Sales Force Marketing - Salesforce.com CRM:
Then Again, Maybe Buying A CRM Is Like Buying A Car

Now I'm starting to reconsider the garden hose thing. Maybe buying a new CRM system is NOT like buying a garden hose. Thinking about it further, I've come to a new realization.

It's like a buying a new car. Because when you're buying a new CRM system, just like when you're buying a new car, it's not about what you want...it's about where you are in your life.
When I graduated from college and got married my wife and I shared a Honda Accord. It was a great car that comfortably seated four. After a few years (and that damned fertility doctor) my wife quickly gave birth to our son...and then a twin girl and boy. Goodbye Accord...hello Honda Odyssey. We took a step up in life to the minivan...not by choice, but by need. We're still driving that Odyssey - it's got a 100,000 miles on it and food stuck in the back seat that's older than the cast of Glee. Someday our kids will move on...and so will we. My planned riches and success will hopefully allow us to burn that mini-van, complete with its empty juice boxes and mud on the ceiling, and allow us to finally purchase that luxurious SUV. Aaah, to dream.

CRM systems, especially the ones you purchase to install in-house, work the same way. It's not what you want. It's what you need at this particular time in your life.

Like a car, an in-house CRM application will get you to the same destination as a hosted application. But some of their features may be more appealing. You only pay one time, instead of every month so the long term the investment is less. You have the data inside your company in case you're concerned about security or subject to privacy laws. You have more control over your data, rather than handing it over to a third party. In many cases, integration with other in-house systems is more easily accomplished. This is why so many of our clients choose an in-house CRM system over a cloud based application.

So what stage of life is your business? Recently married? Shuttling around a herd of screaming children...sorry....I mean customers? Matured to the level of luxury?

For the newlywed, there are two good CRM systems that you should look at, particularly if you have about 1-5 users in your company. Actually, they're both more workgroup contact managers than full blow Customer Relationship Management systems. But that's OK.

Microsoft's Outlook Business Contact Manager comes with certain versions of Microsoft Office and provides an Outlook interface on a shared database. For people who are used to using Outlook it's a nice way to get introduced to a workgroup system. Unfortunately I've seen performance issues with this application and I haven't figured out how committed Microsoft is to its future. But its advantages are many: the price is low, it has good contact management features and it integrates with other Office applications. By the way - if you're an Outlook lover and want to spend a little more for a good low level CRM system, check out Avidian's Prophet.
It's better than the Outlook Business Contact Manager.

ACT! is made by the Sage Group, the same guys who bring you the accounting products Peachtree and MAS 90/200/500 plus the more advanced CRM application Saleslogix, which I'll discuss below. My company provides consulting services for ACT! and we like the product a lot...for small implementations. At about $200 per license it's a simple, powerful application to setup. ACT! has been around forever and has a huge user community. Plus it integrates with Sage's Peachtree Accounting if you've already got that in-house. But ACT! at its core is a very good application for an individual salesperson or a very small workgroup of users. Sure, the company sells more advanced versions using Microsoft's SQL Server database, but under the covers it's still the same old application that's been around for a hundred years.

Do I hear the sound of crying children? Must be my children. Gpd, I hope they'll stop soon. If you've got a few crying children you're probably looking at moving up to a vehicle that put some distance between you and them...like a mini-van or an SUV. You've grown. Maybe you need to do the same with your CRM system. Because if your company's growing, and if you have about 5-25 users in your office, you'll definitely want to consider these two good mainstream applications.

The first is GoldMine software, made by FrontRange Solutions. Reader beware: my company sells GoldMine so I'm a little subjective here. GoldMine is about $700 per concurrent user, but comes with Microsoft SQL and integrates deeply with Microsoft Office and Outlook. Like ACT!, GoldMine has a huge user community for support. GoldMine is more powerful in that it has strong CRM capabilities like automation, customization, advanced integration with other applications and very good workgroup calendaring, marketing and lead management features.
And there's also (ahem) a very strong channel of capable partners too.

I also like Maximizer software, made by Maximizer Software, Inc.. My company doesn't sell this product but they've been a good competitor over many years. Maximizer is priced about the same as GoldMine and also has good CRM features for the mid-sized company. Although they have less resellers nationally than GoldMine, they're stronger in the Northwest and West Coast (the company is based in Canada). I also like Maximizer's mobile capabilities, particularly with Blackberry.

Has your ship come in? I'm waiting for mine. And when it does (translation: my kids have graduated high school and I can once again return to my home every day to find it looking exactly the same as when I left it that morning) I'm buying me a luxury au-to-mo-bile baby. Like one of them Lexus' or Escalades. So I can look just like an NFL player. A five-foot-six, one hundred and forty pound NFL player. 
In the CRM world, there are two mainstream "luxury" in-house models I like. They're great if you've got more than 5 people but can also handle well more than 50 users too.

The first is Microsoft Dynamics CRM. My company sells this product too. It costs about $1,100 per user (there's a $2,100 server software cost too)...but this is only one time. You'll still have to spend extra for Microsoft's SQL and Exchange software and a couple of servers to run it all on...servers that just by coincidence also happen to run Windows too. Surprise! But Microsoft CRM differentiates itself because it's highly customizable and is built right into Microsoft Outlook. And it's web based too. The people that buy this product from us want something that will slot right into their already existing Microsoft infrastructure. It's a powerful CRM with sales, marketing and service functionality.

And even though I don't sell it, I've always been a fan of Sage's Saleslogix CRM software. Although a little older, Saleslogix matches Microsoft CRM's functionality - it's just as customizable and excellent for an enterprise workgroup. It's not built right into Outlook like Microsoft CRM but it integrates fine. If I was already running one of Sage's accounting applications like their MAS 90/200/500 software then it would be a slam-dunk to incorporate Saleslogix...it integrates out of the box (as does Microsoft CRM with Microsoft's accounting applications too). Saleslogix is priced comparatively to Microsoft CRM. Both companies have good reseller channels, but remember to always get a reseller that specializes in the product, and not something else the company sells.

Buying a new car? You know it's not about the model...it's about the stage of life you're in. Same goes for an in-house CRM system. Happy driving.

Source: Gene Marks link


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