- 868
what abou avidian prophet?
My offices now uses Redtail (www.redtailtechnology.com). It's more for investment reps but it's web based and has a lot of different capabilities. We recently converted our whole database to it and I'm now going through the cleanup work. We used Bill Good before. We switched to Redtail because of how they can integrate into our other programs. Though about all of you aren't investment reps, that's not a selling point. But those few who are, Redtail works with Albridge Solutions, MarketingLibrary.net and LaserApp.
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is IDA better than prophet
G
Guest
Guest
I understand. Yes, web-based CRM lets you access your data anywhere in the world. (And that has bailed me out so many times you would not believe.)
But it is true that sometimes you can't get web access. Thus, you want your data local. Well I agree. I have Sugar CRM installed on my web server. BUT, I also have it installed on my local laptop machine in case the web goes down or perhaps I can't get a connection.
With SugarCRM it's not all that difficult to install it on your web server (i.e. where you have your web site) as well as on your local computer... laptop. With Sugar you can download "a stack" installer which will put all the "stuff" you need on your local laptop.
OK.... so how do you keep them both in sync? Not a problem... but just a wee bit of complexity. On your web server you install a free program called PhpMyAdmin which will make it easy for you to create what is called an SQL Dump of your data. You do this "dump" each night and then simply replace the data on your local computer. It is not all that difficult.
If you can grasp the technology (not all that hard) you can easily create a "script" that will download a "dump" file and "feed" it to the local database and replace it each night.
OK, I admit it takes a little bit of technological acumen to get this done, but if you are up to it, it is slam-dunk easy... well almost.
On the other hand if you don't want to go though this stuff you can just keep everything local with YIO and give up on having web access.
No wrong answer here... but for my money spending half a day...(or worst case a full day) learning the ins and outs of Sugar CRM and how to host it on your ISP and have a local copy is worth the time and trouble.
That said, if you have the money and only need a local copy of your data... well YIO or any similar desktop program is all you need.
I don't like YIO because I have issues with its stability and security... but I'm the only one in this venue who feels that way so you have to discount (probably to zero) what I write here. Of course I'm probably the only agent you will come across who has some 30 years in the computer industry (see JAYA123,) but I only know what I know and many, many, many people here think I'm full of s--t and simply love YIO. So as always, YMMV.
The Jackass
- 795
I've been evaluating various CRM packages for what seems like months, mainly because it HAS been months. The Avidian product is hands-down the PERFECT solution for me.
- a one man shop
- ties in with Outlook beautifully since I use Outlook for contacts, tasks, appt's, etc.
- flexible and not a resource hog (like MSFT BCM)
Overall an outstanding solution for those, like me, who use Outlook and do NOT want a hosted solution.
I don't get anything from this, but my salesguy there is Tom Bedenis. Give him a call and he can hook you up with a 30 day trial. I'm going to buy it in the next couple of weeks...all the other Outlook-based ones were POSs, IMO.
And all the free ones were, too. Klunky, obnoxious garbage...waste of time.
I don't get anything from this, but my salesguy there is Tom Bedenis. Give him a call and he can hook you up with a 30 day trial. I'm going to buy it in the next couple of weeks...all the other Outlook-based ones were POSs, IMO.
BTW, Al, this is the first I've heard of you not liking YIO. Please, could you write another 14 pages about why it isn't the right solution for you? I've got a few hours to kill and need something to read...
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G
Guest
Guest
SageCRM is absolutely beautiful to look at. It has awesome capabilities and is web-based. But with the capabilities comes a lot of screens and things you have to go thru to get something done. There is a monthly fee.
Entellium is also beautiful. AND it is web-based AND local AND automatically syncs! However, the two interfaces are completely different (local is Entellium Rave) and with both you have to go thru alot of screens and clicking to get things done. But it also has great capability and unique features. There is a monthly fee.
SugarCRM is also very nice to look at (since you may have to be looking at this thing off and on all day for the rest of your working life
). There is the web-based version and the local version, as described by Al. The local desktop "Community" version is free and easy to install. You still have "clicks and screens" to manipulate and the free version has limited reports and graphs.
FreeCRM is in the same mode as SugarCRM. I did not get a chance to use it that much. Same with ZohoCRM; all in the same vein.
I-Relay is really nice looking and well laid out for what it does. It's strength is recording your book of policies. The CRM part is still alot of clicking back and forth between different screens similar to the programs above. I'm just used to calendar based stuff. It is also web based and there is an ongoing fee.
YIO is an out-of-the-box local standalone program designed for insurance agents. It is easy to use and has GREAT support (Frank). It will do contact management as well as policy maintenance and alot more.
ACT! is my longtime favorite since the early 90's. You can keep info on a contact all in one place, everything is "drag and drop" via the calendar. It is a desktop program and takes alot of resources and is now owned by Sage.
Outlook is not real pretty but it is pretty simple. The power is in the categories and views. You can simulate a "one card system" type of setup. It is a desktop program. However, you can use Plaxo to sync other computers (laptop) running Outlook and also have web access to your info via Plaxo.
I had to research all of this for a friend who is in a non-insurance business. It came about because we kept losing alot of data due to crashes, corrupt backups, etc.
So I have a weird setup, I guess. I just run plain old Outlook 2003 with Plaxo. I have 2 dual monitor computers (from a previous job) so I have 4 windows open in Outlook: email, calendar, tasks, and contacts. I also have a laptop (and 2 backup laptops) with Outlook synced on all via Plaxo, and a PDA synced from one of the desktops. It's a beautiful (and simple) thing! The syncs are transparent and happen automatically when something changes, no matter on which machine the change is made. I've not had any problems with Plaxo (yet) and I've not heard about anyone else using it. I can also access the info on Plaxo via the web, and they have a really nice calendar (which will ALSO sync to Google calendar, which I do, but find I don't have that much need for it, since I can use the Plaxo calendar if I'm remote. BUT, you may have a need for it if you need to "push" your calendar to someone). Any feedback would be welcome from anyone who uses Plaxo. It seems to work fine so far and makes for a wonderfully automatic redundant backup system (one of the PC's also backs up to an external HD). I use Sugar Community on one of the PCs simply to track and chart my activity "pipeline" so I can tell what apps result from what sources and stages, all very generically, no personal info, just activity as it happens. I "fool" one of the limited charts into giving me what I want (the paid version is awesome, but I could not justify the cost just for the expanded charting capabilities. Perhaps later.)
Hope this helps someone.
Entellium is also beautiful. AND it is web-based AND local AND automatically syncs! However, the two interfaces are completely different (local is Entellium Rave) and with both you have to go thru alot of screens and clicking to get things done. But it also has great capability and unique features. There is a monthly fee.
SugarCRM is also very nice to look at (since you may have to be looking at this thing off and on all day for the rest of your working life
). There is the web-based version and the local version, as described by Al. The local desktop "Community" version is free and easy to install. You still have "clicks and screens" to manipulate and the free version has limited reports and graphs. FreeCRM is in the same mode as SugarCRM. I did not get a chance to use it that much. Same with ZohoCRM; all in the same vein.
I-Relay is really nice looking and well laid out for what it does. It's strength is recording your book of policies. The CRM part is still alot of clicking back and forth between different screens similar to the programs above. I'm just used to calendar based stuff. It is also web based and there is an ongoing fee.
YIO is an out-of-the-box local standalone program designed for insurance agents. It is easy to use and has GREAT support (Frank). It will do contact management as well as policy maintenance and alot more.
ACT! is my longtime favorite since the early 90's. You can keep info on a contact all in one place, everything is "drag and drop" via the calendar. It is a desktop program and takes alot of resources and is now owned by Sage.
Outlook is not real pretty but it is pretty simple. The power is in the categories and views. You can simulate a "one card system" type of setup. It is a desktop program. However, you can use Plaxo to sync other computers (laptop) running Outlook and also have web access to your info via Plaxo.
I had to research all of this for a friend who is in a non-insurance business. It came about because we kept losing alot of data due to crashes, corrupt backups, etc.
So I have a weird setup, I guess. I just run plain old Outlook 2003 with Plaxo. I have 2 dual monitor computers (from a previous job) so I have 4 windows open in Outlook: email, calendar, tasks, and contacts. I also have a laptop (and 2 backup laptops) with Outlook synced on all via Plaxo, and a PDA synced from one of the desktops. It's a beautiful (and simple) thing! The syncs are transparent and happen automatically when something changes, no matter on which machine the change is made. I've not had any problems with Plaxo (yet) and I've not heard about anyone else using it. I can also access the info on Plaxo via the web, and they have a really nice calendar (which will ALSO sync to Google calendar, which I do, but find I don't have that much need for it, since I can use the Plaxo calendar if I'm remote. BUT, you may have a need for it if you need to "push" your calendar to someone). Any feedback would be welcome from anyone who uses Plaxo. It seems to work fine so far and makes for a wonderfully automatic redundant backup system (one of the PC's also backs up to an external HD). I use Sugar Community on one of the PCs simply to track and chart my activity "pipeline" so I can tell what apps result from what sources and stages, all very generically, no personal info, just activity as it happens. I "fool" one of the limited charts into giving me what I want (the paid version is awesome, but I could not justify the cost just for the expanded charting capabilities. Perhaps later.)
Hope this helps someone.
G
Guest
Guest
- 17,077
I've been a long-time ACT user and it has worked well for me. But I'm now looking for a web-based CRM that will do what my ACT program does.
My main concerns are:
1. Automation of letters (most offer this as a feature for e-mails but I need word documents that I print and mail.)
2. syncing with a PDA (preferably Palm)
3. Easy to customize. I want to track certain types of data. Some of the CRMs mentioned don't even seem to have a field for the spouse's name and info. How would that work for residental marketing?
I'm definitely not a computer programer. I don't mind customizing a database layout but I don't want to have to learn computer programing to do it.
My main concerns are:
1. Automation of letters (most offer this as a feature for e-mails but I need word documents that I print and mail.)
2. syncing with a PDA (preferably Palm)
3. Easy to customize. I want to track certain types of data. Some of the CRMs mentioned don't even seem to have a field for the spouse's name and info. How would that work for residental marketing?
I'm definitely not a computer programer. I don't mind customizing a database layout but I don't want to have to learn computer programing to do it.
G
Guest
Guest
SugarCRM is also very nice to look at (since you may have to be looking at this thing off and on all day for the rest of your working life
To my knowledge there is no "local" or "desktop" version of Sugar.
What we need to do is to understand what "web based" means.... and what "desktop" based means.
Desktop software means a program that is written in a computer language that talks directly to the operating system... be it Windows, Mac, etc. It does NOT use a browser interface. Word and Excel and YIO are desktop programs. You do NOT use these with a browser interface.
Web-based software means that it was written in some language (PHP, HTML, C#, Javascrip, etc.) that a browser can understand and you can't use it without one.
Most of you think of the browser as the interface tool between you and the Internet's world side web. But you can have "internet" software be local on your desktop as well.
Web-based software requires a "server" to run. A server can be a stand-alone machine, but when we say "web server" we really mean a rather simple piece of software that "serves" up pages or screens when it gets a request. All a web server does is send files down the wires to the requesting browser (I'm over-simplifying it a bit!)
The most common servers are Apache and IIS. This is software... you can install it (I think Vista comes with IIS... Mac comes with Apache.)
Let's talk about another server... a database server. Again, it can be on it's own machine. But again it is software. You install it. For example MySQL is a database server (free). So is SQLServer and Oracle (neither free.) I use MySQL... because it's free and I have a very expensive wife.)
OK, getting back to CRM, say you want to use Sugar or some other "browser based" (web-based) product. On your web server you need to have a web server (obviously) and a database server. Of course every ISP has these... that is what you are paying for. So basically you just upload Sugar to your web-server and run the install (via your browser) and that's that.
On your local (home/office) machine (or on a dedicated "you own it... you build it" machine in a server farm) if you don't have a web-server (Apache or IIS) and don't have a database server (like MySQL) you gotta get them.
Many CRM products have a version that comes bundled with a "stack installer" for their products. These install a web-server and a database sever on your local computer.
You don't need the CRM's "stack installer" on your local machine if it already has a database and web server. (And you can install these separately and individually, or use one of the many Apache-MySQL-PHP "stacks" out there for free.)
Obviously, you know how to use an internet based CRM... you put in your domain... "www.yourCompany.com/my-CRM-folder" and up it pops (if you installed it right.)
To look at your local copy you would (almost always) enter "localhost/mycrmfolder" and up it would pop. ("localhost" tells your browser not to look for the file on the internet but on it's own machine. If you want to see if you have a local web-server, in your browser just type in the word localhost OR the number 127.0.0.1 and hit the enter key and see what comes up!)
Most often people use their internet version of the CRM in their daily biz. So why have a local copy? What happens when your modem blows up or the cable/DSL goes down and you can't get on the net? You work on your local copy.
OK, so how do you make sure that local is always up to date with the internet version? For most of us it isn't. The simple way we "sync" is to copy the entire database from the net down to the local machine and replace what is there. I do it once a day... so there is a possibility that I could be several hours or a day behind.
So if you lose the net and start working on your local copy you want to keep track of what you do so you can replicate those keystrokes on the internet version when it comes back up.
Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but that is the price you pay for having an internet based system that you can use anywhere in the world. I live in an area where the DSL never goes down. Only once in three years, and only for two hours, did the DSL crap out and I had to use my local copy. YMMV on that.
I'm told there are some CRM systems that will automatically sync your web-server version with your local version but I don't know which ones they are... and I'm sure they are not free!
I hope this helps someone out there. PM me if you have questions you don't want to ask here.
Oh, and to the *** a few posts above who busted my chops about "writing 14 pages" I can only repeat what I say to SAI all the time. "Everyone likes a little ass, no one likes a smart ass." And THAT is from...
The Jackass
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