Quest for the perfect online CRM - SugarCRM

Today's research for the perfect online CRM was on SugarCRM. I was referred to this solution by an internet marketing guru that I just had a casual conversation with and I told him about my current projects to find the perfect online CRM solutions for my 2 clients. He asked if I'd heard of Sugar. Its open source and its free. Can't get much better than free.

So I started my research on Sugar at www.sugarcrm.com.

Now, as a business intelligence expert and automation champion, I LOVED the features I saw on the online videos for the dashboard and visual reporting on sales pipeline and close percentages. But my gut said that I must be in the wrong place because these functionality-rich features couldn't possibly be for free.

Then I saw the big blue "Buy Now" button. Ahhhh...so it's not free. Or at least not what I was looking at.

So I discovered that the commercial open source version of SugarCRM is Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise which runs between $30-$50 per month per user. So right away, this one is definitely out of my budget for these two clients. But I still liked what I saw enough to keep looking because one day my clients might grow up and need a more robust system. So I watched most of the videos and liked everything I saw, but I didn't sign up for the trial so I don't think I'd be fair to the software to give any more of an opinion on the specific features. But just take a look at this dashboard report. Who wouldn't love to have this on your screen every morning?



So I turned my attention to finding the free version. My thought was that if my client could use the free version for now to meet the need, then when they are ready to upgrade, the fuller version is right there ready for them. But where is the documentation on the Community Edition that is free? It was very hard to find, I'll tell you. I could find a marketplace for plug ins that you could download (many free -- the beauty of open source), and how to install the free version (which is not a hosted version but has to be hosted on your own server). But I couldn't find just a simple discussion of the functionality included in the free version.

Then like he knew what was on my mind, I get a follow-up emai from a SugarCRM sales rep. (So they are putting their own software to good use!!). He so kindly spent a few minutes clarifying that the free Community Edition version is not hosted, that to have a hosted solution with them means going with the Professional or Enterprise Edition, and he sent me a great grid of the comparison of the features of the three versions.

So my conclusion is that if you are a techie and have your own server tucked away under your desk, you don't mind being your own tech support including following the several page detailed installation instructions, and you need some pretty advanced CRM functionality, then take a look at SugarCRM CommunityEdition. But my two clients don't fit this profile and I don't want to be in the tech support business.

I will, however, keep SugarCRM Professional and Enterprise in mind for other clients that may have more advanced needs and a higher budget. Maybe a client that is hating Salesforce.com and wanting to find something new but that has a lot of the Salesforce.com-like features. One thing I love about an open source platform is that you can hire Sugar developers out there for pretty cheap to create custom modules for your CRM system, so you can start with the "Lexus" base model and add on the custom fender, the custom paint color, etc. to make it a one-of-a-kind solution that perfectly fits your business. This is a big, big plus.

Quest for the perfect online CRM - Oprius

I'm on the hunt for the best online CRM for three clients...well really two clients (both under 5 users) and then me...all with similar but slightly different needs and different priorities on those needs. I've been doing this research for several weeks now and it just occurred to me today that I have have something to blog about because others out there might be doing the same thing and could benefit from what I've found. So in the coming days I'll have to backtrack and fill in the gaps on some of the earlier tools I reviewed already.

Today, I just took a hard look at Oprius. http://www.oprius.com/

I found out about this CRM from a multi-level marketer who recommended it. I got really, really excited at what I found when I saw the $14.99 per month price tag (in the budget), signed up for the free 30 day trial, and logged in because the user interface is very eye-catching and immediately looked easy to use and navigate. My excitement took a nose dive, though, when I realized that it is a one-user system. I was hoping that I was wrong in my assessment, so much so that I called the contact number right then to inquire whether there was a hidden user management section I was just overlooking.

Sadly, no, I was not mistaken. I was told that their market is for single sales reps and multi-level marketing companies.

Too bad because they came the closest to meeting the needs of one of my clients, but this one exclusion of multi-users rules it out as a viable option. Sorry, Oprius, but typing in a person's name in front of every communication logged in the system is just not a viable option for a small business with more than one person. Frankly, I'm shocked that they didn't anticipate that their one man shop clients might one day grow up to be a two man shop client and POW...they are done with Oprius. On to looking for the next CRM system to meet the need.

So if you anticipate staying the one-man show for the long haul, then by all means consider Oprius. They have a lot going for them. But if you anticipate getting a wild hare and actually growing your business so that you need some additional help like hiring an assistant, taking on a partner, letting your spouse jump in and help sometimes...then I'd suggest looking at other options.

Maybe Oprius will figure out soon that they missed a huge opportunity here and add in multi-user functionality...at which time I would re-look at it. But by then I will have dug my heels (and my clients too) into another solution, because we can't wait to move our business forward with a CRM tool. And the conversion cost to switch at that point will probably just be too high.

So to cap off this review, here is a list of my Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down features of Oprius.

Angie's Thumbs UP Features
1. Fantastic usability. Very easy to figure out what to do. Didn't need to consult the Help to figure out what to do on anything. Looks like even a novice computer user could figure this one out. I also liked the color controls that give a visual distinction even though too much of a good thing can be overwhelming.

2. Love the phone scripts. This is a feature I haven't seen yet on any of the other CRM solutions I've looked at. One of my clients is going to be having an admin employee participate in some of the sales process and she needs a sales script to follow. This would have been SOOO perfect for filling that need and would have earned me big bonus points!!

3. The price is right. At $14.99/mo with no limitations on number of contacts or data storage, who can argue with that price for all the features you do get.

4. The sync with Outlook was one of my favorite features. I've been an Outlook user for almost my entire adult life, so it is going to be like pulling teeth to get me away from using it. So I like the sync capability with Outlook where changes I make in either Outlook or Oprius get synced up with both.

5. Connectivity through an API with Freshbooks was a big, big plus for me. I bill by the hour and use Freshbooks for time tracking, expense report tracking and creating and sending invoices. Anytime I can see more of my data all in one place, the happier I am. And it looks like a similar connectivity to SendOutCards is coming which would have earned me bonus points with the other client!

6. The Lead Page development wizard was nice. This let me easily create a web page for collecting leads and it puts new leads up on my dashboard for approval (an optional setting.) I had it up and running in about 10 minutes flat. Nice for the small guy.


Angie's Thumbs DOWN Features

1. Single user. Single user. Single user. AGGGHHHH!!! (I know, sorry, just still can't get over this one.)

2. A very close second, though, is the strict rules they put on email campaigns sent from within Oprius. Every single email address in a distribution list has to have given you permission to send them a bulk email. We all know what spam is, and it is not an email from someone who sent me their email address on my lead generator site, or a current client of mine, or someone that has in any way a relationship with me and my company. I don't care what the "formal" rule is which they will gladly educate about. Nobody today follows them. And if they did, a lot of business wouldn't happen because people didn't get emails about things that they really might be interested in. I like the opt out option a lot better and this is becoming a standard. So why is Oprius forcing this restriction...get with the program, Oprius. And honestly, if #1 didn't knock Oprius out of the running, this one probably would have too for both my clients who intend to market to their contacts via email campaigns.

3. No dropbox to capture emails sent from outside Oprius in the history of the contact. Other CRM's use a dropbox email address that when bcc'd on an email sent from your email client would copy that email into your client contact. To get an email tied to a contact in Oprius, you have to have sent the email from within Oprius.

4. And last on my list is that the custom fields don't have enough flexibility in configuring the type of response desired. For instance, I want to add a new date field, I can't format the field as a date and require that only a date be entered. I want to add a new field that only accepts Yes/No answers. Nope, can't do that. It is a custom text field with just a big fat white box for any number of variations of answers that mean the same thing to be entered. Think "Y" or "Yes" or "yes" or "Yes, but..." all as answers to a simple Yes/No question. Think reporting nightmare.

So that's it folks. Oprius is definitely out of the running for my two clients. And even though I'm a one man shop myself, I think I'm going to steer clear too because I don't want to be a one-man shop for long.

Lessons Learned from a Close Call Basement Fire

A very good friend of mine recently had a fire in her basement. She sent out these lessons learned and I thought it was worth sharing. Scary!! It made me think about what I'm doing to prepare to combat a fire if it were to happen to me, and better yet what I'm doing to prevent a fire from starting in the first place. A big issue I have is keeping my cell phone charged. I'm rethinking the decision to get rid of my home phone for this very reason. What if I couldn't even find my one phone in an emergency?!

As some of you have already heard, our hot water heater in the basement laundry room caught on fire Tuesday evening. It spread to a nearby rug and dresser, but fortunately I was able to put it out before it spread further. We had minimal property damage although the basement still reeks of smoke.

This was such a close call in so many ways--if we'd gotten back from soccer practice 15 minutes later, if my daughter hadn't smelled the smoke (my middle-age nose detetected nothing), or if, worst of all, the fire had started three hours later when we were asleep--can't bear to think the outcome.

In true type A fashion, I wanted to share some lessons learned that might help prevent this from happening to someone else.

1. I had flammable items stored too close to the hot water heater. When the hot water heater caught fire, it spread and caused more damage. Originally I had a three foot "clear" zone around the hot water heater but over the years, this rule got disregarded.

2. I didn't have a fire extinguisher in the basement, and wasted precious time filling up a toy pail from the bathroom sink trying to douse the flames. We have a fire extinguisher, but it's upstairs in the kitchen--which is the only place it ever occurred to me that we had a fire risk. Was I ever wrong. Need to have an extinguisher on every level of the house (even the attic). And need to make sure they are CURRENT.

3. I had added fire/smoke detection to my alarm system when it was installed, and I assumed it was for both basement and main floor. Wrong again--when I called Brinks the next day to find out why the alarm hadn't activated, I found out that all smoke/fire sensors had been put on the main floor, none in the basement or attic. Yes, I have an appointment next week to add coverage in the basement and attic.

4. I didn't have a back-up battery smoke detector in the basement (although I have three on the main level). Not a genius moment for me. Just like fire extinguishers, should have battery smoke/fire detectors on every level, including the attic.

5. When I tried to call 911 from the basement phone, the phone battery was dead because I hadn't put it back to charge when I last talked on it. I then wasted more precious time running up the stairs to get a working phone. If ever you need a reason to put the phone back in the cradle to charge after you finish a call, consider my example.

In addition, the firemen told me that due to the current "brown outs" of fire stations (where the city temporarily closes certain fire stations on certain days and times to save money) it took them longer to get to my house because they had to come from a further station. If you live in Atlanta, this could happen to you too, so if you have a moment, please express your opinion about this matter to City Hall and whoever our new mayor turns out to be.