Contact Management Software Help!
Discussion
Hi
A mate of mine has been asked to find some contact management software for the company he works for. They basically need to be able to send forms out to clients and track the response, or lack thereof! They need to get alerts after a specified timeframe if a response has not been received, plus log all contact with the client until the response has been receieved and the case can be closed.
They would also like to be able to import the customer details from a spreadsheet and export the details/logs to another spreadsheet.
If anyone has any experience of software that can do this and how much it would cost my mate would be very appreciative as at the moment he doesn't have a clue what to recommend to his boss!
A mate of mine has been asked to find some contact management software for the company he works for. They basically need to be able to send forms out to clients and track the response, or lack thereof! They need to get alerts after a specified timeframe if a response has not been received, plus log all contact with the client until the response has been receieved and the case can be closed.
They would also like to be able to import the customer details from a spreadsheet and export the details/logs to another spreadsheet.
If anyone has any experience of software that can do this and how much it would cost my mate would be very appreciative as at the moment he doesn't have a clue what to recommend to his boss!
Well the two big Contact Management apps are Goldmine and Act, both of which have UK versions and a 30 day free trial.
In the UK, Goldmine is sold by Wizard Systems (www.wizard-systems.com) and Act is sold by The Sage Group (www.sagecrm.co.uk)
I will leave it to others to comment on the suitability of each one, but your friend can look at the websites and order the trial CD's as a start.
>> Edited by arcturus on Sunday 18th April 18:30
In the UK, Goldmine is sold by Wizard Systems (www.wizard-systems.com) and Act is sold by The Sage Group (www.sagecrm.co.uk)
I will leave it to others to comment on the suitability of each one, but your friend can look at the websites and order the trial CD's as a start.
>> Edited by arcturus on Sunday 18th April 18:30
I have had many customers buy and try to use both Goldmine and Act, all of them have had problems. Both software company's have always blamed the problem on there network. Result..............
I now don't know any of them using the software, which = a lot of money spent for NO gain. I would think that it would be better ( but read more expensive ) to use (and I hate to say this) Access. Then it can be tailored to how the company works. Not how Goldmine / ACT thinks it should work. !!!!!!!
Doug.
>> Edited by doug phillips on Sunday 18th April 19:51
I now don't know any of them using the software, which = a lot of money spent for NO gain. I would think that it would be better ( but read more expensive ) to use (and I hate to say this) Access. Then it can be tailored to how the company works. Not how Goldmine / ACT thinks it should work. !!!!!!!
Doug.
>> Edited by doug phillips on Sunday 18th April 19:51
Thanks for the replies guys.
My mate thinks he can buy ACT off the shelf for £100. This seems very cheap to me!
I will look into Goldmine too.
On the subject of Access, you'd be amazed how good it can be if you take off your technical hats and look at it from a business solution point of view. I work for a very large management and technology consultancy firm where the technologies I most commonly use include Java, VB, SQL Server, Oracle, XML/XSL/HTML, ASP, JScript/JavaScript, etc. However, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Access for a small application where RAD (Rapid Application Deployment) is a priority and small numbers of records (tens of thousands) and a simple interface is required - a good example (and in fact one I have been involved in) would be building an Access app as a data feeder into a larger system.
Put it this way, I have yet to meet anyone who could build a system such as the one described above using technologies designed for larger scale systems (.e.g a SQL Server db and web front end with VB for the business logic) in less time and at lower cost than can be done in Access. Basically, it's like everything else, horses for courses.
Having said that, when I put my developer's hat on, Access upsets me quite a lot!
My mate thinks he can buy ACT off the shelf for £100. This seems very cheap to me!
I will look into Goldmine too.
On the subject of Access, you'd be amazed how good it can be if you take off your technical hats and look at it from a business solution point of view. I work for a very large management and technology consultancy firm where the technologies I most commonly use include Java, VB, SQL Server, Oracle, XML/XSL/HTML, ASP, JScript/JavaScript, etc. However, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Access for a small application where RAD (Rapid Application Deployment) is a priority and small numbers of records (tens of thousands) and a simple interface is required - a good example (and in fact one I have been involved in) would be building an Access app as a data feeder into a larger system.
Put it this way, I have yet to meet anyone who could build a system such as the one described above using technologies designed for larger scale systems (.e.g a SQL Server db and web front end with VB for the business logic) in less time and at lower cost than can be done in Access. Basically, it's like everything else, horses for courses.
Having said that, when I put my developer's hat on, Access upsets me quite a lot!
I've had experience of a couple. Act does a lot for the money, but because of it's Access DB you wouldn't want more than a handful of users. The other one I've worked with was called Ascent and has a SQL Server DB but it is obviously a lot more £££s.
You might want to talk to these people.
www.inta-act.co.uk/
They are a small company who supply CRM software.
You might want to talk to these people.
www.inta-act.co.uk/
They are a small company who supply CRM software.
You could also look at:
http://sales.oracle.com/
It's a hosted CRM application. It may be a bit complex for what you are looking for though.
>> Edited by t1grm on Monday 19th April 14:55
http://sales.oracle.com/
It's a hosted CRM application. It may be a bit complex for what you are looking for though.
>> Edited by t1grm on Monday 19th April 14:55
I have worked on a few of these type of systems in my time.
First thing I would say, is that unless you really can't find an off the shelf package to do what you want, steer clear of any home brewed access/sql solution. It sounds really easy to knock up a quick and dirty, but if you want a professional solution then it will take time and lots of money to build your own.
Most of the popular ones have been mentioned, however we have used one for a number of solutions, that is Maximizer. (www.maximizer.com). It has excellent links into Office products, Word & Excel. Hooks well to Outlook and has good web integration.
If you want some more info or tips, buzz me a mail.
First thing I would say, is that unless you really can't find an off the shelf package to do what you want, steer clear of any home brewed access/sql solution. It sounds really easy to knock up a quick and dirty, but if you want a professional solution then it will take time and lots of money to build your own.
Most of the popular ones have been mentioned, however we have used one for a number of solutions, that is Maximizer. (www.maximizer.com). It has excellent links into Office products, Word & Excel. Hooks well to Outlook and has good web integration.
If you want some more info or tips, buzz me a mail.
I know a lot about these. MS has an interesting solution which is version 1.0 product. We tried ACT, Maximizer and Goldmine and found they did not scale. This product is very good if you want scale www.saleslogix.com
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