?

 

[Dawg]

I had a quick squint at Midnight Range last night, and although it is not quite right for me, it is interesting, and has a special offer on at the moment.
I've been looking for ages, and everything is just to bloated and expensive or not apt.
A bespoke might be the answer, you might try Gary at Creospace, (on this board), for advice and a build.

 

[macmacman]

"There is but many focus on the pre-sale aspect, lead/opportunity/quote and lack the financials to turn quotes into orders or add customers to your sales ledger.
What accounting system do you use?"

Errmmm. A book from whsmiths?


"I had a quick squint at Midnight Range last night, and although it is not quite right for me, it is interesting, and has a special offer on at the moment.
I've been looking for ages, and everything is just to bloated and expensive or not apt.
A bespoke might be the answer, you might try Gary at Creospace, (on this board), for advice and a build."

Yeah this looks like the best thing i've found, or you found for me! Thanks for that.

I guess it is hard to build an app that can cope with all the different requirements of businesses everywhere, thus the software becomes very complicated and hard to use.

Anyone got any other suggestions how we can do away with our excel customer database?

 

[GreatSEO]

Try Google docs or sugarcrm both are free and really easy to use

Hope this helps

Regards

Dave

 

[Dawg]

Try Google docs or sugarcrm both are free and really easy to use

Hope this helps

Regards

Dave

Google Docs? OP is trying to get away from a spreadsheet. Altho' it is a good way of sharing: wack 'em all onto a domain and away. Sugar was praised in post 2 on this thread.

Another one to look at is Zoho, which has a bit more after sales capability, looks good for emarketing, and is free for up to 3 users, and dang cheap thereafter.

Anyway, on this list of 230+ Business web apps there are 17 CRMs. That should keep you busy for a bit, and then there is the list of 5000+ Web Apps to do anything at all on the web...except that..

(I only need single access and ferreted out a free copy of Salesforce, which is good .)

 

[Page]

Zoho has a keep it simple policy so might be an ideal start.

If the day comes when you want to move on you will then have a better idea what to look for and all have startinbg point skills.

 

[garyk]

highrise from 37signals or heap crm.

 

[macmacman]

Thanks everyone for your help and links. I have looked at them all and trailed a couple. I think i am going to try and have something purpose built. I know this is going to hard work and costly but i think its the only way to get what we want. We have a developer that said he will give it a go, he wants to learn more about this area so will do it at a good price.

On the other hand, we use google apps a lot. Especially maps. So i can't see us ever combining all out apps and software tools into one easy to use thing.

Like i said in the first post i only want the CRM part that deals with opportunities, all the other aspects offered by all the above (contacts, email, tasks etc) are handled by google. Maybe we'll wait for google CRM!!!?

Thanks again

 

[FastFinger]

Hi George,

I am a virtual assistant. One of my clients uses VTiger CRM for his paint business. It is very easy to use. Check out this link for more info: http://www.vtiger.com/. I believe it has all the features that you need. Try it.

 

[Sarum Associates]

salesforce.com is very good. and only about £ 7 per user per month.

 

[macmacman]

Hi

To start this up again!

I am down to just 2 now, salesforce and Sage CRM. Sage feels homely and uk based, and support there if needed. Salesforce have been very good and professional so far and feels more advanced., but not sure about the after sales support. I know i will be calling upon it a lot as looking at the trials i've not got a clue how to make the system look like i want it to. Having a demo from both companies on thursday, so that should help.

Any tips/help, anyone had experience of either packages?

I guess you can pay salesforce experts to build your fields and quote generators. Salesforce seems to have an apps service where i might find add on applications that will help me integrate with others services like skype and google apps.

Also want to be able to use if offline and integrate our ecommerce site into it too.

Thanks in advance. George

 

[garyk]

George,

I do alot of work with Sage CRM, in fact I'm doing some consultancy for a large Sage CRM reseller in the midlands at the moment. I'm puzzled by the original title 'Just a basic customer database' because it strikes me that Sage CRM and salesforce are feature laden and perhaps overkill for what you need? Unless of course your requirements have changed! Sage CRM is a very good product, its been around for years first as eware and then as accpac crm before being acquired by Sage.

Gary

 

[FastFinger]

Hi George,

Who's doing your database entry? PM me if you need one...

 

[macmacman]

I can understand your confusion i have created. What happened is, that my basic operation turns out to be not that basic when it comes to transforming it into CRM. I think everyone's "basic" crm requirements become complicated or/and are in fact complicated. It can never be easy for one off the shelf system to deal with infinite variation of how each and every business works and thus everyone's requirements are complicated.

Considering the future we may want to integrate our expenses, accounts package (SAGE!) and ecommerce system with our CRM. Sageforce and SAGE crm can do this as i understand it!?

 

[garyk]

Yep you can integrate sage crm with accounts but you will need sage 200 which will probably run into 5 figures in terms of cost. Last I knew Sage CRM was sold in 5 seat licence blocks but if you buy them together you might get a deal.

As for linking to ecommerce theres bound to be a 3rd party app which integrates with Sage 200. If you are budget constrained then you may have to look at Sage 50 with an ecommerce link and then look around for a CRM solution.

I would spend time really thrashing out your requirements, then set a realistic budget and then take a look at whats about.

Cheers

Gary

 

[LindnArden]

We use www freecrm com which seems to do the trick - free for multiple users with some (not crucial) functionality disabled until you start paying

 

[macmacman]

Ok, i think i have finally found a system for us. Its called Gold Vision.
www.gold-vision.com
Anyone heard of it/used it?:|

I've still got a iron out a couple of issues before going with it but I'm quite confident i will go for it.

Also been looking at Microsoft Dynamics, but that was getting a bit pricey.

This Gold Vision uses microsoft exchange so we can integrate our emails into it too. Any slight problem is, there is no off-line version.

 

[TonyBurt51]

Try Steam Software - www.steam-software.co.uk - I have a couple of clients using their CRM happily and I know it's customisable.

 

[mikeringer]

amphis customer is simple to use and can export stuff to sage. not sure if there is a web version though.

 

[Peter Cowling]

I know this has been recommended twice already, but I would recommend sugarCRM.

It probably has quite a few things you do not need - if all you want is a basic customer database. That is (currently) the case for me too, but all I do is use the parts that I need, and leave the rest. After all, the software is free, so under-utilisation is a non-issue.

I also know that, if/when, I do need something extra, I am not looking at extra cost.

Be interesting to see what you end up choosing, because you are obviously having a good look around.

 

[barney1]

We use a bespoke version of Goldmine that is brilliant. We have had it made especially for us and would be happy to recommend it to you if you want to purchase a version of it that could be made bespoke for your needs. Similar to sales force but its full of our own personal elements that we had put in to help us with our daily tasks and reporting. Its great for marketing and email blasts too as we can segment the data very quickly and easily. Give us a shout if you want a demo or recommendation.

 

[Brightpearl]

We offer online CRM for £10 per user, per month. You can integrate it with order management (to create quotes etc) for an additional £10 per month.

 

[DuaneJackson]

Errm, this thread is 7 months old.