I have a client asking for us to create them a CRM system, but, it is something that I have not attempted before so was thinking about subbing it out, would anyone give me an idea on what is included in a CRM system and rough hours of development and fair costings just to give me an idea on what we could be facing

 

Thanks

Customer Relationship Manager - have a look at the market leaders like http://www.salesforce.com/uk/ and https://www.zoho.com to see the sort of content types and data streams you might need. There are a few open source systems around as well if you search for them, though I've not used any of them.

 

You'll find CRM's can be huge systems with all sort of complex functionality so they're often expensive to build from scratch unless you need something simple, that's why the SAAS versions are popular.

Thank you the client is already using salesforce but I guess they are not happy with them, maybe I should check some out but what is an SAAS version?

SAAS - Software As A Service - that's what the likes of Salesforce are, basically a hosted app where you pay a subscription to access.

 

If your client doesn't like Salesforce it may be worth them using trials of the alternatives like Zoho, SugarCRM, WebCRM, Hubspot etc (there are loads of them) kick the tyres with.

 

https://highrisehq.com/ may be worth looking at, built by 37signals, the same people behind Basecamp.

Morning, if a customer is asking for a CRM, my first port of call would be to visit them on site/have a meeting with the client to find out what they want and don't want from the system. I'd also be inclined to find out, what they are looking for it to do and then find out, if there is one off the shelf so to speak or is do you need to make one.

 

Hope that help.

I was involved in a CRM project a few years back. I left after they had spent over £15,000 and were still nowhere near completion and it was obvious they were never going to finish - it was just too big an elephant to eat.

 

As suggested, arrange a client visit and find out what it is they don't like about salesforce and build them an extension. The salesforce docs are pretty comprehensive: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.pages.meta/pages/pages_intro.htm

Thanks but I do not think they have any issues with the software, I think for some reason they are fed up with the company. If that is what we are looking at for cost I doubt the client would want it so is there one very much like salesforce in features at all?

Most CRM's do the same thing, just with different UI's and workflow, and I suppose the quality of customer support will vary as well. I found http://www.softwareadvice.com/uk/crm/ which seems to give real customer reviews so that's worth a look for an alternative.

Sweet, thank you, will look into that one and talk to the client