Subscriber Discussion

What CRM Are You Using?

TM
Ty Mullen
Jan 23, 2019
COR Security, Inc.

What CRM are you using? Need something for both front office, sales personnel and service techs. Easily accessible from all of the platforms. 

#1 use - Categorize all of the different contacts for a specific customer(s) while allowing the information to be centralize and easily accessible.

Don't need it to be a funnel for the sales team. 

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Ron Pullen
Jan 23, 2019

We are looking for a CRM as well.  So far the one that looks the best is Sales Force.  Look forward to seeing other comments on this.  Thanks for asking this question. It would be great to have a CRM and electronic contracts that all work together. 

Ron Pullen

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jan 23, 2019
IPVMU Certified

For CRM only I think Insightly would work great. You can add contacts, link them to any company, project, opportunity etc. You can also set up organizations as vendor/client, parent/child, etc. 

 

Basically you can link just about anything to anything.

 

Have an opportunity and want to see everyone related to it? No problem.

 

It also does sales opportunities and some project/task management.

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MM
Michael Miller
Jan 23, 2019

We use Connectwise and will be adding on HubSpot CRM.  HubSpot CRM is free BTW.

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TM
Ty Mullen
Jan 23, 2019
COR Security, Inc.

What is HubSpot going to provide that Connectwise currently is not?

MM
Michael Miller
Jan 23, 2019

On the CRM side of things ALOT.  CW is great for ticketing, asset management, invoicing, time tracking, procurement and more but the CRM side is lacking.  An example we can't have an email covert directly to an Opportunity.  The email would come in as a sales ticket then someone has to manually convert it to an Opportunity.  There is no way to automatically associated emails to projects and customers when it comes to Opportunities.  You have to communicate to your customer then manually copy the notes to CW.  You also have manually enter in all your customer's company and contact details in CW.  It's a big time suck.

 

We have been looking at several CRM solution and we are going with Hubspot. 

Here is a great video showing how it will help our workflow

 

Here are some other options for you to look at: https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/crm

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JH
Jay Hobdy
Jan 23, 2019
IPVMU Certified

I assume zero integration with CW?

 

One of the reasons I got CW was to eliminate the fragmented software applications... 

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jan 23, 2019
IPVMU Certified

Thanks Michael I stand corrected! They do integrate and better yet, Insightly (my CRM for the last 2 years) and CW integrate.

 

Woo Hoo. Now to see how well the integration works...

MM
Michael Miller
Jan 23, 2019

Yes, there is free basic integration and paid full two-way integration. We are going full two-way integration.

TM
Ty Mullen
Jan 23, 2019
COR Security, Inc.

I don't know if this is a standard feature or an impossible one but...it would be nice to have an app on your cell phone to not only access the information but for it to also display the name of the person that is calling based on the information in the app. 

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jan 23, 2019
IPVMU Certified

We just started using Connectwise and quite honestly very disappointed in its CRM functions. Maybe its not really designed for CRM.

 

For starters you can not have a single contact for multiple locations. If I have a management company with a regional manager I can not assign them to multiple sites. I would have to create them for each site, and update their contact info for each site.

 

You can have multiple people for a site though.

 

I also have very limited options for attaching incoming email to items in CW. We just learned the other day of an Outlook plug in that I need to explore. But I prefer my G Mail interface...

MM
Michael Miller
Jan 23, 2019

Jay, I may be able to help you with the contacts per site.  

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Sean Patton
Jan 24, 2019

We have 2 Integrator surveys related to Help Desk/Ticketing Software and Technician Field Software, in which a few CRMs were noted in the responses, and both of which are related to your #1 use case.

Connectwise was the most frequently mentioned CRM system in both surveys, while over a dozen platforms received multiple mentions:

KB
Krista Bruton
Jan 23, 2020

Thanks

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Feb 12, 2019

insightly

TM
Ty Mullen
Feb 12, 2019
COR Security, Inc.

What are the main task that you use it for? 

Do you have it integrated with accounting or any other software?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Feb 12, 2019

I've had a lot of success with the Zoho One platform. Building it out was time consuming, but it cleanly integrated all of our systems together and increased productivity. Love how it ties into our Ring Central VoIP service! 

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Anthony Jones
Jan 23, 2020

Salesforce is expensive. I had a bad experience with them. My credit card was hacked so payment didn't go through. They actually held my database hostage and threatened to sue me. I always back-up regularly so it was no big deal. Situations like this aren't uncommon with them it seems. They are high pressure. I paid them and left to Insightly but switched last year to Hubspot. It was a close call between Zoho and Hubspot but the customer service at Hubspot won me over. Salesforce really wasn't easy for mobile reps like me but I got accustomed to it. I probably would still be with Salesforce if they hadn't been so unprofessional though.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #3
Jan 23, 2020

HubSpot is top tier, one of the best and easiest to use CRM's I have used. The ease of setup and help on hand is unbelievable!

We were using all free features for 6 months and paying something small per month for sending marketing emails and during this 6 months it was the best value service I have ever experienced!

We are now a paid HubSpot user on the professional growth suite package so we have access to nearly everything and it is still the best value purchase we make monthly!

It's weakness is the ticketing system IMO as it was only released over 12+ months ago, it does the basics but it isn't Zendesk for example!

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Jan 23, 2020

RMRCloud.com is a newer one on the market. They do have a 30-day free trial.

www.RMRCloud.com

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Jan 24, 2020

We did demos on a dozen platforms and have been on Simpro for about 3-4 months running more than 1 business on it at the same time. Customers can pay invoices online, it integrates with Square for all payments in the field or online, has mobile apps for field techs, GPS integrations, inventory, etc.. There isn't much it doesn't do but like any of them you have to put in the time to put in all the data.

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TM
Ty Mullen
Jan 24, 2020
COR Security, Inc.

What is the approx cost of Simpro. I didn't see anything online.

SD
Shannon Davis
Jan 24, 2020
IPVMU Certified

It's always encouraging when you are looking for some type of business software for you integration/security company and the first splash screen shows a security technician. Ahhh they probably get what we do! Looks like good software.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Jan 24, 2020

They have a lot of different modules you piece together and depending on how many office users, mobile users, etc. it will vary so they don't have pricing online.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #6
Jan 24, 2020

Alarm Biller and Sedona are good options.

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Sean Nelson
Jan 24, 2020
Nelly's Security

Salesforce is a convoluted nasty ass mess. Expect to pay a specialist nearly as much as you would to develop your website to get Salesforce up an running how you like. We used it for a couple of years and thank God I have an onsight web dev, otherwise it would have been useless for me.

We've since cancelled Salesforce and exclusively use Zendesk/Quickbooks/and backend of our website for a nicely interwoven CRM. This still took quite a bit of dev work to make happen though.

Basically, I was just warning you againsnt salesforce. If you are looking for a nice turnkey solution, SF is not it.

Zendesk is a very powerful customer communication tool though. If you have ever had issues where you get so busy in which you forget to call clients back, then zendesk will take care of this. You can intertwine it with your phone system as well and never miss a call back.

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Ryan Anderson
Jan 27, 2020

Bummer, I completely disagree with you Sean. Sounds like you need a new developer. Salesforce has been so instrumental in our operations.

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Kevin Babin
Jan 27, 2020
Firequest Fire Alarm Service Associates

I respect this question. To comment on your question, in the past 10 years I have worked for only one company (1 out of 5 employers) who actually use a CRM software.

I have had positive experience with Insightly in the past. It was easy to set up, add information into, available on multiple devices and kept good track of customer information.

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Ryan Anderson
Jan 27, 2020

Salesforce and I can't believe more integrators aren't using it. Its a very basic CRM out of the box and does require development, but its probably one of the most customizable platforms available. We can do virtually anything we want or need and the programming is moving to all GUI based programming. Truly incredible.

Salesforce does the work of nearly 3 full time staff for us and brings us incredible ROI. We are on a huge push to reduce swivel chair and live entirely in Salesforce ecosystem.

The only negative I have on Salesforce is that there is talks about Google acquiring them, and those transactions are often a little bumpy.

Oh, and Salesforce puts on a Dreamforce conference every year which is not only a blast, but incredibly powerful to understand whats new and how to further create automation, efficiency and magic :)

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MM
Michael Miller
Jan 27, 2020

How much time have you put into building Salesforce? Just so I can compare to how much we put into Connectwise.

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Ryan Anderson
Jan 27, 2020

Tough questions because we are always going further it seems :) We are considering marketing a product for the industry.

but, my guess would be a 100-200 hours depending on skill and experience.

MM
Michael Miller
Jan 27, 2020

We are in the same boat with Connectwise and we are thinking about offering consulting services for security dealers using CW. It is a continuous process in which you are always improving and tweaking. All the systems this size are the same as they need to be customized for your business processes. The secret sauce is having your processes defined BEFORE you start implementing and having someone with the experience and vision to implement it.

If we were using Salesforce I would definitely be contacting you.

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jan 27, 2020
IPVMU Certified

Glad I got my help before you started charging for it! :)

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