CRM

[Steve]

Dear All

I have been tasked to look at solutions for CRM and Access is a name that
has come in to the equation, alongside ACT!.

Do any of you have experience of this functionality of Access, or can offer
advice.

There seems to be several companies/sites that have ready made Customer
Relationship Solutions for use with Access to download any recomendations,

Thanks for any advice

Cheers

Steve

 

[Ed]

I happen to use both on a single user system. Act does a great job for basic
scheduling and contact info. I built an access database linked to Act for my
estimates, proposals, workorders and purchase order.
By no means am I advanced but Act is pretty customizable so why go through
the trouble of the build for basic CRM.
Ed

 

[John]

Our company purchased the right to use a CRM tool. Only
the data is ours, not the application. It had some
customization to it that was gratis, but anything beyond
was pricey. As it turned out it didn't really suit our
needs.
I recognized early on it wasn't what we needed but -
well - office politics came into play. During all this
time I began planning and building a CRM on A2k just to
see what it would be like (all done after work hours).
It turns out now that the web one may get scrapped in
favor of what I did.
Which leads me to my point. If you create your own, it
is just that, your own as is the data. You construct it
for what you need it for and it allows for expandability
and adaptation to future needs. At what price? Much
less then purchasing one and the management that goes
with it. If the company you get the CRM from goes belly
up, what happens to your data they were managing?
My organization was please with the results. It is able
to be expanded, which is being done now. Also, there is
talk of developing a web version using vb.net with the
A2k tables. As what price? Again, much less then the
yearly licensing fees for the rented CRM.
*** John