Aplikasi CRM, apa gunanya?

Customer relationship management (CRM) applications

Contrary to popular belief, customer relationship management (CRM) is not just another type of business management software; it is a business strategy to acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships. This distinction is important. CRM can only succeed if the CRM technology supports a truly customer-focused strategy and fits your unique requirements.

How does CRM help?

CRM brings together information about customers, sales and marketing from across your organization. As a result, CRM can help you:

• retain existing customers by improving customer service
• sell more to existing customers by uncovering opportunities
• automate marketing and sales processes
• better track and manage business performance
• close deals faster by centrally tracking key information
• streamline account management by tracking all interactions with each customer
• enhance pipeline management by tracking performance against sales quotas
• save time by improving team communication and
• empower your field sales force with information on their mobile devices.

What does CRM software do?

CRM software captures and organizes information from current and prospective customers in an integrated system. All employees gain a single view of prospects and customers, allowing them to better cooperate and coordinate activities.

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Free and low-cost CRM tools

CRM solutions fall into different categories, from online solutions to complex multi-site implementations. If you are looking for a low-cost or free solution, you may want to consider the following. (SaaS refers to "software as a service.")

Revised August 2013

	Free	Low cost	English	French	English support	French support	Data stored in Canada	Cloud or SaaS	Social Integration
Batchbook
Free CRM
Highrise
Insightly
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Nimble
Prophet
Sage CRM
Salesboom.com
Salesforce.com
SugarCRM
Vtiger CRM On Demand
Zoho CRM

	Batchbook is a cloud-based social CRM solution that integrates with LinkedIn, Facebook, HootSuite and Twitter to help business teams stay socially connected with their contacts and build more meaningful relationships. All paid subscription plans include a 30-day free trial.
	Free CRM offers an impressive breadth of functionality for free, for up to three users, as well as two geographically diverse data centres that are compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley. The paid version does not run banner ads, and comes with enhanced security and encryption features, as well as unlimited data and record storage. And if you prefer to house your CRM on your in-house servers, the licensed software edition is priced per server, not per seat or per user.
	Highrise does not provide all of the features you may expect from CRM software. In particular, it does not offer reporting capabilities. However, if you only need to keep track of accounts, deals, and contacts and their LinkedIn profiles, it is user friendly. It is also very affordable for small teams, whereas most other CRM solutions on the market are based on  a per-user subscription model.
	Insightly is an online CRM and project management solution that offers tight integration with Gmail and Google apps, as well as mobile access on iOS and Android devices. Available in free and premium versions, it also has built-in integration with Twitter and can easily import your LinkedIn connections.
	Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a hosted CRM solution for sales, marketing and customer service. It integrates smoothly with other Microsoft Office applications, and the version released in fall 2013 allows users to access their information on iPad and Windows 8 tablets. It also offers enhanced social collaboration capabilities and connects seamlessly with Skype.
	Nimble is an online CRM solution that instantly finds social profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to help you build better relationships by integrating and unifying all the points of contact and social communication in one easy-to-use interface. Free accounts and free trials are available under certain conditions.
	Prophet is a CRM system built directly into Microsoft Outlook. It is available in both on-premise and cloud-based versions. The Ultimate OnDemand edition offers cross-organizational usage on the cloud, making it easy to meet the needs of many departments, not only the sales team. Prophet supports virtually all smartphone and tablet environments, and integrates with SharePoint contact lists and dashboards.
	Sage CRM is also available in both on-demand and on-premise versions. Certain back-office data-sharing functions—such as handling orders, invoices and receivables—are only available in the on-premise version. It is offered with Twitter and LinkedIn integration. It also offers cross-browser capability and is available on iPhone, iPad, and Android smartphones and tablets.
	Salesboom.com is one of Canada’s first pure-play enterprise cloud CRM vendors, and it hosts its customers’ data on Canadian servers. Out-of-the-box integrations include QuickBooks, Microsoft Outlook, Skype, Facebook and Twitter. Professional and enterprise editions also come with project management, time-sheet and inventory management features.
	Salesforce.com, a web-based CRM service, is currently the CRM leader. It is one of the first CRM vendors to integrate social collaboration with the Chatter function, which allows you to see new contacts, or status updates from those with whom you are connected. It runs on all major Web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome.
	SugarCRM is the market leader in open-source CRM systems. The community edition is free, but it focuses more on developers and really tech-savvy people. Small business owners may find that a paid subscription to Sugar Professional better suits their needs, but it does require an annual prepaid subscription and a minimum of five users.
	Vtiger CRM On Demand offers both a free open-source CRM system and an affordable cloud-based solution (CRM On Demand) accessible from smart-phones. Although there is no free version of CRM On Demand, the company offers a 30-day free trial, and the paid subscription comes with no user limits or contract lock-ins. It does, however, lack social media integration.
	Zoho CRM is part of the much larger Zoho suite of online applications, including Zoho Campaigns, an online email marketing application that also shares campaigns on social media sites. Now integrated with Google Apps and Google Docs, Zoho’s professional edition is one of the cheapest on the market. It also offers a limited free edition for up to three users..

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This table lists applications alphabetically and isn’t exhaustive. Hyperlinks to external sites do not constitute endorsement by BDC of those websites or any information, opinions, products or services expressed or described on them.

Furthermore, the list is only a starting point and excludes applications that are neither low cost nor free. When assessing CRM solutions for your organization, you will probably consider many other factors.

BDC will review and edit this list regularly. If you are a CRM vendor and would like us to consider adding your solution, please contact us.