Warami Technology Consulting

Chatting after yesterday's fun and informative e-Business West Lothian event, I was asked a question on how to get started with CRM software. Given the event's theme was "Blogging for Business" I thought I'd take the opportunity to highlight a few useful applications.

A quick word on CRM

In very basic terms, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows a company to manage and track the contact made with existing or prospective customers. This can cover a broad range of business activity and usually includes the administration, sales, marketing and support functions.

In terms of choosing software, I would recommend that you consider your objectives carefully and focus on the elements of CRM that you really need before making any decision. Do you want to manage your sales pipeline and automate sales force activities? How about managing your marketing campaigns and tracking their effectiveness? Or would you prefer a system for managing customer service enquiries?

With this in mind, here are 5 applications that can get you started with minimal investment:

1. Microsoft Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager

Although not strictly free, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager (BCM) is included with the Professional, Small Business and Ultimate versions of Microsoft Office 2007. You can also purchase it separately with Outlook 2007 which is available as a 60-day trial.

BCM can be installed on a single computer and supports up to 5 users. The software integrates into Outlook and allows you to manage Accounts, Business Contacts, Opportunities and Marketing Campaigns via the familiar Outlook interface.

2. SugarCRM Community Edition

SugarCRM Community Edition is a fully featured open-source CRM application that is free to download and install. While this provides the widest range of functionality and flexibility it is worth mentioning that this does require a reasonable degree of expertise in order to setup and configure.

In terms of functionality, SugarCRM provides a full range of CRM features including calendar and contact management, accounts, leads and opportunities. Full email integration and document management is also available which makes it an ideal application for managing both customer contact and marketing campaigns.

3. Salesforce CRM Personal Edition

Salesforce CRM Personal Edition is a free, web-based CRM application that provides up to 5MB of storage space to manage accounts, contacts and opportunities. Task and calendar management functions are also available (with synchronisation to Outlook) as is a number of reports.

As this is more of a taster for the company's fully-featured subscription versions be aware that the software is single-user only and no direct support is provided. There is also currently no support for transferring data from the free edition over to the paid-for service.

4. Zoho CRM

5. FreeCRM

FreeCRM is my final pick of the web-based CRM applications. Functionality is broadly similar to Zoho with support for contact & lead management, sales pipeline tracking, case management and reporting. An unlimited number of users are supported in the free version although a maximum storage limit of 10MB of data is applied. For unlimited data storage and SSL encryption users must upgrade to the paid-for profesisonal edition.

Do you have a favourite application? Are there other low-cost ways to dip a toe into the world of CRM? Post a comment and let me know what you think...

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_nige said:

For small business with Small Business Server BCM can also be installed on the server and also integrated with Office Accounting. It makes quite a fearsome turnkey solution for a small business like this. -- Nigel Ainscoe Microsoft Small Business Specialist www.jackson-delaney.co.uk

April 09, 2009 05:36 PM

Paul Hunter said:

I'm a fan of Salesforce. I've installed the basic edition at Simple HR (4 users @ £60 pa each). However, in my previous role at AEGON, I was responsible for an 850 user installation across the Sales division. Haviong searched the market for a suitable system, Salesforce won hands down.

April 13, 2009 10:10 PM

Alison Winn said:

Scott, What a very useful blogg. I shall certainly have a look at the products mentioned. Alison.

April 14, 2009 01:05 PM