Why I am choosing Apptivo

So, I have been test driving CRM's for the last 2 years. I have scanned and reviewed about 100 of the CRM's out there, and during the selection process only a few stood up to my requirements, being: -A solid sales pipeline (From lead to opportunity to sales to after-sales) -A great contact management system -The possibility to generate quotes that can be converted to work orders, to invoices etc -An integrated templated Project management system with pre-set task generation -Email (gmail) integration -Google apps for business integration -The possibility to add more functionality in the form of integrated apps when the need arises. At the end, and when all the nitty-gritty was tested, only 3 applications remained who were comparable, qua price and functionality. But where Apptivo stands out with head and shoulders above nearly ALL the CRM's I tested, is the quality and the availability of their support! As far as I know, ONLY Apptivo, has a free 24/7/365 online support chat from within the CRM, and I consider this as a huge plus point. I run a small B2B business supplying promotional products mostly in Southern Africa but rapidly growing and expanding our market. We are currently with six people, but I am confident that at our current growth rate, we will pass the 10 employee mark by the end of 2015. I have a deep passion for what I do and when it comes to the integration of a tool that in time becomes a keystone in my business, I need suppliers that share my passion. And this is exactly what the people of Apptivo do: Tested and proven, even today on a Sunday afternoon. Keep up the good work guys, I hope we will go a long way together! Edwin Spiessens Corp. Gifts and Gadgets cc South Africa www.gifts-n-gadgets.co.za Feel free to drop me any question at any time if you think I can help you by selecting a CRM: edwin@giftsngadgets.co.za

Pros

-A solid sales pipeline (From lead to opportunity to sales to after-sales) -A great contact management system -The possibility to generate quotes that can be converted to work orders, to invoices etc -An integrated templated Project management system with pre-set task generation -Email (gmail) integration -Google apps for business integration -The possibility to add more functionality in the form of integrated apps when the need arises. As far as I know, ONLY Apptivo, has a free 24/7/365 online support chat from within the CRM, and I consider this as a huge plus point.

Cons

If I have to say anything then it will be that the look of the user interface is a bit dull, but i will take this a hundred times to bells and whistles, and a quarter of the functionality and support!

General

Slow. Very pleased with how things work, but it took a little while to get used to the interface. Now that we have been using it for 3 months or so, it has everything we need all in one place.

Pros

The variety of features that cover Sales to Finance. The value of the apps that are offered fits perfectly into our organization.

Cons

It's sometimes hard to find things. I think this will diminish as I use the product more. The biggest frustration is the integration with other products especially O365. I think I have the email down, but calendar is harder than it should be. Using OneDrive only connects to my personal account and I would like to be able to connect it to our O365 sharepoint folders instead.

Flexible CRM system and supportive team

Great, really supportive in providing tutorials whilst trying out Really supporting in on ongoing support and resolving issued - the chat function is great Jasper - who I dealt with from start to finish has always been willing and able to support

Pros

Easy to use and intuitive. A challenger to the larger CRM's for sure

Cons

Main dashboards could have some more flexibility. Overall branding options could be improved. The news feed could have more formatting options

Good but so much opportunity to be so much better

Pros

I can adapt it to my needs. I feel that when I make a suggestion for improvement it will genuinely be listened to.

Cons

There are a lot of bugs - this is why I have marked the overall quality down. We are always creating something and then it crashes, or it wont save and we have to start again. Or emails never arrive which causes big problems. Whenever there are updates, something unintentional seems to get affected. Perhaps more testing before going live. It feels a bit unprofessional sometimes. We can't test our own changes, so when I am updating things and people are using it, it can be disruptive. I really need to make changes and test before going live. The support is not always perfect. Some times its great, but sometimes I am not understood. The right intentions are always there though.

Great CRM solution for small business

I think it's really easy to setup and use for less technical people, great for freelancers, small businesses and mom and pop shops who don't need or want data driven CRM systems. If you have a single person who can juggle multiple aspects of customer service it's cost effective or a small team it's worth it.

Pros

When my client asked me to look into a customer management solution to start to transition away from paper and Excel sheet based documents, I looked into several options including Salesforce. The price was good and comparable to Salesforce but I think many small businesses, your mom and pop shops don't really want or need more in depth data analytics. I think that's where Apptivo is better and easier to use for small business who aren't as data driven.

Cons

What I didn't really like is that for roughly the same annual price per single licence compared to Salesforce was in Apptivo limits the account to a single user. If you have more than one person who handles customer service, marketing, invoicing etc, the cost is a lot more.