Vigilus Visions : Plink

The main driver with whatever direction a company goes in with regards to CRM software should be driven by first, what the business requirements are and then the technology requirements based on your organizations technology infrastructure.

At the end of the day, most of the CRM packages out there have  similar functionality in terms of keeping track of relationships, managing day to day tasks and activities, forecasting and other reports.

Where these applications differ is the kind of support and services the vendor offers as well as the platform of the software.

The biggest item to evaluate is what kind of long term relationship you can develop and maintain with your provider. Over time, business requirements change and you need a trusted partner to help you keep the software relevant for your every changing business environment.

If an organization has a Notes/Domino infrastructure and uses both email and the Notes calendar, ACT! for Notes fits into that environment seamlessly with little effort from network admins and IT in general.

The cost of ACT! for Notes to deploy, customize and maintain  is among the least expensive of all CRM applications AND on top of that, the software actually gets used.

The reason for this is the fact that AFN is a native Notes db so it fits into an existing Notes/Domino environment and is very simple to use.

If your organization has Notes up and running, the act of adding another db (ACT! for Notes) is almost trivial. Additionally, your company OWNS the software as opposed to pay a monthly fee like Salesforce.

ACT! for Notes is also an application that you can customize based on your specific needs. Other applications are not as easy to customize the core code.

If you can make changes to the core code of other applications, odds are you will have to pay more and wait longer for those customizations to be moved into production, than if you already owned  AFN.

The Salesforce system is an on-demand "subscription based" Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution provided in an outsourced web environment, and enables organizations to have an enterprise level CRM solution without having to design, develop and support their own infrastructure.

So, this makes sense if YOU do not want a customized application, and do not have the resources or time to deploy and support an application internally. Salesforce is accessible through the web.

They also have an off-line version at an additional cost.

So there are certainly advantages to this model, however, the monthly rental fees add up over time very quickly.

For 15 users of AFN, the deployment cost for training, support, and software will run anywhere from $10k- 15k. This is a one time fee.

For 15 users of Salesforce, you are looking at that same cost per year for just the plain software. Also, did I mention that with Saleforce, you are RENTING the software.

Of course, with ACT! for Notes, you buy and OWN the software forever.

Additionally, ACT! for Notes IS accessible over the web, and you can use the application off-line or connected to the server.

Coming soon, you be able to have the ACT! for Notes application on your blackberry.

The take away here is, ACT! for Notes after all of these years, is still relevant and cost effective for any organization big or small, who have a Notes/Domino infrastructure.