Good Database and CRM Cost?

[Josh]

I see lots of comments about "better" CRM's than salesforce, which i think is great. To clarify my earlier comment, I don't favor or endorse salesforce over anything else, i just believe a reputabe, cloud based CRM offers so much more out of the box than trying to program your own database application for in house CRM. Why reinvent the wheel to have something programmed that will be inferior to a readily available product from a vendor that will continue to invest resources into improving it.

SugarCRM and vTiger both have huge groups continuing to invest resources into improving them.

 

[Guest]

X2Engine Customer Relationship Management CRM

Some of you might want to give this a look-see. It is done by some guys who left SugarCRM to form their own company.

I've played with the demo and I rather like this CRM... not as bloated as Sugar.

This is a new product and probably has a few bugs... but I didn't find any.

Here is their blurb:

X2Engine CRM is new open source CRM system designed to be both compact yet incredibly easy to run and extend. X2CRM is centered around two business objects, Contacts and Actions. By condensing the core features of today's far more complex and costly CRM systems into two high-performance sales modules, Contacts and Actions, X2Engine CRM provides twice the power of traditional CRM systems with a fraction of the complexity.

YMMV

Al
I am here

 

[ABC]

I have been looking at these CRMs for over a year. I have had webinars with about 1/2 dozen CRMs and tested a couple of them.

I thought Sales force Insurance additional was very clunky. You have to customize to fit your needs. That addition was formed for PC shops.

The best one I have found that I am going to pull the trigger on is Capsule. It's cheap and its integrated with Google.

 

[Norwayguy]

Do you have a link? .......

 

[radiusbob]

Do you have a link? .......

Capsule CRM

 

[alexrivlin]

Hi, I am taking over my father's independent insurance agency with 8 years of experience in the business myself. He still just uses filing cabinets and I was wondering how much I should pay for an MS Access Database to be created?

Hi FireDragon,

Not sure if you are still looking but I figured I would respond just incase. As for a server based solution there are (I am sure you are aware) dozens of them. The first thing I would do when considering them is making a list of all of the feature that you absolutely need, and those that you want. It is ok to think lofty on this. Some of these CRM's have functions and features far beyond the uses that we can think of. Then look at demos or call the salespeople for the companies and ask if the critical features, and the dream features are native or need 3rd party integration. That should narrow your selection. Also, it is important if customization is needed that there is a community out there to help.

I have personally used GoldMine in the past and was very pleased. It had the ability to be customized to all of the specifications I needed and wanted. My caveat here is that I haven't used it for about years though.

I now use Salesforce, and while I agree with others here that it can be a bit clunky, that only appears to be out of the box. Once you get into customizations for your use it can really be streamlined. There is a huge community and 100's of 5 minute to hour long videos on YouTube to explain how to do many things yourself. Plus, they are the most integrated platform around for all of your 3rd party software. Whether you use outlook or constant contact, a web based or premises phone system, etc. it can likely be integrated with Salesforce. That way it tracks if you sent an email to a client or had a conversation, and that history is critically important.

In conclusion, it is important to vet this properly as once you make a decision it is not easy to change, it becomes a vital and integral part of your operations.

Best,
Alex