Should I use Outlook as a CRM tool ?
Short answer: No. It lacks too many essential features.
Given that we use Outlook in house to manage e-mail, personal contacts and a personal calendar, our opinion isn’t out to snub Outlook just to pitch CRM.
In fact, you don’t need to abandon Outlook to get a CRM. Most CRMs will integrate with Outlook to integrate e-mail, contacts or a calendar so critical information can be seen on the smartphone. Furthermore, you can see the email correspondence on the contact record from the CRM.
Difficulties of Using Outlook as a CRM:
- Documenting conversations by date/time stamp and easily sharing them among your team.
- Implementing contact security among your peers.
- Creating a sales forecast.
- Creating a mail-merge to a Word document.
- Creating effective user fields to classify contacts by more than one field such as "category".
- Re-Entering the same data among different applications like Word or Excel becomes a chore to create call reports or sales forecasts.
- Using Outlook is ineffective as a help desk ticketing system.
Zoho Bigin allows an easy way to get into CRM.And you can still use Outlook.
In a matter of minutes, you can have a starter CRM system that tracks contacts, companies and a pipeline along with a mobile app.
- E-Mail: Zoho Mail, Outlook, Office 365, IMAP
- Zoho Apps: Zoho Flow, Books, Invoice, Campaigns, Analytics, Desk and Meeting.
- Popular Apps: MailChimp & Zoom Meeting.
- Advanced Tools: Zapier & API
- Pricing starts at $9/user/month.
- Annual discounts available.
- Training videos included. Chat support provided by Zoho at no additional charge.
What if Bigin isn't enough? Don't worry. We offer plenty of options.
What’s the best CRM platform for you? It depends on what business processes you want to improve. For instance, if you want one point to see all meeting notes, emails and ability to create a report based on those activity KPIs then WiredContact is a great solution. If you want to have one platform to manage CRM, e-marketing, help desk, projects and accounting then Zoho One is a great candidate.
Conversely, if your focus is marketing automation on a tighter budget, Benchmark One has many capabilities similar to Hubspot at a lower price.
Once we know the features you need; then, we craft with a custom solution based on your budget. If you aren’t sure how to approach this, feel free to contact us for a complimentary discovery call.
Using AI with Zoho CRM
How to setup data enrichment with ZIA.
I found a practical and easy to setup feature in CRM to take advantage of AI. This 2 minute video will show you how to configure ZIA (Zoho Intelligent Assistant) to fill in missing data (ex: a phone number or email address) on a new lead you just acquired.
Why we believe it's significant
One of the problems CRM faces is data entry. Reps, stereotypically, don’t like to do the admin work CRM needs so we can analyze the data further. This tool makes it easier for everyone to get better data to make better decisions.
Export Notes from Act!
How to Export Notes from Act!
(Hint: You cannot do this within the native program)
In case you are looking go at it alone or with your I.T. contractor, you can export some of the data, but not all the data. For instance, the contact list view doesn’t export the unique IDs so notes, history, opportunities or the calendar won’t connect back to the correct contacts when you import them into another CRM or an ERP. For instance, if you employ a native tool such as the ACTREADER, SQL Studio or ODBC connection, these programs cannot strip out the RTF/HTML code formats as shown here. Our services get the data into CSV format for the other systems along with the unique IDs.
- Act! knowledgebase answer: "Can I export Act! notes to Excel?"
- Act! knowledgebase answer: "What can I export from Act! ?"
For current Act! users, here are a couple ideas.
If you are trying to get more than what the standard history list provides while you want to remain in Act!, we recommend and implement Keystroke Dash . Then, you can export on the notes or history tables and add additional fields to the reports standard Act! doesn’t provide.
Moreover, you can create dashboards, charts or lists with Keystroke Dash. Overall, we find it very easy to train people on this program and it offers extensive customization.
We also support Microsoft Power BI, where you can combine Act! with other data sources to gain additional insight into the business. As an illustration, check out our case study.
- Keystroke Dash is $150/PC.
- Power BI with Act! (Fees vary by project).
We offer alternatives to Act!, and we convert the data.
MondoCRM is platform agnostic, which means we aren’t tied to one CRM’s limits, and we can weigh a couple options.
- WiredContact (Easiest to convert from Act!).
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Bigin
- Benchmark One (Marketing automation)
If your CRM or ERP isn't listed here, we can still help.
We offer the Act! database export service, so you can take the spreadsheets to your consultant so they can do the import. We have done this for companies moving to Salesforce, Hubspot, or other industry specific ERP or CRM system.
- Budget $600 per database.
Zoho Announces Free Remote Support Tools
We’ve been routinely supporting our clients remotely for over 15 years. We can get you up and going in a hurry.
We want to do all we can to help in this time of crisis. COVID-19 is a big deal, and it has everyone scrambling. You’re putting out too many fires right now to fuss with keeping your team productive remotely. As it happens, keeping teams productive remotely is in our wheelhouse. We can help with cutting through all the variables so you get the right fit, at the right price, and don’t miss a beat.
We’re fluent in many of today’s remote workplace platforms, including Remotely®, Zoho’s comprehensive, all-in-one solution. We can bring you all that fully-functioning productivity firepower for free until July 1, 2020. That’s right—free. This is NOT a “freemium” version. And chances are pretty good we’ll have you up and running in a day or two.
Contact us today and we’ll look at your business’ unique requirements and fit you with a solution that works. Remember, discovery calls are always free.
Practical Limits on Zoho CRM Free Edition.
Practical limits of the Zoho CRM free version.
I am really impressed with Zoho offering a free edition of Zoho as it allows people to try at no fiscal risk. That’s quite unique in the CRM space. So, as with most “free-mium” offers, there are some featu1res taken out. As I work with clients on this, I will compile a list of limits that might matter right away. Here is the complete chart for complete reference. During the trial, all features are available for 14 days after the initial sign up.
- You can only have up to 3 users.
- You cannot add any custom fields to a module. So if you want a field called "ID/Status" to the contact module, you cannot add it.
- You can only have one layout.
- Anyone can delete records, but only the Zoho administrator can empty the recycle bin.
- You cannot add any custom modules (aka entities or tables).
- You can only have two profiles (aka security profiles).
- You can only have two roles (how contacts are shared among the users).
- The tag feature is not available.
- Data conversion from programs like Act! or salesforce wouldn't be available.
- The Outlook integration features are not available.