They are wanting me to look at it this week.
Thoughts?
Well, that songs gonna be in my head for awhile today now… but, unfortunately, as her face implies… 
We used to have Dynamics CRM (it was the first software I implemented when I was hired on at my current company) but the software was selected by a committee prior to me joining the company.
Do you currently have a CRM system and you’re looking for a change? From what I’ve seen over the years, Sugar sounds to be pretty user friendly and customization friendly. Not sure how many “features” you get vs the powerhouses like Saleforce and/or Dynamics… but if the cost savings are there and you can customize to get where you need to go… could be well worth the consideration.
We’re currently part way through implementation. It’s been pretty painless so far, at least our sales team seem happy with it 
Not had access to the mobile offering yet, but the web version seems simple and intuitive enough.
David is spot on. It is a great song.
But also, it’s really important to know what is possible and what you want to really do and THEN look more deeply at solutions. I’ve been reading a book called, “Fall In Love With The Problem…Not the Solution “ by the guy who developed Waze. Non-IT people (ok, and some IT people) can look at solutions first and start chasing shiny things…
No, we have nothing. I mean we have Epicor’s offering, but we don’t use it.
I just got sent a proposal this weekend, it’s an integration by TCP. I don’t know anything about either one, just trying to find out if it’s a bomb.
So I figured I’d hop on the radar phone and ask the hive.
Yeah, our “CRM” usage is also minimal. We worked with Dynamics, initially, because prior to that, we didn’t have anything to keep our customers organized (historical quote records, etc.) and no standard way to generate quotations. Everyone was working out of Word document templates prior to that.
We did some heavy customizing of that system. But, with our ERP system being an old VAX/Alpha server at the time, we never wanted to tie them together and let them talk back and forth. So, it was somewhat of a pain, but still a step up. A good bit of double entry.
When we went to Epicor, we purchased their CRM module (ASSuming we needed it). We thought it would be necessary in order to make quotations… because that was our mindset coming from the Dynamics software. We needed that CRM software to make quotations, so we thought we needed Epicor’s CRM software to do the same. But… obviously that’s not the case.
We don’t use CRM for tasks/workflows. We started using it for a little bit of marketing campaign tracking… and for also importing leads into our system following tradeshows. Epicor’s software seems terrible at doing that, though, I haven’t looked into it lately. I might be able to build a solution for some of that, at this point.
So… again, it depends on what you want to do with it. You looking for tasks/workflows? Marketing campaign tracking? Prospect/Customer tracking? Sales Pipeline stuff?
For the most part, even though we have Epicor’s CRM module… we’ve survived without utilizing any real CRM functionality since moving to Epicor. (wasting our money)
I don’t know, and I’m pretty sure sales doesn’t either. We’re all green.
IMHO, the CRM module isn’t bad…it just isn’t CRM, much like Data Collection wasn’t MES. With the CRM module, you get Case functionality which can be quite powerful in the hands of a team with vision. But the CRM module does not integrate with email the way a Dynamics, Salesforce, or HubSpot does. People often run them separately but then someone asks to do a mailing to customers in the external CRM only to find out they can’t tell who the customers are. Or they don’t know the current RMA situation and get reamed by the customer when they didn’t know there were quality issues. Or they keep selling to customers who have a ton of receivables 120 days late. Or they ask about quote after the PO was already received.
The other problem with many external CRMs is that they are kind of expensive and companies don’t buy enough seats. Only sales, marketing and an IT admin generally get seats. But it’s too expensive for other people who directly work with the customer, like service reps, engineering, and quality.
If the point of a CRM is to give one a total view of the customer…
Well… then my “thoughts” (to answer your first question) is to put it back on THEM to tell you what solution(s) they’re asking you to research. What business problem(s) are you trying to find a solution for?
How can you evaluate any software without knowing what problem you’re trying to solve?
Without knowing what you need the software to do… you could tell them Excel is a great option. 
you mean like the email I received today from a BDR at Epicor (as a customer on month 20 of 9mo deployment plan). 
I am a new sugar CRM user. Still getting the hang of it. It does a good job of letting you build your own tags in as ways to see data. Any specific questions on it? I’ve implemented Epicor’s CRM module several times and it’s far from my favorite module, but once you get the hang of it, it has some pretty good functionality. Are they proposing an integration between sugar and epicor?
we use ZOHO CRM for quotes and customer maintenance, it has Rest capabilities for integration but we haven’t implemented anything yet. Its fairly inexpensive too.
Yes, by TCP.
Huh. That should be interesting!
Who is demanding TCP? Whatever you do, don’t threaten them!
No idea about Sugar but if MSCRM is in the running I’d suggest considering RapidStartCRM.
It’s basically $5/u/m (first 10 users) version of MSCRM.
When MS rebranded the xRM platform beneath their CRM as PowerApps Model-Driven apps, the licensing model changed such that an app can be run for $5 per user.
RapidStart is a free template basically indistinguishable from MSCRM and nearly identical under the hood.
Depending whether we keep it or use Epicor CRM, we may do an integration.
As long-time MSCRM pros, I’m sure RapidStart team can work with you to setup an integration similar to their MSBusinessCentral integration. .
Ok I had a mini-meeting with the driver of this request and asked some pointed questions to make sure we weren’t looking at solutions over problems. Turns out they had put some good thought into it.
We had a meeting with TCP yesterday going over some of the features of Sugar & the Integration.
Initial signs look good. I was pretty impressed. Definitely worth a further look.
Thanks for the opinions and guidance. Feel free to keep them coming.
We currently have an integration with sugar using TCP and it works quite well.
I have to confess that’s not the TCP that immediately came to mind.
You and me both @kananga !
Makes me want to start a company called Under Developed Programmers…