I am a great fan of CRM (customer relationship management) systems, managing your sales pipeline is a critical business process. I have had experience with Salesforce and building bespoke systems but now I need to find a systems for myself and to recommend to other small businesses.
There is a vast array of cloud based CRM systems now available on the market making the choice a daunting one. The reality is most of them offer the same core functionality and can benefit an organisation which currently has no CRM systems in place. When choosing any system the first place to start is to identify the criteria which is required by your business. For me cost effectiveness, email marketing and integration are the key elements. With this in mind I started with two of the market leaders for small businesses Insightly and Zoho CRM and have summarised my experiences below.
Cost
Insightly offers 3 plans:
Gratis: $0
Standard: $7 per user/month (billed annually) $9 per user/month billed monthly
Enterprise: POA
The Gratis plan was out for me as integration with Google Apps is an important feature so I started with the $9 standard plan.
Zoho CRM offers 5 plans:
Free 10: $0 – Click here for a free trial.
Standard: $12 per user/month (billed annually) $15 per user/month billed monthly
Professional: $20 per user/month (billed annually) $25 per user/month billed monthly
Enterprise: $35 per user/month (billed annually) $40 per user/month billed monthly
CRM Plus: $50 per user/month (billed annually) $60 per user/month billed monthly
Again as email integration was important to me I went for the $25 per month plan so already Zoho CRM is over twice the price, so is it worth extra cost.
Email & Contacts Integration
This is an important requirement for me as time saving through automation is a major benefit. Email piping where inbound and outbound emails are linked to contacts is ultimately what I want to achieve.
Insightly Gmail gadget
Insightly does offer the Insightly Gmail gadget for users who link their Google apps account which as a fan of apps myself seemed a logical choice. This adds a widget to the bottom of each incoming email the only down side here is the user has to manually save the email to a contact in Insightly which can lead to user error. Outbound email can be saved to Insightly by including a bcc to your insightly mailbox. This is not full email piping.
Zoho CRM for Google Apps
Zoho also offers Google Apps integration with a widget added to each email in Gmail. However on the professional plan they also enable you to pull your Gmail inbox into Zoho this allows you to still send and receive via gmail but Zoho can add the emails to contacts and notify you when a contact has sent an email therefore highlighting emails which are important and need following up.
Email Marketing
Social media maybe all the rage but I am still a fan of email marketing. You want to get your message to a decision maker not someone managing a social media campaign. Insightly offers email marketing via MailChimp integration. Zoho CRM has this built in with campaign management, email template functionality and with proper email piping so responses are matched to the contacts this makes their offering the preferred solution for me.
If you want to send email to more than 2000 contacts (subscribers in MailChimp speak) you will need a paid plan this added to the cost of insightly now puts the total cost on par with Zoho CRM and given it is a much better overall solution if you want to do email marketing Zoho CRM is by far the better option.
Scale
If you are planning to grow you business ideally you want a solution that can grow with you. Again Zoho wins here as they offer more functionality across their plans and they also have a wide range of other products such as project management and accounting solutions.
Integration
Both Insightly and Zoho CRM offer REST based API’s enabling integration with other third-party applications. With any cloud based system this is a must for me to enable businesses to reduce costs and improve accuracy by sharing data with other systems.
Other Features
I have highlighted above the key features that are important to me when choosing a CRM system but with both these solutions there are a wide range of additional features:
Interface
I can’t call either of them pretty but I would say Zoho looks better and has more options to change the appearance to suit both the look and feel but also the layout. Insightly is a bit more quirky with its choice of layout but its nothing that can’t be lived with.
Tasks Opportunities and Reporting
As you expect from a CRM system they both offer opportunities to be tracked, tasks to be created and various reports. Zoho CRM also offers workflow automation which allows you to create rules which are triggered by certain events for example a lead is captured from a contact us form then create an activity for user x. As a fan of automation I like this functionality.
Web to Contact
Both systems offer information from contact us forms to be captured as a lead in their systems. I have not used the Insightly version so can’t comment on its performance but the Zoho CRM solution works well.
Project Management
Insightly has a built in project management section which lacks gantt charts etc but has all the basics covered and I found this a useful addition. Zoho offer a separate project management solution of their own but unless you only want 1 project you need to pay starting from $20 per month.
Sales Order/Inventory Management and Invoice
On the professional plan Zoho CRM also has the functionality for users to create and send quotes, convert these to Invoices and manage inventory updates which are useful features when managing a sales pipeline and warrants the extra cost compared to Insightly.
Accounting Software Integration
Integration with an accounts package is a particular interest of mine and being a Xero developer I naturally favour that product. Insightly integrates with QuickBooks online and Zoho have their own accounts package Zoho Books. Zoho books has not gained the same amount of market share in the UK compared to Xero as some of the UK specific functionality was lacking from the Zoho offering. However with recent releases addressing VAT reporting including the recent MOSS for digital services they may starting to close the gap. With the open API and services such as OneSaas and Zapier integration with Xero is still an option for both Insightly and Zoho CRM.
I am hearing a lot about Capsule CRM and Xero integration and it also supports many other add ons but the email integration is an unknown for me and I plan to test this soon.
My Choice
From a cost point of view and with the inclusion of project management Insightly offers all the standard features you would expect from a CRM system but it is limited. Although Zoho CRM appears to be more expensive initially when you consider the better email piping functionality, campaign management and the ability to raise quotes etc and the extra costs of adding this functionality to Insightly I also believe Zoho CRM is more cost effective in the long run. Given Zoho’s ability to scale as the organisation demands more this has to be the choice for me.
Click here to try Zoho CRM for Free