Salesforce CRM review

Bill Noonan
Posted: 14 April, 2011


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> Review Summary: Salesforce CRM

"Salesforce has earned bragging rights as the world's most popular online CRM. Combined with its unique AppExchange, it offers comprehensive capabilities with something for every business."

> What the vendor says:

"Salesforce.com is the Enterprise Cloud Computing Company. Put simply, we provide CRM and Collaboration applications that you access over the Internet and pay-as-you-go.

You can also build your own apps on our Force.com platform, all without the need to run and manage your own data centre and software. That's why more than 92,300 companies have chosen salesforce.com to help run their business."

Salesforce CRM screenshot

> What Software Shortlist says about Salesforce:

Salesforce.com bills itself as the world’s most popular online CRM and has earned that bragging right as one of the first and most successful developers in this space.

Key strengths of Salesforce CRM include:

Grows with your business
Integrates with other software
Well supported

Industry/application specific templates are available for Medical, Financial, Public, Education, including Retail, with pricing reflective of what you choose in terms of a basic or fully customized application. Salesforce also offers ‘AppExchange’, a unique 3rd party assortment of compatible add-on applications that integrate into the native Salesforce CRM platform. These are paid apps designed to enhance the visual, reporting, marketing and finance features.

Program administration is solid and easy for the basic user, with lots of automated guide backups. For complex applications, Salesforce.com maintains an international reseller network and customization experts.The program connects nicely and automatically to Outlook, MS Office, two of the most popular business communications platforms. The Sales Opportunity Management console is complete with marketing, quotes, email, campaigns, web integrated search/share components, territory management and case management. Importantly, Salesforce offers a clean user interface, with full personalization and customization.

Although the thinking is often "if you need it, Salesforce.com has it", things are not quite so simple. The sheer number of offerings, especially combined with those in the AppExchange, can overwhelm CRM users with too many tools doing too many things. Some valid criticisms of the user interface and ‘list’ type data presentation also remain. Report set ups could be improved by allowing unlimited multiple relationships with objects in the DB, saving complications and customization costs. Finally, prices can really mount up, especially with added apps, customization and integration.

Salesforce offers various packages that, depending on your requirements, can range from $5-250 per user.

> Next steps:

To see if Salesforce CRM is the right choice for the specific needs of your business, contact Software Shortlist about our free CRM matching service!

Industry:

Professional Services; Management Consulting; IT Services; Creative and Design Services; Engineering Consulting; Law; Accounting; *Any Industry*; *Any Sub Industry*

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Bill Noonan is an energetic entrepreneur with a depth of experience across the sales and marketing disciplines. He has performed both senior executive and specialist consulting roles over the years, with a strong attention to detail and passion for CRM. http://www.mosaiccrm.com/

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