I’ve tried my fair share of CRM products over the years. If you’re looking for small business CRM my recommendation is currently Capsule CRM.
It all started a few years back when I managed the rollout of a mid-level CRM solution for a large manufacturer in Europe. It was a complex project that took many months and cost a lot of money.
Since then I’ve implemented Salesforce.com for a couple of clients and even given Microsoft Dynamics CRM a try after their recent carpet-bomb advertising campaign.
However, the major problem I’ve found with these solutions is getting them used.
They are so complex that people have trouble getting used to them.
A while back I was looking for a CRM solution for a small client and Salesforce.com had just put their “Group Edition” prices way up, so I wanted to see if there were any good alternatives.
Zoho had some good write-ups, but I found it almost as complex as Salesforce.com without the benefit of the pretty awesome AppExchange.
Then I came across Highrise HQ and loved it.
Easy to use, great features (just enough) and no converting leads to customers (small businesses just don’t get that). I helped my client get going (which wasn’t that hard) and they really liked it.
More importantly, they used it.
Here comes the bad news though.
Highrise HQ is owned by the US company 37Signals who do not seem to be self-certified as “Safe Harbor” compliant.
Simply put, this means that if you are a UK company storing customer information in Highrise HQ, you may be in breach of the Data Protection Act.
That’s not good.
So I needed an alternative for my UK clients. And I found it…
Why do I like it?
- It’s simple and easy to use.
- There’s a free 2 user starter edition.
- It’s got all the right features, but not the unnecessary ones.
- It is nicely integrated with other favourites such as Google Apps, Mailchimp & Freshbooks.
Oh, and it’s a UK company, so they are covered by the UK Data Protection Act.