[RTC List] SaaS CRM

[Aaron Antrim]

I received a few good responses to my query for advice on choosing a  
web-based CRM, and thought I'd share the info I received.

If anyone's curious, uploaded my data to both Salesforce.com and an  
install of Sugar CRM Community Edition on my web-host's server.  I  
tried using both of them, found Salesforce.com to be just slightly  
faster (when Sugar CRM is hosted remotely), and was impressed by all  
the executive reporting tools that I'll probably never user.  I was  
disappointed by the Google Apps integration, which still seems pretty  
hackish, and which I would expect Sugar CRM to catch up to anyway.  I  
saw some users warning that Salesforce.com nickle-and-dimes their  
customers for each extra service.  I saw that just in the fact that  
backup would have required an upgrade from Group Edition, at a cost of  
several hundred additional dollars per year.

Sugar CRM seemed to be more straightforward in it's data entry and  
management tools.  Because it's free and open source, and because it  
works, I've chosen Sugar CRM.  I'm going to be using the built-in IMAP  
email client for integration with Google Apps for my domain.

I'm anticipating that using a shared CRM with other team members is  
going to be a great thing for tracking sales, leads, and opportunities!

Cheers,
Aaron

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Josh Koenig <josh at chapterthree.com>
> Date: 7 July 2008 10:55:42 AM PDT
> To: Aaron Antrim <aaron at arcatacommunity.org>
> Subject: Re: [RTC List] SaaS CRM
>
>
> If you plan on scaling very much in terms of total contacts or --  
> especially -- broadcast email, it's 100% worth it to go w/a hosted  
> service. If you plan on sending to more than a few hundred people at  
> once, you'll start running into issues w/whitelisting and bonding if  
> all that email is coming off a private server.
>
> I would see that the support peeps at SF.com have to say, as they  
> should be ready to handle data in pretty much any format...
>
> -j
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Josh Koenig, Partner
> http://www.chapterthreellc.com
> AOL IM: chap3josh
> 1-888-822-4273

Begin forwarded message:
> From: "William Van Hefner" <van at humboldtonline.com>
> Date: 7 July 2008 3:00:24 AM PDT
> To: "Aaron Antrim" <aaron at arcatacommunity.org>
> Subject: Re: [RTC List] SaaS CRM
> Reply-To: van at humboldtonline.com
>
> Aaron,
>
> I've never looked at salesforce.com, mainly because I don't really  
> have
> any need for that type of software myself. However, I have worked with
> Sugar CRM a bit, mainly because it came packaged with the VoIP PBX  
> system
> I am currently using (TrixBox).
>
> I would be remiss without pointing out Sugar CRM's best features  
> (IMHO) vs
> others I have seen.
>
> + Price - If you have a spare server and are using the basic  
> edition, it's
> basically free. Money that would have otherwise been spent out of  
> the area
> stays here in Humboldt County.
>
> + Open Source - There is both commercial (paid) support available and
> excellent online support available from thousands of users and  
> developers.
> Plus, with the source code available, it is possible to use a  
> programmer
> to make any custom changes to it that you want, which is impossible  
> with
> commercial software.
>
> + Redundancy - If the Internet goes down, so does your access to
> salesforce.com and most other online CRM apps. Since you can run  
> Sugar CRM
> on your own server (locally), you'll never have to worry about the  
> data
> being inaccessible. It's also easy to back up your own hard drive or  
> use
> RAID drives.
>
> + Privacy - Your data is stored locally, not on someone else's  
> server and
> is not transmitted over the public Internet. You won't have to worry  
> about
> what happens if the company hosting your CRM app goes broke, gets  
> hacked
> or a judge decides to let a third-party have access to your personal
> information (like a judge did this past week when he ordered Google to
> hand over ALL of its U-tube user logs to a media company to see who  
> was
> watching what on their website). Try explaining to a customer how some
> third party suddenly got access to their credit card numbers,  
> because the
> online CRM provider you were using had their database compromised.
>
> + Speed - You will never get as fast a connection to the Internet as  
> you
> will to your own LAN.
>
> + Direct, tight integration with TrixBox PBX system. If you will  
> never use
> VoIP, this may not be a big consideration, but it certainly can save  
> you a
> lot of money if you migrate to VoIP service. Sugar CRM integrates  
> TrixBox
> directly as a completely free VoIP PBX system. If you already have a
> reliable broadband connection, this can save you a ton of money. For
> example, I used to spend around $50 a month (with taxes) for a single,
> basic business telephone line from AT&T. I had no voicemail, no  
> caller ID,
> no special features at all. I ported my business phone number over  
> to a
> VoIP provider and am now paying about $13 a month to run the calls  
> through
> my TrixBox PBX system. I get unlimited free incoming calls, a full- 
> blown
> PBX system, back-up voicemail service from the carrier, caller ID,  
> call
> waiting, conference calling and just about every other feature that  
> you
> could possibly imagine. For around $6 a month more, I could add  
> unlimited
> long distance calls as well. It was a no-brainer with no hassles on my
> end. No one can even tell that I am using VoIP.
>
> + Local support - I'm sure that you can find someone here locally that
> supports either Sugar CRM or open source programs in general vs. a
> proprietary software app like salesforce.com. With all of the people  
> who
> use Linux in this area, I'm sure that someone has experience with it.
>
> + Great e-mail integration - This depends on whether or not you are
> running your own mail server, for the most part. I am. It was stupidly
> simple to set up Sugar CRM to interact with my own mail server. You  
> could
> even run them on the same server if you have a light traffic load. It
> works great with Postfix and Courier as MTA's. Again, the speed is  
> much
> faster when you are dealing with traffic hat stays on your LAN vs.  
> going
> across the entire internet.
>
> If you'd like to see Sugar CRM/Trixbox in action some time, just let  
> me
> know. I will never pretend to be an expert on the software itself,  
> but I
> have had it up-and-running on my 1-line "PBX system" for about a  
> year now
> with absolutely no problems whatsoever. You can reach me on my cell at
> 707-834-4388. I have a conference call Monday morning, so won't be
> available until around Noon. Any time after that is fine though. Good
> luck!
>
>
> -- 
> William Van Hefner
> President
>
> Vantek Communications, Inc.
> 3144 Broadway, Ste. 3
> Eureka, CA 95501-3838
> 707.476.0833 ph
> e-mail: van at humboldtonline.com


On 6 Jul 2008, at 11:05 PM, Aaron Antrim wrote:

> I'm migrating from a FileMaker database for tracking my contacts  
> with companies and individuals to a hosted, Software as a Service  
> (SaaS) CRM solution so I can share contacts with other team  
> members.  Does anyone have experience to help me choose a solution?
>
> Right now it's between two top considerations:
> 1.) Salesforce.com is snappy and seems well-polished but I am having  
> trouble importing all my data in.
> 2.) Sugar CRM would be basically free because I would host it on my  
> own server.  It's open source, but lacks some of the features like  
> Google Apps integration that make Salesforce.com appealing.
>
> To a lesser extent, I am also considering:
> (3.) Vtiger
> (4.) Highrise
>
> Suggestions, experience, advice welcome.  I plan to make a decision  
> tomorrow or Tues morning.
>
> Cheers!

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