Destination: World Class

Fast, Integrated, Hosted CRM: Where is it?

February 1st, 2007

[UPDATE 1: I want to offer a special welcome to those of your from the Freshbooks forums. Thanks to VortexPortal for the link.]

[UPDATE 2: 37Signals has announced the release of its Contact Management Tool formerly known as Sunrise—now Highrise. You can read my first impressions on it or the announcement from 37Signals.]

After a stupid (and refreshing) hard drive failure on my main computer, I lost lots of data and emails etc. I was using SugarCRM as a solution for contacts. It is open-source, and therefore free, but not without issues.

I had it installed locally on my box instead of on my webserver because I was just one person (then). Now that it is gone due to a corrupted backup disk I am searching for a new solution.

Initially, I thought about reinstalling SugarCRM, but this time on my webserver. I cringe at the thought of going through the install process as well as dealing with the inherent lack of perfomance on my server. My host server is not a high performance system. It is an inexpensive shared server meant to host small websites with little traffic and so burdening myself with questionable speed in managing my contacts, appointments and lead tracking is just bad business.

The Search for a New CRM Solution

I started searching for options this morning with an awareness of some hosted and installed applications: The installed I have tried and left are vTiger and SugarCRM. Neither did what I needed and both did way more than I would, could ever need. There are a number of hosted services for the really small business , like mine and I have signed up for ZohoCRM and BigContacts but neither seem to do what I want.

The big problem is that I already use some hosted applications such as Gmail, Freshbooks and Basecamp, GoogleReader, and GoogleWriter and to a small extent, GoogleCalendar and none of these comfortably coexist. What I want is a applications that work together.

Personally, I think that Google going in the right direction with Google Calendar and GMail. I love the speed and flow of working in the Google interfaces but Google doesn’t look at the two and say, “Lets mesh these into a compact, fast and lightweight CRM solution for Small Business. I am not an application developer, but I think it would be relatively easy to take the next step and allow more robust contact management and event scheduling.

If I could log in to GMail and lookup a contact and see notes, tasks, meetings, calls with that individual, schedule such activities in the future, assign categories, and link documents, I would give up localized contact management and my desktop email app forever.

Google Apps are Fast Enough for Every Day Use

The reason? Google apps are fast and user friendly, period. Last week I became frustrated with my desktop feedreader and decided to give GoogleReader a try and wow! It is immeasurably faster than FeedReader. GMail is equally fast and effective at managing my emails and after playing with GoogleWriter, I can see the possibility of using hosted apps for most everything. I just need to see this missing app–the integrated CRM for small business.

Integrated CRM is Missing

Yes, I said it was missing. What about ZOHO and BigContacts? Well, they are both limited, ZOHO is a linear application that requires page reloads for every think you click on. BigContacts is limited for a number of reasons: it is not really doing CRM but contact management and calendaring. Where it does win is speed. It is build using AJAX (for good) which makes it fast and desktop-like. When you click on a link something immediately happens without a page reload–this is what Google is doing already. BigContacts suffers from the inability to create repeating activities. If you have a meeting every Tuesday at 4:00PM, you are going to need to schedule this manually. So much for the “management” side.

That being said, almost all of the CRM applications I have tried, don’t do this correctly. Many of the meetings and calls I do as a consultant are weekly or bi-weekly and who wants to have to spend time to add all these appointments. Both ACT! and Outlook have done this for years but I guess the hosted and installed application developers think that this is not important.

Sundown on 37Signals’ CRM Solution?

I came upon this article about Basecamp creators 37Signals coming out with a hosted CRM called Sunrise HighRise back in the first half of 2006 and have found nary a word about it since the middle of ‘06 about it. I don’t know if this is because 37Signals had objectives shift after their cash injection from Jeff Bezos? I like the way BaseCamp and Writeboard work so I would love to test their idea of a CRM but alas it is nowhere to be found (although, it is reportedly being used in house at 37S).

Google is Closest to the Finish Line. Are They in The Race?

I think, based on my experience, Google has the shortest path to successfully launching a CRM application because they already have the pieces of the puzzle and the proven performance to make it mainstream. If 37Signals ever comes out with Sunrise Highrise, it may be a fierce application, and a significant tool for all small business.

One final note: If I found that all this could work for me in an integrated fashion, I would be willing to pay for it–it just has to work!

What are you using? What features are you missing?

Entry Filed under: Miscellanea, Productivity

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