really, really simple crm/lead tracking system

[kay]

Does anyone know of a really, really, really basic CRM/lead tracking system? Would prefer something web-based that can run on our intranet (can be any platform really, we just stick it in a VM).

I don't want to go overboard, I really just want a slightly more sophisticated version of my Excel spreadsheet so I can come up with stats like "45 percent of email form enquiries from our site lead to quotes" or whatever. We do have the Outlook CRM stuff that we could install but I'm worried it's overkill for what I want.

[Franki]

Google Analytics with Goals tracking?

[temp]

Does anyone know of a really, really, really basic CRM/lead tracking system? Would prefer something web-based that can run on our intranet (can be any platform really, we just stick it in a VM).


Interesting, I'm building one of these for myself at the moment.

I use a combination of highrise and a text file for tracking leads, and I don't need anything big or complicated, but I do need something better than highrise + text file.

I'll show you as it develops if you're interested, would be interesting to see if we have similar needs in a lo-fi CRM tool

[kay]

Franki - I need to track referrals and phone calls too... you know, the old school way of doing business :)

Temp - heh cool, I had thought of writing one myself too. The main thing stopping me is that I suspect there are cool features in "real" CRMs that I haven't thought of, but if I see them I'll want them. Did you look at anything else before you started?

[temp]

Franki - I need to track referrals and phone calls too... you know, the old school way of doing business :)

Temp - heh cool, I had thought of writing one myself too. The main thing stopping me is that I suspect there are cool features in "real" CRMs that I haven't thought of, but if I see them I'll want them. Did you look at anything else before you started?

I haven't really looked. I really like highrise, but it doesn't quite fit the way I want to work.

all the "real" CRM tools (you know, for the grown ups with ties and job titles) look like overkill, but I reckon you're right in that they'll have features I'd want if I knew more.

Step one though is just to build a better version of my lead-tracking text file

[zeroedin]

I have a (heavily) modified version of a wordpress plugin type CRM. It's a messy hacked version of a plugin (I think its called WP CRM) done by some christian guy called Creggy. When I say hacked I mean a poor excuse for coding after a carton of beer hacked.

I've cleaned up the interface a fair bit, and added a few links to it. It has 3 basic features: contact, notes, and reminders. With the reminders you have to set up a cron job to get it working but once its set up, it works sweet!

I've outgrown it a little bit and don't know whether to hack it again (this time with 2 cartons of beer) or start from scratch (3 cartons plus lots of cheezeburgers). If you want to play around with it let me know.

EDIT: Actually, I'm tempted to have a go at it anyway without the beer. Crazy...

[kay]

(you know, for the grown ups with ties and job titles)

hahaha. TempCRM: for people who don't wear ties.

Zeroedin: That actually sounds interesting. I use the Gravity Forms plugin (love it so much I bought the developer license) and it stores submitted forms in the database and lets you add notes, which is probably where I got the idea for implementing some kind of proper CRM.

To be honest I'm thinking of having a go at my own (would be CF-driven cos coding in CFML is super-fast and makes me happy). Might check out the demos of some grown-up systems for feature ideas tho.

[Dave]

There is always Outlook Business Contact Manager. I was watching the online presentation for that on the MS site, but it had lots of people in ties shaking hands and pointing to each others screens. I don't think it's for me.

[jexley]

@K - This would be wickedawesome as a small biz option.

@Z - I would love to take a look at that bad boy, given that I hacked the shit outta my own WordPress to build in a Proj Mgmt system. If I get a carton of beer in me and can haz cheezburger I'll make a plugin out of it and take over teh world.

@G - If you invent something I want to play with it too. Only not in THAT way, freak. Okay, maybe kind of in that way.

[zeroedin]

That actually sounds interesting.

I would love to take a look at that bad boy, given that I hacked the shit outta my own WordPress to build in a Proj Mgmt system. If I get a carton of beer in me and can haz cheezburger I'll make a plugin out of it and take over teh world.

Done and done. It is zipped and 7zipped (the whole lot was just over the file limit :()

@J I'd be interested in looking at that Proj Mgmt doohicky thing of yours.

[heist]

MS just sued salesforce.com - so it's gotta be worth a look

http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/09/01/salesforce-launches-lightweight-contact-manager-for-small-businesses/

[Franki]

Franki - I need to track referrals and phone calls too... you know, the old school way of doing business :)

Understood. And with any kind of tracking, you would still have to manually log the calls/referrals somehow. So instead of logging the call to a CRM/Excel/etc, open your bookmark (to a special page on yoursite - one for referral, one for calls). Setup a goal in GA for this page, and there's your quick and tracker. If you want to be fancy, you can add attributes to this page and have these reported in GA as well.

[Franki]

...ie, no difference to goal tracking hits to your contact page/post contact form submission...

[temp]

Understood. And with any kind of tracking, you would still have to manually log the calls/referrals somehow. So instead of logging the call to a CRM/Excel/etc, open your bookmark (to a special page on yoursite - one for referral, one for calls). Setup a goal in GA for this page, and there's your quick and tracker. If you want to be fancy, you can add attributes to this page and have these reported in GA as well.


bookmarks!

that's a really nice simple idea.

[jexley]

I built a thingo that lets you enter offline conversions and set your own Google goals and shiz and tells you how awesome you are via emails and such.

I call it "The You're Awesomator!"

K, not really called that, but it does exist. Web ROI (http://www.jexsolutions.com/index.php/seo-tools/web-roi/) is what I'm calling it until I'm so huge that I can name things "The You're Awesomator!" and people will still give me money.

[temp]

I built a thingo that lets you enter offline conversions and set your own Google goals and shiz and tells you how awesome you are via emails and such.

I call it "The You're Awesomator!"

K, not really called that, but it does exist. Web ROI (http://www.jexsolutions.com/index.php/seo-tools/web-roi/) is what I'm calling it until I'm so huge that I can name things "The You're Awesomator!" and people will still give me money.

this sounds great. the landing page you linked to makes it seem scary and difficult, I like your description here better :)

[jexley]

this sounds great. the landing page you linked to makes it seem scary and difficult, I like your description here better :)
Sounds like my wedding night. HA!

Dude, think you summed up 90% of what's wrong with that site.
Emailing you soon to probe you for more information.
Again with the wedding night memories!

[ashul]

MS just sued salesforce.com - so it's gotta be worth a look

http://www.techcrunchit.com/2009/09/01/salesforce-launches-lightweight-contact-manager-for-small-businesses/

I was going to suggest that simply because of outlook/google apps integration - now at $5 per month.. http://www.salesforce.com/au/smallbusinesscenter/editions/

[kay]

I was going to suggest that simply because of outlook/google apps integration - now at $5 per month.. http://www.salesforce.com/au/smallbusinesscenter/editions/

I have a distaste for Salesforce because I had the misfortune of liaising with someone who was doing salesforce integration over email templates *shudder*. Probably unwarranted. But I hold tenuous grudges.

But for $5 maybe I'll sign up for a month and steal all their ideas :)

[ashul]

But for $5 maybe I'll sign up for a month and steal all their ideas :)

Actually you can prolly build a zoho type google apps integrated app to do that.

and then i realise have you looked at http://www.zoho.com/crm/index.html ?

if you do and you tell me how it is i will pay you $5 for checking it out for me ;)

[hambodevelopment]

What about Highrise? www.highrisehq.com

I'm planning on building one in ExpressionEngine 2.0 which will mimic Highrise but with better reporting.

[Roffo]

Hey Kay,

Fat Free is awesome: http://www.fatfreecrm.com ...Big hi fives to Michael for his hard work with it.

Currently you can't hide different users from each other, get email notifications and theres not too much in the way of pretty chart reporting... But the clean interface and the instant I get how to use this feeling surely makes up for it :)

I think it does pop3 importing which is quite rad.

Roffo

[temp]

fatfreecrm looks good... Kay perhaps we should be fork & modify this instead of re-inventing wheels.

My system doesn't do much at all currently... it just stores leads. Leads have a state (new, qualified, proposal sent, won, lost).. and you can "touch" a lead to put it back at the top of the list. (That's for when I need to remind myself to hassle someone).

[ashul]

I think it does pop3 importing which is quite rad.

Roffo

what does that mean?

[Roffo]

Cool Grant!

The thing about CRM's is they end up becoming monsters with every bell and whistle. And if your always hitting bells and blowing whistles you wont be doing important stuff like actually following up leads!

In other words I dig your systems clarity because its to safe guard against user procrastination :)

That said if you do go ahead and fork Fat Free be sure to show off what you come up with...

I've hacked some of our PBX's click to dial functionality into a few of the view files before. As soon as I get some spare time I want to go back and do it properly so when you click a 'Call' button it phones the client, opens up the little log thingie to add notes and maybe even leaves an automatic call length timestamp.

[Roffo]

Hi Ashul,

Its a bit like posterous where whatever you email to your posterous email address appears on your blog...

Except whatever you email appears in the CRM and the CRM is smart enough to associate a particular email address to an account in the CRM.

Get the full low down here: http://wiki.github.com/michaeldv/fat_free_crm/dropbox

Roffo

[ashul]

that is cool stuff Roffo! You don't do .NET stuff anymore?

A

[natgimm]

Hi All

I've had a heap of experience evaluating & using CRMs and the like over the past 20 years. Those that come to mind are Goldmine, Salesforce, MS CRM, Netsuite, LeGrand. I wrote a CRM brief for a customer a couple of years ago. I won't publish it here, but happy to email it to you if you email me (natalie at bluemettle dot com) It may give you some ideas to consider.

Also happy to meet up if you want to buy me a coffee and pick my brain for ideas.

... or grab me at Port-80 next week.

cheers
Natalie

[zeroedin]

<precaffeine>

Based on earlier mention of wordpress and plugins, I've begun to write my own crm completely from scratch. Hopefully I will have most of it done by the weekend.

The one I'm building will have storage for clients, leads, suppliers, note, and reminders. Same as the one I'm using but it's my first attempt at writing a plugin.

</precaffeine>

[Vee]

Based on earlier mention of wordpress and plugins, I've begun to write my own crm completely from scratch.

I was thinking about doing the same thing while considering iPhone and Thunderbird compatibility/integration - I like having contact on the iPhone that contain both the email and phone details and it would be sweet it that synced up with a CRM for notetaking and to do lists.

[zeroedin]

I was thinking about doing the same thing while considering iPhone and Thunderbird compatibility/integration - I like having contact on the iPhone that contain both the email and phone details and it would be sweet it that synced up with a CRM for notetaking and to do lists.

that sounds to me like a slap-in-the-face-with-leather-glove kind of challenge. problem is i have no idea how to do that right now (i have no iphone) but i'm intrigued. any ideas?

[Vee]

any ideas?

The problem is that at the moment, I only have ideas, but I'm sure there are docs and tutorials out there that would lead the way.

[zeroedin]

The problem is that at the moment, I only have ideas.

Hmm, this might require a notepad, a pen, a beer, and a pizza at the Scotsman next wednesday. The more and more I think about it, the more and more I want to go hammer and tong at this and make it into a "real" plugin/tool...not just a side project.

[Vee]

Hmm, this might require a notepad, a pen, a non-alcoholic-beverage, and some poutine at the Scotsman next wednesday.

Fixed for you

(I so desperately want to go to the next P80)

[zeroedin]

Fixed for you

(I so desperately want to go to the next P80)

Poutine...yes!
Non-alcoholic beverage? This is madness! THIS IS...

just kidding

Still any ideas you or anyone else would have would be great. Not sure whether to make it open source or have a free and then premium version. Like openess, but need money for jam.

[Roffo]

that is cool stuff Roffo! You don't do .NET stuff anymore?

A


It is :) I dabbled in a bit a ASP.MVC and linq... But never got to do anything serious with it :(

This is my first look at something written in rails... And yeah I dig it :)

[nebbian]

Here's something to whet your appetite :)

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/ContactData/Conceptual/AddressBookProgrammingGuideforiPhone/100-Introduction/Introduction.html