Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM

Hey Mark -

At this point, Customer list maintained in Epicor isn't integrated, our source is another system. Long story, but we have an integration between Epicor and a proprietary system for sales/billing.

For CRM, our AR Team (Epicor users) will be using MS CRM to log customer interactions using Microsoft, we've scoped to replace Epicor for this particular function with Microsoft. We'll be authoring to MS all new customers, near real time using SSIS.

Bob
I'm looking for information on who uses Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM. Is
there any benefit to using Sales Force? We are looking at getting a CRM
and are evaluating different products. If anyone uses Sales Force I
would be interested to hear if you are pleased with it and why you chose
that over Vantage CRM. I would also like to hear who chose the Vantage
CRM and if you are happy with it. Why did you choose it?



I appreciate any and all responses.



Thanks,



Travis Late

ERP Project Manager

M-B Companies, Inc

1200 Park Street

Chilton, WI 53014

Phone: 920-898-1560 Ext.152

Cell: 920-960-0062

Email: tlate@... <mailto:tlate@...>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Travis we're deep into our decision to choose Sales Force or Vantage CRM....so I'll share with you where we're at in hopes it helps. I also posted this question a week or so ago, so you can look through last weeks history to see what others have said, though they all ended up with the opposite implementation of where we're leaning :).

We've actually had Vantage CRM for 1.5 years now. We tried to implement it 1.5 years ago and it fell on its face...mostly because we didn't have an in-house expert to take the lead on it, but also because the interface wasn't very good and it didn't have good options for our remote sales force. On top of this, out of the box reporting was very limited.

Then we learned of information worker, so we tried implementing it. While it works pretty well, it's not necessarily the easiest tool (though it's not that complicated either), and it's remote functionality is a tiny bit clunky (error messages of portal going offline when it's obvious you're offline are an annoyance).

We now have an in house Sales Force expert who is convinced it's right for us. The reporting is fantastic, the remote access is very good, the interface is easy....the only question left for us that we hope to answer this week is how easy is the data integration to Vantage. It's important for us not to have double entry, and Sales Force swears they have customers using Vantage 8.x and Sales Force. We're in talks with development over the integration, and if it is as easy as they make it sound we'll be going this route.

Our primary factors were reporting, ease of use, remote accessibility and Vantage integration. The first 3 Sales Force wins, the last one we'll see.

Ken

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Late, Travis
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM



I'm looking for information on who uses Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM. Is
there any benefit to using Sales Force? We are looking at getting a CRM
and are evaluating different products. If anyone uses Sales Force I
would be interested to hear if you are pleased with it and why you chose
that over Vantage CRM. I would also like to hear who chose the Vantage
CRM and if you are happy with it. Why did you choose it?

I appreciate any and all responses.

Thanks,

Travis Late

ERP Project Manager

M-B Companies, Inc

1200 Park Street

Chilton, WI 53014

Phone: 920-898-1560 Ext.152

Cell: 920-960-0062

Email: tlate@...<mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com> <mailto:tlate@...<mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com>>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Travis asks:
> I'm looking for information on who uses Sales Force vs.
> Vantage CRM. Is
> there any benefit to using Sales Force? We are looking at
> getting a CRM
> and are evaluating different products. If anyone uses Sales Force I
> would be interested to hear if you are pleased with it and
> why you chose
> that over Vantage CRM. I would also like to hear who chose the Vantage
> CRM and if you are happy with it. Why did you choose it?

We use CRM and like it for what it does. It is NOT going to give you what an
Act! or SalesForce as easily.

I've been investigating SalesForce for a non-profit that I'm working with
and I've been impressed with what I've seen. SF has their own development
platform and it should be possible to make WebService calls to/from
Epicor/Vantage. SF isn't cheap either so buying both may not be an option.
You can get a 30 developer's trial to try it out.

Mark W.
We decided on Microsoft CRM. The email integration and embedded Outlook Client were the key factors for our team. Our teams live in Email, this was the most critical factor for us. In addition, SharePoint and SSRS integration were important considerations for our team.

Bob Schafbuch
Asst VP, Enterprise Applications Group
IDT
Thanks for the information.



Ken,



Can you keep me updated with the decision that your company decides on?
I'd like to see how they are going to integrate with Vantage.



Thanks,

Travis

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Ken Williams
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:12 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] RE: Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM





Travis we're deep into our decision to choose Sales Force or Vantage
CRM....so I'll share with you where we're at in hopes it helps. I also
posted this question a week or so ago, so you can look through last
weeks history to see what others have said, though they all ended up
with the opposite implementation of where we're leaning :).

We've actually had Vantage CRM for 1.5 years now. We tried to implement
it 1.5 years ago and it fell on its face...mostly because we didn't have
an in-house expert to take the lead on it, but also because the
interface wasn't very good and it didn't have good options for our
remote sales force. On top of this, out of the box reporting was very
limited.

Then we learned of information worker, so we tried implementing it.
While it works pretty well, it's not necessarily the easiest tool
(though it's not that complicated either), and it's remote functionality
is a tiny bit clunky (error messages of portal going offline when it's
obvious you're offline are an annoyance).

We now have an in house Sales Force expert who is convinced it's right
for us. The reporting is fantastic, the remote access is very good, the
interface is easy....the only question left for us that we hope to
answer this week is how easy is the data integration to Vantage. It's
important for us not to have double entry, and Sales Force swears they
have customers using Vantage 8.x and Sales Force. We're in talks with
development over the integration, and if it is as easy as they make it
sound we'll be going this route.

Our primary factors were reporting, ease of use, remote accessibility
and Vantage integration. The first 3 Sales Force wins, the last one
we'll see.

Ken

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of Late, Travis
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM

I'm looking for information on who uses Sales Force vs. Vantage CRM. Is
there any benefit to using Sales Force? We are looking at getting a CRM
and are evaluating different products. If anyone uses Sales Force I
would be interested to hear if you are pleased with it and why you chose
that over Vantage CRM. I would also like to hear who chose the Vantage
CRM and if you are happy with it. Why did you choose it?

I appreciate any and all responses.

Thanks,

Travis Late

ERP Project Manager

M-B Companies, Inc

1200 Park Street

Chilton, WI 53014

Phone: 920-898-1560 Ext.152

Cell: 920-960-0062

Email: tlate@... <mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com>
<mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com> <mailto:tlate@...
<mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com> <mailto:tlate%40m-bco.com>>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hi Bob,

> We decided on Microsoft CRM. The email integration and
> embedded Outlook Client were the key factors for our team.
> Our teams live in Email, this was the most critical factor
> for us. In addition, SharePoint and SSRS integration were
> important considerations for our team.

You have no integration with Vantage or Epicor - right?

I don't think that Information Worker will integrate with MS CRM (AKA MS
Dynamics?) or Business Contact Manager because contacts are stored in a SQL
Server database and not in the Native Contact that Portal interfacess.

Mark W.