CRMnext Review

I looked forward to writing a CRMnext review initially, because I actually relish having something new to talk about aside from Salesforce, NetSuite and Zoho over and over and over again. But, I was a little disappointed in the fact that I couldn’t give this an objective comparison to these competitors, because it turns out to be a bit specialized in who it’s for.

Not a CRMnext Review:

No, it’ll still be a review but it’ll be more about why its demographics need it than an analysis of its features. You see, CRM has a pretty standard across the board set of core features and functionality which it offers. These things define CRM, and enable its purpose.

So, let’s talk a little bit about what CRMnext is, and why its particular balance of these sets of features are ideal for a specific target user base.

Who it’s For:

This is ideal for banking, customer service, debt collection, ecommerce, education, engineering, financial services, insurance, legal, medical and telemarketing. This can kind of sound like “one size fits all”, but that’s not the case.

See, we need to look at these demographics and see what it is they all share. What might that be? Well, it’s hard science (be it legal, mathematical/financial or technical), and they’re all service-based industries which are far more analytically sensitive than other industries.

They all have the same kind of money counting, account management and policy handling needs, and that calls for CRM that can actually lend to those needs without being completely tweaked and hacked upon to achieve it.

The developers of CRMnext had that in mind when they designed this system in the first place.

Downsides:

Well, it’s not quite as adept at filling other little niches evenly like general CRM, and since multiple CRM systems together would be redundant and asinine, it’s a bit of a commitment to adopt CRMnext over a more general and more overtly powerful platform like Force.com or Zoho.

It also lacks the integration capacity of those systems, to play nice with third party solutions, which in this immensely competitive marketplace does indeed hurt it a fair bit. The further lack of an App Exchange equivalent just drives that peg further in.

Along with these, it’s a fairly novel solution, so it lacks the user base and innovative community to drive and empower it that the bigger solutions posses. This isn’t a fault on its part, just a temporary disadvantage, but it does mean you get that sparseness that comes with it, for now.

Does it Work:

Ok, those concerns aside, does this thing work, for what it’s intended to do? Well, yes, it really does. I mean, there’s nothing really expressible in the features that define it, but its user interface, templates and other natural innate designs which make this lend perfectly to those combined industries like it claims to.

It’s inexpensive and quick to learn, and these things are in its favor, as is its proclivity to especially help these industries who, over traditional CRM, need lots of apps, custom forms and reports to get the same specialized results.

Well, that’s all I have for a CRMnext review, and I think I’ve said the important things.