Top 12 CRM’s Reviewed

[Jeffrey Robinson]

Typing CRM (customer relationship management) solution into Google will give you 7,310,000 results (try it, it’s true). That’s a lot of stuff to go through if you are looking for a CRM.

In the CRM world you will find that the majority of the software on the market will perform similar tasks and this does not really help you in finding the best solution . When choosing a CRM for your company, the best bet to save yourself a lot of confusion and decision making is to determine your requirements.

When tasked with finding the appropriate solution for Cookee, a detailed list of requirements and a scoring sheet were provided by CEO Randy Berger.

I analyzed 12 different companies – Commence, OnDemand, Goldmine, eSalesTrack, MS Dynamics, NetSuite, Pivotal, Oracle, SageCRM, Salesforce.com, SalesNexus, ZohoCRM, and SugarCRM.

Our two major factors – the CRM be hosted (web based) and that it can be integrated with our project management software – Basecamp. Here is a list of our requirements that may help you:

The CRM Software Provider:

· Growth

· Stability

· Clients

· Open Source

The Software:

· Reporting

· Ease of Use

· Hosted vs. On-premise

Implementation:

· Onetime costs

· Training

· Price!!

Using the 2 major factors above and all of the other requirements listed, I found two major contenders. One being heavyweight Salesforce.com and the other being a real up and comer SugarCRM (you will have noticed they show up 2 and 3 in your Google search). So let’s get into each one.

Salesforce.com is the leader in web-based CRM software. They have over 1 million subscribers and have dealt with both small business and enterprises. They have everything in open source and new applications are constantly being developed to enhance the software. The cloud platform allows for complete customization of any applications within the software. The API is available to us through the Enterprise Edition ($125/user/month) and can be used to test out integration with Basecamp (remember that is one of our factors but it may not be in your scope). Having done some online research the API integration does not seem viable. There is no doubt Salesforce would work for Cookee as an effective CRM solution.

SugarCRM is one of the fastest growing CRM hosted solutions in the market place. With customers like Coca Cola, Avis and H&R Block, SugarCRM has proven itself to be a top player in the CRM industry. As an open source software SugarCRM is constantly putting up new additions and add-ons to the software. One of the strongest features for Cookee is that SugarCRM can be integrated with Basecamp. SugarCRM has a low price of $30/user/month.

Both where excellent choices but when it came down to it, SugarCRM was cheaper and integration with Basecamp was a smoother more cost effective process. I recommended that Cookee go with SugarCRM.( Cookee has not made a final choice yet). I recommend you define your factors, do some online research and feel free to contact me if you have questions – [e-mail]
http://www.cookee.biz