CRM system

[cava83]

Hi guys,

Just wondering what CRM systems you use and how you get on with them.

We are a small business, 150 users max. Only about 1/2 would need it.

Do you use in house solutions/hosted solutions.

Been looking at MS Dynamics / Maximiser / ACT

Need info available on the web and within the network.

Thanks,

G.

 

[C.J]

We're very, very small, but use ACT! (by Sage).

It's ok, and does everything we need, reports, customizable fields/layout, backups, tasks, groups etc.

We looked at Salesforce first, and used their trial, but preferred ACT.

 

[ivegota16v]

sugar CRM

 

[Cookie]

We use Salesforce

 

[cava83]

Cookie / ivegota16v = hosted or local and how do you find it?

 

[Cookie]

Cookie / ivegota16v = hosted or local and how do you find it?

As far as I'm aware, Salesforce is always web based? Works fine, the sales guys seem to like it. I just look after the administration of the CRM instance. We also have an instance we use for the helldesk ticketing system, which is very good

 

[chimpsinties]

We use Dynamics CRM and host it ourselves. The sales/service guys use it via IE or they have an offline client for Outlook so they can work when they don't have internet.

I like it but I've got to be hones they tend to find it a bit "clicky". Personally I think they want the moon on a bloody stick but hey, that's salesguys for you. It's really easy to customise (once you get the hang of it) but there are a few little annoyances that Microsoft have insisted on doing their way.

Don't forget if you're self hosting you'll need some new hardware and licenses etc. We got a new beefy server with 3 virtual machines in it. MS Server 2008 with Exchange 2010 (50 users), SQL Server 2008 and Dynamics CRM 4.0 with 20 users cost us around £35k. The CRM seats are around £900 a pop on their own. There are cheaper ways to do it but my company likes to just buy stuff outright.

We originally employed a company to customise it for us but they were a useless shower of b@st@rds so I just chucked away what they did and started from scratch myself and learnt how to do it as I went along. Obviously they didn't get paid

 

[cava83]

As far as I'm aware, Salesforce is always web based? Works fine, the sales guys seem to like it. I just look after the administration of the CRM instance. We also have an instance we use for the helldesk ticketing system, which is very good

What do you mean an instance? I am just in the process of changing our ticketing system from ostickets to the helpdesk system which spiceworks provides.

 

[Cookie]

What do you mean an instance? I am just in the process of changing our ticketing system from ostickets to the helpdesk system which spiceworks provides.

We have multiple Salesforce instances (4 or 5 I think), think of it as like having different databases

SF licences are about a G a pop, from what I can remember