Goldmine, Evolving or Escaping

Goldmine have for quite a while had a stranglehold on CRM for the desktop. Their product is feature rich and amazingly customisable to your needs. Moving away from Firebird to SQL did bring some problems in the early version but now they seem to have a handle on it. Unfortunately, they still have not improved their customer facing services very well. Very slow to respond to requests, or better still sell you a product without support from the developers. I first went to Goldmine because it was recommended as the perfect fit for a small family business and I only needed to buy one licence. Then they lost their way and decided only big business was in their best interest. No more single licences and having to buy a minimum 5 licences when I was only ever going to use 1, and then having subscription on those five licences simply became uneconomic for us. The product is great the back up, from my third party support people is great, the attitude and concern of Heat is not. I will keep using the software because there is literally nothing else on the market that comes close to the capabilities of the product. And Goldmine DOES NOT have to have an internet connection to work in it. A very big bonus for remote parts of Australia where internet is still a pipe dream. The installation MUST be undertaken by a professional though as it is difficult, must be done this way and look out if you have problems. I will still recommend this program for the company looking for a great, all in one, CRM system that can be a standalone or work with everyone in the company. Just look at your costs though, you can't support the product yourself.

Pros

All in one place CRM,
Very versatile and customisable.
Does not require Internet access.
Very stable and mature product with Sales automation.

Cons

Expensive to purchase.
Expensive to install
Expensive to maintain, must be a Goldmine Guru or Technician.

Goldmine Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking

Pros

Goldmine keeps our lead and customer database organized and accessible, almost 24/7/365 for close to 15 years. We're still running on Standard 6.7 server/client and cannot find a decent alternative to match it's capabilities. I like their licensing model, as there are no recurring monthlies, like SalesForce, and other cloud based CRM's. We have few issues with the email client. The WebImport is almost rock solid, once set up. Our initial database customization still models our business perfectly, with relatively few field additions. Understand that in 2001, there was nothing close in function or price. It is robust, and we have used around 25% of it's capabilities. It is wonderful software.

Cons

As others have said, their licensing, upgrading, and company support leave much to be desired. We run a 5 license office, that current only has two active seats. Any upgrades require purchasing a 5 seater, plus 5-seat annual maintenance plan. There are issues with synch, and with more modern web access, that are solvable at a relatively high add-on price. There is a significant learning curve (though once learned, it's a breeze) especially for administrators. Setting up user-defined fields and custom user screens is tedious, and takes much more than basic understanding of systems and data. Maintenance fees are excessive. Read the other comments.

more than 10 year user. Good program but new users take time to get in

we are using it in many marketing process

Pros

It's 10 years that i'm using it so i know how it works and it's fine
It has some good features
We still use it because it has great external utilities ( GoldBox, DBX Data Management) that allow us a full integration with our ERP without them Goldmine would it be useless
Affordable cost

Cons

Data structure: very very old (it suffer from long heritage from dbase era)
Interface: very old it needs a big review and redisign
Lack of deep information about the software: you need to build a monument to DJHunt and other people like him that let all of us to know Goldmine
WEB interface; still too limited and very bad compared to other products web-based, Maybe a Goldmine APP can be another good option
Frontrange is too distant from their customers : we are payng every year a fee only to receive a very light update and only few bugs corrected, please be more present in the new forum.,SA user and company we need to know clearly where Frontrange want to go with Goldmine.
We invested years on it but it seems we are abandoned and alone

Fast and efficient CRM

It allows me to control my contacts and engagements efficiently. The reports that I've customized are invaluable to my business.

Pros

A single window pane look at my day. Contact search center gives me a flexible way to find contacts. The knowledge base feature lets me build my own KB on any subject. Customized SQL queries and reports help me make sure my work gets billed. The value of the software greatly exceeds the cost. This is the third CRM I've used over the decades, and the best by several magnitudes. There is an active Forum membership populated with some very knowledgeable people.

Cons

So many features that it's hard to locate a solution in the docs, which are in at least two manuals that are very long. Some features are documented in subsidiary manuals, which is good, but still takes time to find answers. You need to have a good relationship with your reseller to answer questions, no matter how experienced you are with software.

I like that it is an all in one CRM tool for contacts, marking and sales, and customer service

Pros

I became familiar with this product over ten years ago and was impressed with its functionality. I have found that quite a few CRM tool have modelled their solution off this product. I use the Email, note, and customer interaction tracker for each of the customers and also suppliers. GM makes it easy to quickly find out what your last communication with that customer was, and also where to go from that point. All users can use this system at the same time and make updates and I like that it shows who made what change.

Cons

If a contact is duplicated it does not tell you instantly. It would be helpful if there are a popup to tell you if this contact you are creating exists. Reallying on sql can be a bit tardy and tricky. You can download the trial to see if you like the product which I found to be very helpful for some users.

Ehh... There are better softwares out there

While Goldmine did get the job done for the most part, my university's admissions department eventually upgraded to another software due to Goldmine's limited integration capabilities. Since we were using the program to manage our prospective students, we really needed a software that could not only store information about those students, but also enable us to communicate with them through the software and schedule their visits to the university through it.

Pros

For the most part, Goldmine did what it needed us to do. In my university's admissions department, we were able to keep adequate profiles on all of our prospective students, including our history of communication with them. I also liked that on the left hand side of the program, you could see a running list of the student profiles you were previously viewing, so it was easy to jump back to their page if need be.

Cons

Goldmine is not the most intuitive program, nor does it have a very modern interface. It's also significantly limited in its integration capabilities, as it would not let us communicate with prospective students directly from the program, and it would not let us schedule their visits to campus. This meant that cut down on the efficiency of our office's work.

It's 2017 and Goldmine still doesn't allow usernames greater than 8 chars. Very outdated software.

Pros

The ability to customize the front end and open-ended nature (e.g. no wrong way) of using Goldmine.

Cons

- Database and table structure is completely outdated, inherited from the 1990s
- Constantly run into issues with GMBase and Contact Set database issues, since that is shared and we run into problems when trying to restore a Contact Set database onto a new server on its own
- Can't create usernames over 8 chars (c'mon, really? That was a problem back in 1998)
- Poor use of tables like CONTSUPP where it's stuffed with all manners of mixed data. CONTSUPP stores additional contacts, website addresses, linked documents, etc. The database tables needs a complete overhaul to have fields and data put into their right places and respective tables
- Having dashboards is nice, but it has no ability to use proper SQL stored procedures that utilize temp tables and table variables. Thus limiting it's ability immensely
- Goldmine Web is a nice direction but still very buggy, lacks many basic features, and has no ability for technical admins to customize on the user end
- Goldmine support is not terribly helpful most of the time, and don't seem very technical. The ones who are technical are condescending

Using GoldMine since 1999 (LAN-Version!) still very helpfull in daily business

Quick workflow, very good overview about my work and team actions

Pros

1. Internal Email client is very helpful (even if it has some bugs).
2. Outlook-Integration is the best I know.
3. Ticket-System is very helpful (even you cannot link an activity to Ticket+Opportunity/Project)
4. Knowledge Base is very helpful
5. Undocked GoldMine is great on Laptop and on separated sites.
5. QuoteWerks-Integration is great!

Cons

1. Datamodel Account/Contact: their should be a separated Account-Database-Table
2. Activities should be linked to Ticket AND Opportunity/Project parallel (you have a project-Issue and want to link activities to the Project as well as to a Support-Case).
3. WebClient: not enough information on the screen, layout not really configurable (place Fields / Details where you need them)

Powerful CRM at a great price.

Increased Sales.

Pros

Easy to administrate and I have control of my data on my server. Great query tools using GM+View to connect other databases that we have. The price is the key for us. I have looked at more expensive hosted applications. You can spend a lot of money on the next best thing, but in the end you need a tool that sales reps will use and close deals. We need a tool that tells us when a prospect or client is ready to upgrade and Goldmine does it perfectly. The web interface with W-Mobile gets information to sales reps when they are in the field. We have used Goldmine for 21 years.

Cons

The integration into Outlook is still kind of sketchy to me. The built-in e-mail module in Goldmine is dated and clunky.

GoldMine is a solid CRM and in my opinion it is the best value for the money.

This is my bos (Business Operating System). I use it to track everything. Sales Forecasts, eMarketing (along with Intelliclick), creating a corporate memory by tracking all contact interactions. This software keeps me organized and sane!!!

Pros

GoldMine provides all the basic CRM functions and goes way beyond that with excellent integration with Outlook , Excel, and Word along with many other third party software to give it power that will help any company grow their business.

Cons

Installation can be a little difficult because you must install SQL and you have to make sure you get all the correct configurations to that or there will be missing functionality in GoldMine. But that can be corrected after the fact. So, no real big deal.

We couldn't live without Goldmine! It is key to our internal communication.

Pros

Great record keeping! Emails, documents, etc. all saved and easy to find. Love the Universal search feature in addition to the ability to search by individual fields. Love the ability to link records together via referral (we use these to link a project with the associated subcontractors, reps and a manufacturers) and/or relationship tree (we use these for school districts with multiple schools).

Cons

It's certainly not hard to use, but not completely intuitive. Don't like that "additional contact" emails are not able to be alphabetized. There are many features we do not use. Could be "prettier," but obviously, that's a very low priority!

I love Goldmine but unfortunately there is no good "real" cloud version available!

I am unlikely to recommend to someone looking for a cloud solution and very likely to anyone looking for a desktop or someone who has an in-house server/vpn solution available.

Pros

I used Goldmine since its early days and always found little annoying things that developers refused to address but overall, I loved the interface and ease of use...

Cons

No Cloud version... their "cloud" version is a third party hosted platform site and it was awful!... sluggish...unresponsive... just terrible. I loved my desktop version but needed something for the company and was not yet ready to install a server... I switched to BPM which is very powerful but the interface and ease of use doesn't match Goldmine!

Used continuously, all day every day, on 2 computers; has become vital to efficiency of our business

Comprehensive storage of historical data - our customers can rely on our records for repeat orders after one or two (or more) years; we can keep track of new (mining) sites and customers' staff.

Pros

Robust and reliable; comprehensive and efficient storage of large amounts of data; easy data entry and editing; clear on-screen displays of data; ready access by several staff in the office.

Cons

no (simple backup and rebuild routines; Google Earth anf Google maps functions have to be re-written with installation; method of selecting field and sequence for Additional contacts window; method of using Aussie phone number format (NOT US format) as default; default to Company on opening (not contact); additional address fields -for HO, site (Google Earth map references, and postal ; field for skype facebook etc for contacts, ASX ticker code etc for company; multiple entries of email address for Purchasing Office for several sites; spamming facility is DANGEROUS - totally inappropriate for my business; GM view to Google earth not fully functional and not on a separate screen ...
LISTEN to users!!!!!!

I've got a customized version of Goldmine. Ticomix has done a great job working to make it my own.

We had a huge problem years ago when we upgraded from Corporate to Premium. It was a huge headache and put a big bind in our business. But working with Ticomix and Goldmine to figure the issues out helped, and we finally got things back on track to resolve the issues at hand.

Pros

that it is customized to fit my needs and the automated process helps to take less tracking out of it as the system tracks it and prints it when needed. Being able to code tracks to work with a specific date in a field has been a game changer for us. Some programs won't let you customize their software to work, but using Goldmine this way has really helped us to develop our business over time.

Old School Tried and True

Goldmine helps us maintain a detailed accounting of our history of customer exchanges and special pricing and relationship-based information. It helps us to remember the important details for personalized service.

Pros

While the question is “did”, I still “do” use Goldmine on a daily basis. Although it is not at the cutting edge of integrative technology, it is a faithful program for recording important customer data and history. It is essentially a diary of our customer relationships.

Cons

The version we use is lacking in integrative features, so it doesn’t “share” information with our accounting program (also older tech) causing the need for redundancies.

No real progress of the software since version 8.

Pros

Easy to use and learn. Easy to upgrade and install. Organization tree has a good and easy to understand structure.

Cons

No real web-solution that is including API and email support. European requirements are consequently ignored (e.g. showing of calendar weeks). No connection inface for ECM. No mail archiving possible. Mail client has poor functionaly. No possibility for translate softwre. Interface looks from the 90ies. Performance could be better (a lot of ineffective queries are shown from SQL reports). Very poor performance of the Word and Excel Add-Ins. No real solution for mail encryption. No MSI-installer for deployment

GoldMine is an effective tool in managing email history for multiple users in our office.

Pros

1. Being able to see the complete email history attached to a contact record.
2. Being able to see email history from other users in the office.
3. Effective search function.

Cons

1. Unable to send emails with "high importance".
2. Linking of contact records to email addresses is not user friendly and can easily lead to incorrect linking of emails/email addresses.
3. When re-queuing emails sent by another user, and edited by the new user, the old subject line/old user appears in history. Only when the email is opened, is the edited subject line/user visible.
4. Unable to set an "out of office" auto-responder.

Cumbersome user interface/experience. Difficult to set up

Self Hosted CRM

Pros

Very well priced and we can have the installation on out own equipment. We like the features and overall capability.

Cons

First, the user documentation and help function details don't match the software. Menus are referenced that don't exist in our version of software and the documentation is, at best vague.

The user support seen geared more of a social media event than a tech support. I don't have time to go through miles of black black to find a solution to a problem.

It seems that lots of support and training and documentation resolutions are geared toward a "partner" or second tier type vendors. do we really need to go to a "partner" so that we can upgrade our system to a new version or back it up? why is this all so mystic? The HEAT site stinks

Used this product and its ancestors for many years. Mostly reliable and does most of what we need.

It has served us well for well over a decade, but as I have not looked for a replacement I feel it very likely there is something else out there that is more feature-rich.

Pros

Our users have generally found it easy to use and reliable. It helps us to be diligent in our contact follow-up, and almost nothing falls through the cracks.

Cons

E-mail merge is clunky and very slow. Needs a monitor to show total docs in the merge and # docs sent. Should automatically reset after a merge from "All contacts in the following filter/group" to "This contact" so I don't inadvertently start merging a letter to the entire database!

Long time user /since 2000. In general good but can be better Have used since 2000

Very good CRM repository

Pros

Everything is in one place. Easy access to our Contacts, Calendar, Email, History. We are able to look back to the year 2000 if needed. Our service agreement is with the Marks Group and they are very helpful.

Cons

1. Slow 2. When deleting emails and a message comes in it interrupts the deleting process and you must start again. 3. Should be an easier and faster way to archive emails 4. We have had issues requiring GM support that have taken way to long to resolve. 5. Would be nice to have a true GM in the cloud. We currently access through Log Me In.