PDCA Residential Forum

Last year I started building a client database and filing system.  Every client or estimate is assigned a client number and all information regarding this client is filed for future reference.  Also with using the software I have, I started a database using Microsoft Works Database.  It’s a very simple database but for the time being works for me.  I have been looking at Microsoft Access?  I would really like to here from others what they are using, in the future I would like to upgrade to something else?

We started with Outlook, realized the need for a more comprehensive system, and started customizing Microsoft Access.  Perhaps through inexperience, we foundered at that attempt and started with ACT. We had heard enough about it over the years to know it would do all we needed but hadn’t due to the expense.
Truthfully its not expensive, but we repeated our Access mistake by trying to self-teach the creation of a company database.  We gave that up after multiple unsuccessful attempts (we’re not stupid either, just naive), deleted the file and began working with an ACT trainer who has been very effective. 

Imagine putting your company on a psychiatrists couch; “So, tell me a little about yourself”.  The story behind how we do business is the key to setting up the database correctly, and we are now firm believers of the program’s utility.  In fact, the more I use ACT, the more I appreciate its sophistication, depth and breadth.  This is a program that works for small companies with simple needs but also accommodates large companies with a substantial sales force and multiple projects.

Perhaps the greatest pleasure is learning through our tutorials and implementation that ACT is a comprehensive, mature and intelligent program designed by people who have worked in the real world and are committed to providing real, effective solutions to the CRM puzzle.

We have purchased and used ACT! in the past, canceled ACT!, purchased an upgrade to ACT, tried to use it again, canceled ACT again, waited a few years, bought another version of ACT 2008, canceled ACT! etc. Wow! We keep trying to convince ourselves that ACT! is the best. For some of the companies, it probably is awesome. We then started testing several other CRM programs and still fell back to the simple old Microsoft Outlook. The reason we liked Outlook is because several of our managers used wireless devices (blackberry, palm, etc), so with Outlook, it was easy to sync. information wirelessly in the field.

We recently started researching more powerful CRM programs, because we needed to keep better track of our customers and become a more paperless paint company. Papers are a great thing, but it is sometimes hard to track on a regular basis everything about a company in today’s world. So a good CRM program is a must. A good program should be easy to use, allow you to scan and file copies of a job, set reminders, sales cycle, good email functions, and quickly give you an “at a glance” view of each customer.

After talking to Josh Abramson (fellow member), he convinced me to not use ACT again, so once again, I canceled my current ACT order! I’m getting good at that. I researched and purchased a program called “Prophet CRM.” It is the only program out there that actually runs in Microsoft Outlook. All of our staff enjoys using Outlook because of its ease. So, Prophet will install a few more buttons, fields and sales tools into Outlook making it a a full CRM program but costing a fraction of the Microsoft CRM: Dynamics program. Prophet CRM will be installed on our server, and it includes all the necessary training and implementation, so we don’t have to hire an outside consultant. It is new and not working yet, but we are (so far) happy with our decision!

One final piece of advice: a good CRM program is NOT cheap. For a small company of maybe 6-8 painters or less, I don’t think you need to purchase a full-blown CRM at this stage. The cost for Prophet, for example, is around $4,500. If you are running a smaller company, outlook works great!

Wow,you guys are living my nightmare as well. I got into ACT early and was using it until Jan 08. We had heard that the newer versions of ACT (after 04) are huge memory hogs (please comment) and did not want to load up our computers (05 Dells). So after asking around we decided to try Qbooks Customer manager. While it is an easy to use Customer database it in no way is a Sales Software. It also is very hard to get to sync with Qbooks properly,and it has to be synched. You cannot run an entire office on one database like ACT. So now I have 3 other Excel programs that are tracking my sales rather badly. We are extremely unhappy with Qbooks Customer Manager
We are in the process of either going back to ACT 08 (they have a nice sale until end of March $150 upgrade for users of ACT). Or, heading to Outlook, there Outlook 07 has a Product called Business Contact Manager http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/contactmanager/FX101674171033.aspx
Which looks very impressive and works of course with the entire range of Microsoft products. The downside is you only get the full effect of it with a Server. That brings up another ugly cost we have not budgeted for. Who can tell me what the minimal software requirements for a server to run Outlook with a central database? What is the cost for a minimal requirement server? Or, should we get an off-site exchange service for about $12.00 per user. I just talked to “Prophet” and it seems a single personal edition might be what I need for now. At around $150.00. I apoligize for the jerky feel to my post, but I was actually working on this issue when I went to the Residential site to get the dates for St. Louis and discovered 2 of my favorite PDCA members discussing this huge issue for us. I should just check in with Nigel and David every couple of weeks and get my juice.

Doug: Always good to hear from you. Hope you are enjoying the new site and blog on the forum. We are hoping to write more and more articles and ask questions of the members to see what is working for them.

I’ll be brief about your CRM questions. We did purchase Prophet 5 for the server. It is a great program so far for sales but not for marketing to existing clients. I have about a dozen questions I need answers to from the company before I can highly recommend it. As for the Business Contact Manager (BCM) for Outlook, it is ok...but not great for sales if I recall. You may want to try the Prophet basic program for $150 to get started and see if you can upgrade to a larger edition without a lot of complication and hassle. BCM for outlook is a cut above Outlook, but I don’t think in the long term, you’d be happy with it. ACT 2008 is pretty decent. I’ve played with that program. All good CRM programs take up a lot of memory space. You should have atleast 1G of ram in your computer to run ACT! or Prophet.

As for a server, they can be mighty expensive. I think we built a new server over Christmas for around $4,000 plus install, and configuration of all our computers! So...not cheap! A server is good for storing heavy data and sometimes emails. I would recommend, with or without a server, to have an off-site backup of all your data, Quickbooks, etc. You can build a server with a great backup system too. Off-site servers might be ok, but it probably depends on your Internet connection. If you have DSL and an off-site server, you probably will have VERY slow speeds trying to upload and download files. If you spend about $500 a month, you can get a T-1 Line which is great and fast...then you can do an off-site server.

Ok...sorry to bore you with so much information. The reason I know is the hard way. We went through all of that stuff late last year!

Doug; maybe you want to be the Forum guinea pig and check out the new Google CRM app;

here’s a link to an article about it in PC magazine; http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/130822/google_crm_tool_now_available.html

Hope all is well with you,

Nigel

Thanks for all your input. Seeing as we are in “Death Valley” this year. A large expense for a server while appropriate is not possible. We also looked at off-site hosting of Microsoft exchange for around $12.00 per unit. But that would entail new software (prophet) with a learning curve. So, I think we are going to go with ACT 08 and just update our 3 computers for either $150/unit or $250 if we go with the premuim version. We brought in an ACT consultant in 02 and he was quite helpful in getting our initial database setup. Im hoping with an upgrade that will be unnecessary. Thanks again

My favorite anime: Fullmetal Alchemist, Princess Tutu, Paranoia Agent, Laputa: Castle in the Sky (and most of Miyazaki’s films), Azumanga Daioh
Volume 4 contains the arrival
5 site map
4 site map
8 site map
1 site map of two new characters: Sohryu Asuka Langley, and Ryouji Kaji. There are a total of seven chapters in this graphic novel, which seems to be one chapter more than the other collections. The chapters are refered to as ‘stages.’ While it IS based off the anime, there’s actually quite a difference between the two. The manga is more detailed, and does tell things differently, while keeping the basic plot the same.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is not just the application of technology, but is a strategy to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationships with them.