CRM Software Comparison

CRM SOFTWARE COMPARISON -- Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a contact list with a brain. It not only records your customers' contact information, it remembers the details of your relationship and every interaction, whether by phone or email. Customer relationship management (CRM) software can make all the difference. Whether you're looking for a robust CRM software solution, a simple one designed for  very small businesses or a free version to fit your budget, there's a CRM software choice for  you.

The range of CRM systems is overwhelming, and, to a greater or lesser extent, each has its advantages and disadvantages. If you want to install a successful CRM system, you should, of course, base your choice on the quality of the software, but even more importantly on its suitability for your individual requirements.

Relationship information in CRM Software is a gold mine of opportunity, allowing you to identify prospects for up- or cross-sell, convert existing customers to new products or services, target new marketing, or even track invoices. Choosing the right CRM software for your business can dramatically improve your team's collaboration and productivity, increase sales, and even heighten customer satisfaction.

We will compare three popular CRM software to applied for your companmy. This CRM software are  Salesforce , SugarCRM and Odoo ERP Software. Salesforce CRM software is a very sophisticated system that has been optimized over many years, with an advanced functional range and the greatest scope of installations.

Odoo (formerly OpenERP) is the fastest growing system, having reached already over 2 Mio users after only six years. It is younger by far and dazzles with its modern features.SugarCRM's is  an Open Source tool, it quickly became a welcome alternative for all users unable to come to terms with the rigid features of Salesforce. The Professional Solution helped to smooth the entry into CRM.
We will compare some of the features associated with CRM in CRM software, Odoo, SugarCRM and Salesforce :
 1. Creating contacts In CRM Software
Contacts (contact persons) form the core in each system. Usually, they can be created quite intuitively in every system. Any amount of contacts can be assigned to an account (company / firm) in the form of roles. Company addresses are usually separated into shipping and invoicing addresses.
Odoo offers a very simple way of creating an address. Addresses need to be defined as shipping or invoicing address only when the contact moves from being a Lead into the Sales module. It helps a lot that Odoo (formerly OpenERP) also provide their own ERP system. With Salesforce, each contact needs to be assigned to a company, so that the administration of freelancers, students or leads that often consist of only an e-mail address becomes quite complex.

2. E-Mail Communication
Among its resources for Small Businesses, Salesforce provides an integration tool for Gmail and Outlook. SugarCRM provides an integrated mail client and, for a fee, also provides plug-ins that help to manage e-mails out of Outlook and Thunderbird. Odoo, however, is able to integrate all available E-Mail Clients. For email campaigns, the tools offer specific functions that are suitable also for occasional commercial mailings. Anyone running professional e-mail marketing will find the relevant email providers more suitable, however, especially since most of them have plug-ins for CRM systems, at least for Salesforce and SugarCRM.

3. Data De-duplication
Unfortunately, automating lead generation also breeds duplicates, thus decreasing the quality of the address population. In the CRM comparison, Odoo and SugarCRM with their integrated deduplication tools clearly are the best in class in dealing with this problem. By now, Salesforce has started to offer additional apps for post-process deduplication.

4. Calendar-Function
In SugarCRM and Salesforce it is possible to create appointments and assign them to an individual company, project, or opportunity, using both individual and group calendars. With the help of plug-ins, Odoo creates a two-way synchronization with Google Calendar. Salesforce and SugarCRM are additionally able to synchronize Outlook and Lotus Notes.

5. Add-ons In CRM Software
Odoo has just over 200 certified modules, with an additional 2,000 offered by the community. Salesforce’s Appexchange currently lists 2,359 apps. SugarCRM publishes its offering of add-ons on Sugar Exchange.

6. Sales Cycle in the various CRM systems

Let us consider the seven stages of a sales process:
1. Identify potential customers (Leads),
2. Establish and manage contacts
3. Qualify, rate and establish prospects,
4. Presentation, quotation, customer acquisition
5. Negotiation, meeting objections
6. Completion and conversion
7. Up- and Cross Selling, requesting references

It soon becomes apparent that with the quotation step in stage (4), we have made a transition from the classical CRM system to ERP, right at the point when a quotation requires product and price information. This poses a challenge for CRM systems such as SalesForce and SugarCRM which dock onto ERP systems and need to redefine these transition points for each individual situation.

For Odoo as a scion of OpenERP things are a bit easier. SalesForce’s Contact and Community Management has set a high standard, but the real advantage is its underlying technical platform with the marketing name Force.com, which molds this CRM into a strategic business platform. Until stage (4), customizing (individual adjustments) is quite easy.

After that, things may become a little tricky, depending on the ERP system you need to communicate with from this level onwards. For some, there are established interfaces, others may be more challenging. In SugarCRM, many functions are displayed graphically. Sales opportunities can be created via the Opportunity module, Quick Create, duplication or import functions (either automated or by e-mail).

SugarCRM is doing especially well when it comes to specific business solutions, for instance in the insurance sector. Odoo is taking its Sales Cycles a step further, having each sales team create its own specific sales cycle. Since Odoo has grown from an ERP system, stages 4 to 7 can be adjusted flexibly and easily (and therefore inexpensively), as they gear into the ERP system.