Hoping to be able to upgrade this review at a later date

Cosential has streamlined our processes and has the potential to help us streamline even more. The company needs to evolve it's development staff to be able to address bugs in a timely manner.

Pros

Cosential has streamlined many of our processes, and has the potential to help us automate our proposal process even more. The potential is amazing.

Cons

Glitches! We seem to be always taking three steps forward, two steps back. Cosential isn't easy to set up or implement. There is a ton of up front work and training to be done. After overcoming all of that to be faced with modules that stop working and aren't fixed timely we are left hanging.

Two years in, as we are ready to deep-dive into more of the Cosential functionality we are being besieged by glitches that are impeding our use of the system, which is extremely frustrating.

The big weakness is in fixing bugs in the system. The customer service team passes glitches on to the developers and nobody can, or will, tell you when to expect the problem to be resolved. We have been waiting for 3+ months now on one issue, which is unacceptable.

We are so far in at this point that it doesn't make sense to change systems now, but the thought has crossed our minds.

Adding a CRM to our firm has helped us keep track of prospect projects as well as client information

Pros

We now have one central data depository for all of our offices contacts, project info, personnel, resumes etc. The ability to create custom reports, update project data and track prospects across many users has improved our communication and reporting tremendously. The ability to update personnel, project, contact information in one spot and have it populate throughout any report or resume is a big plus. The Widgets are great for a graphical representation to management that accurately represents current pursuits, hit rates, wins by market, etc. The ability to turn on and off modules for user groups is huge! It keeps people from being overwhelmed when they first start to use the CRM, especially if they never have used one in the past or are skeptical. Integrations with other programs continue to be developed and improved by Cosential - this is a huge plus! Business Development/Marketing people are mobile - the iPad is a tool, just like a laptop. Being able to enter client info in Cosential and add it to an individuals Outlook contacts with just a few clicks makes it easy to have centralized client data. We will be implementing an integrations with Vista later this year. I am excited for the potential that will bring live project and personnel data to our CRM!

Cons

It's still a little 'techy' and driven by IT/Developers from the end-user perspective. But it's getting better every month we use it! When a bug is identified, or an issue occurs, for the most part Cosential Support is responsive. Sometimes, however it seems like it takes months to fix an issue. This is especially frustrating when a function (say a mailing list) was working correctly and then stops working. Because Cosential manages literally mountains of company, contact, personnel and project data, it can feel overwhelming to new users. Customizing the training and 'easing new users into' the program based on their needs is the only way to get good buy-in from apprehensive or skeptical users. The mobile app has it's limitations on the iPad and as all of our Business Developers use iPads, they would like to see the app developed further. Right now, it's better than nothing when they are on the road!

The ONLY database in the AEC industry that makes my job easier!

I was first introduced to Cosential in 2010 and began to research and push for the software at my previous company. After a long inside sales process, the company decided not to move forward with my recommendation which was a major factor in my leaving that organization. One of the main goals of my coming onboard to my current company was to implement Cosential as our marketing database software, and see what other tools are available that we can utilize in other parts of the company. We are full-service real estate company that provided construction (at the time), development, financing, tax credit syndication, facilities maintenance, and property, asset, and investment management services. We ended up implementing across all marketing groups in the business in the construction, development, investment, asset and property management, and in our justice division. Different groups adopted it more quickly than others, and some we ended up just removing entirely as they were not utilizing the system. Currently our marketing groups across the business still utilize Cosential for business development tracking, current project and property data collection and maintenance, and personnel resume maintenance.

Pros

Because Cosential was designed by marketers in our industry, they know what information is important to collect, track, and analyze. The organization of the information and ease of use of the system is unparalleled to other CRMs/databases. Cosential is constantly updating and enhancing the system, so there are new, and improved, features being released to its users constantly, and I always hear what's going on - I know it's the top of the line database for information junkies like me. The reporting and template publishing tools are also incredibly helpful. Tracking our proposals and showing our win/loss ratios to senior leadership has been crucial. Also, the ability to store less-than-popular data for possible future use is highly beneficial.

Cons

I wish the reporting module was a little more user friendly - it can be daunting to new and novice users causing it to go unused and frequently used incorrectly causing frustrations. I am now in the Commercial Real Estate industry (more so than what would be termed AEC), I would love LOVE to have more information/modules relating to development of projects, property and asset management - understanding the high-level of property and information turnover for these types of services.

Get to know Cosential

My company had implemented Cosential about 3 years before I joined, and they did a good job of inputting the bulk of project, personnel, and contact info into the data base. By the time I came on board the staff that had implemented had left, so I received minimal training on administration of the system, and how all the pieces fit together. That being said, it has not been difficult to learn the basics, and I am currently in the process of "re-implementation" to establish standard work flows and systems to manage the data input, user training, report management, etc. The biggest challenge is carving out the time for data input and cleanup, not to mention bringing new modules (surveys, marketing, etc.) on line without having a full time data base manager.

Pros

I like that Cosential has implemented upgrades in speed and search functions. It is tailored to the A/E/C industry, and we have the ability to customize fields. We use Adobe InDesign for proposals, so the ability to generate resumes and project profiles directly into InDesign templates is a big plus (it can also be done in MS Word). The dashboard widgets are really helpful for our business development team. There is a phone app available. I am getting good service regarding support for re-implementation.

Cons

The report module is always a challenge, the interface is cumbersome and it usually takes multiple attempts to generate the data I am looking for. It is not forgiving for variances in naming conventions. Customer support relies on just pointing you to a video. I have put in tickets for fixing issues and never hear back.

Cosential makes us better marketing team

KCI has been with Cosential since 2007 and have watched the system expand to meet the needs of industry. While we do not use every function the system offers, we rely heavily on it for proposal tracking, proposal generation, customer information (hit rates, history, contacts) and firm qualifications (projects and personnel). The Cosential team has never lost sight of what it is that makes them successful which is involving industry in their roadmap for enhancements and functionality. These folks listen to what we need and respond.

Pros

Cosential gives us quick access to all our past proposal information. Our marketing team is quickly and easily able to access past proposals for guidance, develop intel about our history with clients and understand our experience in a region or with a certain service. As a firm with over 25 offices across the country, this information is vital to our team.

Cons

While Publisher has come leaps and bounds from where it was originally, we would like the ability to create several resumes at the same time. For example, I'd like to select several employees, choose a template and have the system walk me through each employee to choose his or her projects.

Makes my 1-man marketing department feel like 3

Pros

1 year after purchase: This has easily been one of the wisest investments our firm has made. The ability to track customer information (CRM), their experience, past performance data, and leads/opportunities all from one simple application and dashboard makes my 1-man marketing team feel like 3. The capability to routinely pull data from our accounting software reduces duplication in both content and time. I no longer spend hours "looking for *stuff*" (put politely) during proposal preparation due to the full featured project and ‘knowledge’ database paired up with the advanced reporting functionality. I still have only scrapped the tip of the metaphorical iceberg of features that are included with the package including the ability to automatically survey clients, a built in email marketing tool, card scanner, countless plug-ins, a customizable RESTful API, Outlook and Exchange server plugins, and soon a full blown Zapier integration. Additionally, the support both during install and throughout my journey have been absolutely wonderful. They have made the ins and outs of using the software a simple, and surprisingly enjoyable, experience!

Cons

There are some issues with the knowledge base section that I would improve on. I have a lot of issues it the mobile application on my Android device.

Cosential keeps company wide proposal pieces accessible and up-to-date with minimal fuss/effort.

Labor hours saved is huge. Access to information from one portal extremely helpful.

Pros

My favorite feature is the resume generation tool. The ability to produce multiple resumes tailored for specific pursuit types automatically updated each time they are created is beyond wonderful. Coupled with their availability to all team members 24/7 at the push of a button from any internet enabled device makes the resume generation tool peerless. Another great feature is the opportunity tracking, once again keeping all the pieces of a pursuit in one handy place and available 24/7 is brilliant!!!!

Cons

Although a minor issue I do wish that users other than administrators could upload templates for use in the publisher module as administrators may be busy/unavailable for periods of time making updating the templates a longer process then it should be.

One stop shop for all of our project and pursuit data.

I love how easy it is to access and analyze our information. Cosential has a home for every data point you can imagine -- and the flexibility add new ones as needed -- so you can store and recall information about all of your pursuits and projects. Our biggest problem prior to using Cosential was that knowledge about our projects, clients, past pursuits, etc. lived primarily in the heads of our people. That's fine as long as no one leaves and no one forgets...but that clearly isn't reality. Cosential is a robust, interconnected database that allows us to have literally everything in one place, and we can view that information from multiple perspectives.

Pros

A place for everything.

Cons

Load time has been a factor, but it has improved significantly over the past 6 months and I know their developers are actively pursuing even greater speed.

Use this every day. several times a days.

This software provides a snapshot of our company, our projects, our employees past and present and of course our work, and teams we have worked with.

Pros

easy access. online. quick. It is a thirll when i am looking for information about a project, or a person's title and the info is there. Linkedin is good, as a back-up, but my database is better for me.

Cons

the reports creation can be tricky. sometimes i pull in inactive or unknown and sometimes people seem to disappear and need to be pput back. sometime hard to find where to add a company.

Marketing Coordinator

I use Cosential literally every single day...and that's not just because I'm the OFA but because it's so easy to upload information and documents. I use the personnel, projects and opportunities modules almost daily. Being able to reference so much information for a project we may be mentioning in a proposal is very helpful and makes my job a lot easier.

Pros

It's incredibly user friendly and is getting more and more user friendly with each and every update

Cons

It has a tendency to run really slow at times

The support from Cosential cannot be beat.

Pros

Completely transparency of our customer opportunities and interactions between all our divisions for all customers. We have robust reporting where we can understand our pipeline, hit rate, and more data than we ever had in the past. The process is simple and we have the power as the admins to make changes/updates without having to wait for the resources at Cosential. We feel very empowered!

Cons

The time between request (issue or bug with system/enhancement suggestion) to the sprint where the improvement may occur. At times you are waiting for the developers or the request sits in the queue between submitting the suggestion and update for quite some time. We have learned the process of a bug or enhancement but at times we wish we could influence more of the speed to updates.

The best CRM for the A/E/C Industry

Pros

The fact that Cosential is specifically designed for the A/E/C industry is vital. Cosential is a rare find because it was built by A/E/C marketing professionals with a profound understanding of the industry, its pain points, and its business processes. That knowledge is reflected in key features, implementation, and support, as it is a system tailored to industry best practices. Users of Cosential view the system as very customizable and are able to adapt it to fit their specific needs.

Cons

Cosential has come a long way in the eight years that I have been using the system. They have grown quickly and have rolled out great new features. With that said, sometimes I think the new features are focused on a little too much, and the current bugs or enhancement requests are left behind. Dan, the CEO, listened to his users, took this to heart, and announced at the last conference that he has brought on developers to clean house and improve what is there already. I feel that is happening, especially as I read the monthly updates.

Great for a construction company

Pros

After researching many CRM platforms, and test-driving three, we decided on Cosential. First, it is developed by someone in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC), so we would not have to tweak anything to jump in and use it every day. It is our new repository for all kinds of data on projects, and employees (their projects, sortable in many ways), which will help so much with not having to look through old records of all types in various places in our network and on paper. We do a lot of public works projects, and in responding to RFQ's/RFP's, the information asked for increases all the time. We run lean and mean here, so any way we can save time is invaluable. Cosential is very intuitive and easy to use, which was the second reason for our purchasing decision. The training and tech support is user-friendly for busy people. Thanks Cosential. I would rate everything a "10" but I'm still pretty new at it, so I'm giving mostly "9". I can quickly schedule my training online by looking at my trainer's calendar, so if I have an hour free I can make good use of my time, and with one click it's in my outlook. If, due to deadlines, I need to cancel and reschedule, I can do that too.

Cons

The only thing I don't like is nothing to do with Cosential, we are learning how to input data and put all our records into the system.

Cosential review

A good system for integration- user interface/user experience could be more solid. A more intuitive interface can help users navigate, update, and understand the CRM with ease!

Pros

A strong CRM with lots of capability

Cons

Not intuitive - improved UX/UI could improve this; The help section is not very detailed.

Great web-based software for AEC industry. Very good for firms with multiple locations.

Pros

Web-based, seamless integration from legacy system. We spent about three months transitioning from ACT! to Cosential. The customer support was fantastic and after the on-boarding, I was given another excellent customer service rep (a real live person!) who returns my calls! The dashboards give me immediate data to share with CEO and CFO. I can also get custom reports written for my data.

Cons

Mobile App and e-mail marketing could be better. The e-mail blast program is a little clunky. The mobile app has limitations and this is going to need to be addressed. But overall the program is fantastic.

Construction data entry simplified.

I had a great experience working with the Cosential program, customer service, and my professional services consultant. Everyone was always willing to help with any questions or issues. Any issues that arose were resolved. Timeframe on getting them fixed was dependent upon the complexity of the issue. Cosential is always expanding and improving their software, building it towards their client's specific needs.

Pros

The data entry was simple and having the ability to interlink and add information to a project makes access easy. The capabilities and possibilities with Cosential are almost endless.

Cons

The wording of the criteria in creating a report does not always match what is in the data that has been entered. Also, the choice of further filtering can be a little confusing to figure out, but once you do it is not too hard.

Cosential has helped standardize our information across the company.

Pros

Cosential helps us standardize the information we track, being able to output reports in a consistent format.

Cons

We use InDesign for our publications. The Publisher module currently forces us to export resumes and projects one by one, vs. being able to select projects we want to use and exporting all into a single file.

Cosential Implementation and Use

Cosential is a great CRM solution. Their implementation team made data import from multiple different sources an easy to understand and execute process. Any questions I have had along the way we're responded to very quickly.

Pros

Data organization is great. Unlike other CRM solutions you do not need an outside programmer to customize. In fact the software is so robust in pre-loaded features implementation is more of subtraction process to hide modules your firm may not need or use. Field customization to match our firms processes and terminology was pretty straight forward.

Cons

Some newer modules (marketing e-blasts) are in their infancy, and work like their in their infancy. Generating reports and automatically generated reports (workflow) are not as intuitive to create as I would have liked and can be difficult at first. Mind you my implementation specialist Amy was always there to help me get the reports to do what I needed. It just takes some time to learn Cosential' s interface for this.

Good System for Marketers and Business Development

Pros

Very customizable system for verbiage to adapt to your company's terminology. Extensive reporting capabilities allow you to refine what data results are returned with full control.

Cons

The system can be intimidating to new users, specifically those with minimal computer experience, but is fairly intuitive once you are familiar with the program.

Decent CRM, responsive Customer Support but Email Marketing module needs a lot of work

While Cosential is helping us get a better handle on our proposals and sales pipeline via its CRM functionality, it falls short on the Marketing Automation side at this time (early Jan. 19) especially relating to email capabilities. Their Support team is very good and has done an admirable job of addressing our frustrations in a positive, transparent and pro-active manner. We are cautiously optimistic that these issues will be resolved by the end of 1Q19.

Pros

The CRM portion of the product runs fairly well for the Construction market although record retrieval can be slow and there are a few procedures that cannot be performed using Chrome on a Mac. Overall we are pleased with the CRM functionality of the product.

Cons

The email functionality is not good. The Test Email command for email blasts doesn't work and is a known bug yet the command still appears in the screen. Email templates literally take minutes to open. You can't add internal personnel to a test email list. CC'd emails don't actually get sent. Variable tags don't work. Yikes! The good news, according to our Customer Success advocate, is that the company is aware of these issues and is aggressively working to address them in early 2019 so you may want to check the latest product features when considering the software.