We currently use salesforce standard edition (not pro). Our use is
pretty basic and we have only 4 sales reps. We get about 50 raw leads
a day which devolves down to about 6-7 sales per day.
We don't like salesforce because of the way the data is trapped on
their servers. There's no way to run queries against tables and
integrate other data. We perhaps could upgrade to Pro but it gets
expensive. Since we're software guys, we should be able to do this
kind of stuff ourselves easily.
We have looked at Microsoft CRM. The big problem is migrating the data.
Has anyone done this type of migration OFF salesforce and got all the
data intact ? Are there tools or consultants who could do this ?
What factors should we consider when wanting to switch from salesforce to other CRM? |
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
27 Nov 2004 18:12 PST
johnmhome-ga:
The basic answer is that yes, there are tools and consultants out
there who provide migration services from Salesforce.com to other CRM
systems like MS CRM. Whether or not all the data can be moved simply,
depends on how your company has used Saleforce.com to date, and is
something that a consultant would have to review first.
To help me develop the best Answer for you, please let me know:
- how your sales reps work throughout the day (in the office, on the road, etc.)
- what other systems your company uses (finance, shipping/logistics,
order management, etc)
- the expected growth rate in the number of leads per day over the
next couple of years.
This will help with a recommendation.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
27 Nov 2004 18:14 PST
Further to my request above, here is one example of a service that can
assist with a migration:
http://www.scribesoft.com/Products/InsightForMSCRM.asp
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
johnmhome-ga
on
28 Nov 2004 14:40 PST
Our sales reps do not travel, but are not all located in the office.
We have 2 that work from home and we expect this to expand.
Nevertheless we expect them to always have their own laptop (in other
words, a purely browser based UI that could be used from a cybercafe
is not essential)
Our product is software that is downloaded and unlocked. There are no
physical goods. The order system for this we wrote ourselves, and is
the source of one of our frustrations with salesforce. We can write
queries against tables for our order system, but it's not well
integrated with salesforce.
We expect leads to grow to 200 per day.
We'd like to open the CRM system to our international resellers also.
At the moment leads from outside the US we manually pass along to
resellers in each country. We'd prefer this happens inside the CRM,
but that could be cost prohibitive because it's an extra seat for each
one.
We have considered open source CRM but they seem immature and have clunky UI.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
01 Dec 2004 22:45 PST
johnmhome-ga:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Your added information
makes this a more intriguing problem. There's still a few things I'd
like to get clear in my mind with regards to your needs, before I post
an Answer.
The generally-accepted rule-of-thumb for the differences between a
locally-implemented CRM system, and a hosted CRM system, is that there
is a trade-off in cost and control. For companies where IT systems
like a CRM system are the last thing that the company wants to worry
about, a hosted solution holds a good value proposition. Sure, in the
long run it will appear on paper to cost more than a
locally-implemented one; however, for some companies the peace of mind
of knowing that someone else is responsible for keeping the system
running is, like the Mastercard commercials say, 'priceless'. For
other companies with decent in-house IT capabilities and who want to
access the CRM data from other systems, the loss of control with a
hosted system can be stifling.
The Scribesoft solution I pointed to above is a good example of the
type of tools and consulting services available to help a company like
you with a migration from Salesforce.com to a locally-implemented
package like MS CRM. To take advantage of such tools and services, you
pretty much have to be migrating from Salesforce.com to a popular
package (such as the ones listed on Scribesoft's website). So, the
open-source systems, while admirable in their flexibility for
technically-capable users, would be difficult to migrate to.
With a locally-implemented solution, though, you now have the added
task of setting up secure access for your sales reps who are not on
your LAN. So, we're talking about either putting the
locally-implemented solution on a dedicated hosting server in a
hosting provider's data center (so that everyone needs to have secure
access), or implementing a VPN service to allow the remote users to
tunnel into your LAN to access the system.
So, perhaps you can describe a bit more about how your remote sales
reps are currently interacting with the systems in your office, and
also whether your company has standardized on any application suites
such as MS Office. Then, I will be in a better position to post a
helpful Answer.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
johnmhome-ga
on
05 Dec 2004 16:53 PST
We have a T1 to our office and a handful of static IPs and we already
have access to an intranet via this. Hosting the app on either windows
or unix is trivial. It's the choosing/customizing of the app and
importing the data that's the problem.
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