Drupal looks like it’s also mainly a web development platform, though I can see how it would have the flexibility to do what you want. Trying to program a fully functioning CRM solution with WordPress sounds like an exercise in futility. You’d might as well buckle down and get writing in php (ok, I exaggerate…)
FileMaker is an actual database development platform, designed specifically for handling the types of data we’re dealing with (with specific starter modules for basic business tasks). I’m not going to proclaim that it’s better than the other choices, because I’ve only been researching and playing with it for a couple hours. But I do have a feeling it will be faster to develop in than most other platforms.
Re: hosting filemaker- there are quite a few choices out there, that don’t require purchasing the Server software. Monthly fees in the $12-$50 range. The requirements for a business as small as ours surely could do fine with a budget solution.
If you choose to license FM SaaS on a yearly basis, it works out to $9-$15/month. So I’m thinking, TCO of $21-$27/month, including the hosting. Some of that would be paid up front, but you’re looking at $180 at the most. Chump change for the capabilities.
Quickbooks… Who needs 'em? Build your own! Lol, jk… I’m sure a $200 (one-time?) fee would be well worth it. A lot of other programs charge $15-$25/month for QB integration, which is $180-$300/year.
[MENTION=3471]Alex Lacey[/MENTION], humm, you’ve got me interested. I’ll play around with it some more this weekend. I was actually contemplating dusting off the drupal framework I was working on 2 years ago and getting that running. My idea would be to get a drupal version working and then pay a wordpress developer to copy the functionality.
But then I got to thinking that I really need to update aztecinnovation.com since I just threw it up there 2 years ago and haven’t touched it since.
Quick update for everyone still contemplating software solutions:
I’ve done quite a bit more exploration with FileMaker Pro. It’s pretty deep.
[B]If ([/B]
you’re looking for something that will “just work” [B];[/B] this ain’t it [B];[/B] find $something else
[B])[/B]
[B]If ([/B]
you’re looking for something that can has immense capability and flexibility [B]and[/B] be made into the exact solution that fits your business [B]and[/B] you’ve got some time to invest [B];[/B] then take a look [B];[/B] $or not
[B])[/B]
[B]Let ([/B]
$something else = “Jobber, or mHelpdesk, or TCF, or Service Autopilot, or, or wahteverrr…” [B];[/B]
$or not = “You really should”
[B])[/B]
(disclaimer: alcohol was not a contributing factor in this post. I’ve just been sick and in front of the computer for way too long… I swear I haven’t had a drop)
Oh, and I ate Jared’s carrier pigeon for dinner. Tasted something like chicken. So if you don’t see him post for awhile, now you know why…
I don’t think most people got it. Pretty clever though.
IMO, doing what you’re best at, and paying someone to help with the rest is smarter than trying to reinvent the wheel. Especially when it comes to software. Software is tedious, time-consuming, and expensive to do right. And there’s no reason to fool with it, with a multitude of very workable solutions out there.
I agree with this, but we all know “workable” means the software we are using doesn’t actually do everything we actually need it to do. I’m pretty certain that we all use multiple platforms to fulfill our needs, when being on ONE would be a lot more seemless and less stressful. I have checked out a ton of software, and each and everyone of them is lacking in some important area. A lot of them are small development issues, which shouldn’t take long to develop or fix - yet they just never are!
Totally agree with you. You would be blown away by all the software that we use to run our day to day operations. And we are rarely completely happy with them. Like our help center and live chat stuff is ok, but we would like it to do more. Then we start looking around and we run into the same probelems you guys go.
Nobody does everything you want it to so its always a big trade off for what you end up going with.
Managing and keeping our growing development team has been a challenge, but we have a much better sysytem in place now and hope to be able to start shipping a lot more improvements over the next 6 months.
The other big challenge is handling such a massive variety of workflows. There are some more optimal ways to run a business but not everyone wants to switch to those ways. So we have these wierd workflows that we still have to support because we have not been able to convince them that there is a better way to do things which makes using the software easier and more valuable.
Software is just a passing fad. Let’s all go back to index cards! Apparently if you call something “retro” it’s cool and doesn’t mean that you’re stuck in the stone age.
This. I’ve talked software with a lot of window cleaners, and every window cleaner thinks he is a business genius, and the “way they do it” (which is usually some incredibly weird and convoluted system they randomly and arbitrarily decided on) is the best workflow method ever.
I think it depends on how much education you have and/or how much alcohol was involved in conceiving the system. I’ve got a friend who has a phd in mathematics and her system for organizing routes is crazy complicated. She puts codes on her work orders that her people understand but if you were to look at it you’d be like “huh?”
I think the best system is one where if you sold the business, the new owner would be able to easily continue and grow the business.
Yeah on one hand it could be said that the best system is the one that works for you. Or like Jared said the one that you could pass on to anyone else and they pick it up right away.
One exampe for this is how people do recurring visit jobs. If you have a fixed price for each visit for a cleaning or something, it makes batch generating and email invoices incredibly fast. You just take all the visits that you completed in the past month or whatever and it will add each one as a line item and build your invoices for all your clients in seconds.
This works best when people have set prices for jobs and packages. Different packages for different amounts of work. Lawn care companies will have different packages for small medium or larger lawns based on sq feet. Cleaning companies will have number of bedrooms as different packages.
It makes creating quotes and jobs easy because they can have their products and services list ready to just pop in as line items. So this is an area were we have helped people change how they do pricing and billing so that they can use Jobber to its fullest potential.
Some people will do pricing based on individual quotes for each job or hourly rate pricing but it does not work as well. But thats what works for those companies so and what they are used to so we have to support those workflows as well.
After an hour going through their forums, and watching the videos…
Filemaker looks like fun!
I’m an excel junkie, no matter what software advances, changes, or switching around I do
I always have kept an old faithful excel sheet along with it.
I guess it’s a stubborn habit, because it’s my creation.
But I love thinking about, then researching ‘how to do that’ and finally implementing the formulas.
Truth be told, I actually watch excel videos for pleasure sometimes.
It would be cool to see some of my favorite info on my ipad, in an aesthetically pleasing format.
Chris, how many trucks could you realistically route with CF? I currently don’t have more than that but curious if I would have to upgrade software in the future if we grew bigger than a couple
Jeremiah, Advantage Window Cleaning
Sent from my iPad using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app
Hey Jeremiah - Good to hear from you… If I remember correctly with CF - It got a little wonky over a few of vehicles ( not as easy to manage compared to other solutions I have seen )
The one thing the Old Service CEO really had going for it was the dispatch board feature. It made it very easy for us to drag and drop people and invoices between trucks… As well as get a great snap shot of the day looked like.
So the question is still out there then… what really is the best CRM? I really need to move into one like yesterday lol
I am tired of seeing $ fall through the cracks. It’s too bad some of these others, like Serv CEO are no longer being supported, sounds like a great tool to utilize.
Jeremiah, Advantage Window Cleaning
Sent from my iPad using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app
