If you’re currently in the market for a new CRM platform for your organization, you’ve probably seen that there are numerous options in the CRM landscape. You also have likely noticed that Salesforce is the most well-known. You likely have a friend, colleague, or family member that uses or has used Salesforce in the past and is quite happy with their experience on the platform. There is no doubt about it, Salesforce is a fantastic CRM platform with robust features and the ability to bolt on any numerous add-ons from their vast and world-renowned Salesforce Appexchange.
If you’ve started investigating Salesforce at all, you’ve probably seen that Salesforce can be an extremely costly product. Think of it as the Mercedez Benz of the CRM Marketplace. Would you like to have your own Mercedez? Of course! Who wouldn’t? But the simple fact remains, do I really need that Mercedez, or would I be perfectly content with something a level down from there? I still get a lot of the same bells and whistles as the Mercedez, but maybe I don’t get that Name Brand. It’s the same way in the CRM marketplace. So before you go all in on Salesforce, you may want to take a look at a few other very solid Salesforce alternatives. Some of those we recommend are listed below:
Infor CRM
Infor CRM (formerly known as Sage SalesLogix) is one of the longest-running CRM solutions on the market. Infor is an award-winning CRM platform that enables collaboration and automation across all your departments – be it sales, marketing, service, or operations. Does your firm already use one of the many Infor ERP solutions? If so, Infor would be an excellent option as it has an integration already pre-built for Infor CRM and Infor ERP. If you’re an Outlook shop, Infor CRM’s Outlook plug-in is arguably the strongest in the marketplace. It allows your team access to a great deal of CRM functionality without actually having to even leave Outlook. One of the best things about Infor CRM is the power and flexibility of their Groups, Dashboards, and Reporting. This will beat out any of the other solutions listed. By utilizing their “Query Builder” and Crystal Reporting Engine, you can view and filter any type of data, and view it in the exact way you want. The options are endless.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Dynamics CRM is one of the most popular and well-known CRM solutions on the marketplace today. The number one reason to look at Microsoft CRM is obviously if you are already a Microsoft shop. If you already have the full Microsoft Suite, CRM can come as a nice addition to your already embedded solutions such as Power BI, SQL Server, One Note, Outlook, and more. One of the big concerns with many organizations when implementing a new CRM solution is simply how will I get my team to use the tool? Microsoft makes it easy because it’s easy-to-use, intuitive interface isn’t all that different from the other Microsoft Products your team is already leveraging today. This will go a long way in a smooth implementation and transition.
SugarCRM
If you are a small-to-medium sized business, SugarCRM can really be a fantastic tool for your organization. In many ways, SugarCRM is very similar to Salesforce, without all of the hidden costs. While not nearly as deep of a solution as Salesforce, it has much of the same functionality. It’s a very easy-to-configure solution that can be leveraged throughout your entire company. With the ability to be hosted On-Premise or in the Cloud, it’s very flexible. It’s open APIs also allow you to easily push or pull data from any of the other systems you might be leveraging. If you really like what you’ve seen from Salesforce, but don’t want to spend that same kind of money, SugarCRM would be an ideal platform for you.