CRM – more than just Coffee, Rum & Milk

There used to be a time when everybody on the golf course was talking about R/3 or Navision or other cool key words. CRM is not exactly a new key word on the golf arena or in the sailing club, but what has changed is that this is now a hot buzz factor for any small to medium sized company.

Anyone attending a sales training course will be told to get equipped with a CRM system. So should we fill up our bar with Coffee, Rum and Milk?
No, we are talking here about the system which should help you shift your leads and sales potentials away from thunderbird or Outlook. Even Excel or a simple paper sheet will not help increase revenue and profitability.

You need to know with whom you are dealing. For this you can use a CRM system and implement a workflow to help you speed up your work.  

There used to be a time when everybody on the golf course was talking about R/3 or Navision or other cool key words. CRM is not exactly a new key word on the golf arena or in the sailing club, but what has changed is that this is now a hot buzz factor for any small to medium sized company.

Anyone attending a sales training course will be told to get equipped with a CRM system. So should we fill up our bar with Coffee, Rum and Milk?
No, we are talking here about the system which should help you shift your leads and sales potentials away from thunderbird or Outlook. Even Excel or a simple paper sheet will not help increase revenue and profitability.

You need to know with whom you are dealing. For this you can use a CRM system and implement a workflow to help you speed up your work.  

There used to be a time when everybody on the golf course was talking about R/3 or Navision or other cool key words. CRM is not exactly a new key word on the golf arena or in the sailing club, but what has changed is that this is now a hot buzz factor for any small to medium sized company.

Anyone attending a sales training course will be told to get equipped with a CRM system. So should we fill up our bar with Coffee, Rum and Milk?
No, we are talking here about the system which should help you shift your leads and sales potentials away from thunderbird or Outlook. Even Excel or a simple paper sheet will not help increase revenue and profitability.

You need to know with whom you are dealing. For this you can use a CRM system and implement a workflow to help you speed up your work.  

There used to be a time when everybody on the golf course was talking about R/3 or Navision or other cool key words. CRM is not exactly a new key word on the golf arena or in the sailing club, but what has changed is that this is now a hot buzz factor for any small to medium sized company.

Anyone attending a sales training course will be told to get equipped with a CRM system. So should we fill up our bar with Coffee, Rum and Milk?
No, we are talking here about the system which should help you shift your leads and sales potentials away from thunderbird or Outlook. Even Excel or a simple paper sheet will not help increase revenue and profitability.

You need to know with whom you are dealing. For this you can use a CRM system and implement a workflow to help you speed up your work.  What if you are just a one or 5 person strong team? Hey, you do not need SAP CRM to be successful but you need some kind of software to keep things tidy.

So, there are many options. Open Source offers server based software which you can install on a web server or any small computer you are not using a lot in the office. “SugarCRM” and “vTiger” offer community based versions. Sugar even offers a professional version at a moderate license fee.

So what is the best?

This depends on your needs and your location. If you are based in Europe you will find vtiger quite interesting but you should not send out any invoice or quote before having the platform customized by a professional consultant. Otherwise your clients will get heart attacks when reading that your 12k offer is grown to 12.000.000.

So what about SugarCRM?

Sugar is available in 2 editions and can be customized to quite some extend. Customization costs often prove to be lower than with vtiger. So we can expect to see a lot of interesting opportunities in the field of outsourcing.

This is due to the fact that most companies using vtiger or sugarCRM in the Open Source Edition will be consisting of 1-10 employees. Are they going to be open minded to accept products other than Microsoft CRM 4.0? Well, this could be quite the truth, when you look at the workload for an IT Expert to operate and maintain such a CRM.

With open source, you will have installed and customized the system once, then added data and organizational structures before starting to work. Once you are running on full steam you only need to keep running backups for safety reasons.

So do you prefer rum or milk in your coffee?

Getting the necessary skills to operate your own CRM can be costly and time consuming, so IT Outsourcing can speed up things for you. Besides, when recording client data you need to keep in mind that European laws require you to protect data what is quite some complicated way if you are trying to save cost by outsourcing the running of the software, too.

Best option would be to outsource the system to a hosting provider in the Netherlands, Germany or the UK. This can keep you safe from overregulated issues which are beyond the grasp of human beings.

Hence, keep it fast, simple and profitable.

That’s what outsourcing is there for.

What if you are just a one or 5 person strong team? Hey, you do not need SAP CRM to be successful but you need some kind of software to keep things tidy.

So, there are many options. Open Source offers server based software which you can install on a web server or any small computer you are not using a lot in the office. “SugarCRM” and “vTiger” offer community based versions. Sugar even offers a professional version at a moderate license fee.

So what is the best?

This depends on your needs and your location. If you are based in Europe you will find vtiger quite interesting but you should not send out any invoice or quote before having the platform customized by a professional consultant. Otherwise your clients will get heart attacks when reading that your 12k offer is grown to 12.000.000.

So what about SugarCRM?

Sugar is available in 2 editions and can be customized to quite some extend. Customization costs often prove to be lower than with vtiger. So we can expect to see a lot of interesting opportunities in the field of outsourcing.

This is due to the fact that most companies using vtiger or sugarCRM in the Open Source Edition will be consisting of 1-10 employees. Are they going to be open minded to accept products other than Microsoft CRM 4.0? Well, this could be quite the truth, when you look at the workload for an IT Expert to operate and maintain such a CRM.

With open source, you will have installed and customized the system once, then added data and organizational structures before starting to work. Once you are running on full steam you only need to keep running backups for safety reasons.

So do you prefer rum or milk in your coffee?

Getting the necessary skills to operate your own CRM can be costly and time consuming, so IT Outsourcing can speed up things for you. Besides, when recording client data you need to keep in mind that European laws require you to protect data what is quite some complicated way if you are trying to save cost by outsourcing the running of the software, too.

Best option would be to outsource the system to a hosting provider in the Netherlands, Germany or the UK. This can keep you safe from overregulated issues which are beyond the grasp of human beings.

Hence, keep it fast, simple and profitable.

That’s what outsourcing is there for.

What if you are just a one or 5 person strong team? Hey, you do not need SAP CRM to be successful but you need some kind of software to keep things tidy.

So, there are many options. Open Source offers server based software which you can install on a web server or any small computer you are not using a lot in the office. “SugarCRM” and “vTiger” offer community based versions. Sugar even offers a professional version at a moderate license fee.

So what is the best?

This depends on your needs and your location. If you are based in Europe you will find vtiger quite interesting but you should not send out any invoice or quote before having the platform customized by a professional consultant. Otherwise your clients will get heart attacks when reading that your 12k offer is grown to 12.000.000.

So what about SugarCRM?

Sugar is available in 2 editions and can be customized to quite some extend. Customization costs often prove to be lower than with vtiger. So we can expect to see a lot of interesting opportunities in the field of outsourcing.

This is due to the fact that most companies using vtiger or sugarCRM in the Open Source Edition will be consisting of 1-10 employees. Are they going to be open minded to accept products other than Microsoft CRM 4.0? Well, this could be quite the truth, when you look at the workload for an IT Expert to operate and maintain such a CRM.

With open source, you will have installed and customized the system once, then added data and organizational structures before starting to work. Once you are running on full steam you only need to keep running backups for safety reasons.

So do you prefer rum or milk in your coffee?

Getting the necessary skills to operate your own CRM can be costly and time consuming, so IT Outsourcing can speed up things for you. Besides, when recording client data you need to keep in mind that European laws require you to protect data what is quite some complicated way if you are trying to save cost by outsourcing the running of the software, too.

Best option would be to outsource the system to a hosting provider in the Netherlands, Germany or the UK. This can keep you safe from overregulated issues which are beyond the grasp of human beings.

Hence, keep it fast, simple and profitable.

That’s what outsourcing is there for.

What if you are just a one or 5 person strong team? Hey, you do not need SAP CRM to be successful but you need some kind of software to keep things tidy.

So, there are many options. Open Source offers server based software which you can install on a web server or any small computer you are not using a lot in the office. “SugarCRM” and “vTiger” offer community based versions. Sugar even offers a professional version at a moderate license fee.

So what is the best?

This depends on your needs and your location. If you are based in Europe you will find vtiger quite interesting but you should not send out any invoice or quote before having the platform customized by a professional consultant. Otherwise your clients will get heart attacks when reading that your 12k offer is grown to 12.000.000.

So what about SugarCRM?

Sugar is available in 2 editions and can be customized to quite some extend. Customization costs often prove to be lower than with vtiger. So we can expect to see a lot of interesting opportunities in the field of outsourcing.

This is due to the fact that most companies using vtiger or sugarCRM in the Open Source Edition will be consisting of 1-10 employees. Are they going to be open minded to accept products other than Microsoft CRM 4.0? Well, this could be quite the truth, when you look at the workload for an IT Expert to operate and maintain such a CRM.

With open source, you will have installed and customized the system once, then added data and organizational structures before starting to work. Once you are running on full steam you only need to keep running backups for safety reasons.

So do you prefer rum or milk in your coffee?

Getting the necessary skills to operate your own CRM can be costly and time consuming, so IT Outsourcing can speed up things for you. Besides, when recording client data you need to keep in mind that European laws require you to protect data what is quite some complicated way if you are trying to save cost by outsourcing the running of the software, too.

Best option would be to outsource the system to a hosting provider in the Netherlands, Germany or the UK. This can keep you safe from overregulated issues which are beyond the grasp of human beings.

Hence, keep it fast, simple and profitable.

That’s what outsourcing is there for.