Point Concept review evoSuite CRM
When I started writing my recent post about CRM’s I wanted to see if there was a local provider. It turned out that a local company with a reputation for it’s work in the tourism sector had recently released a new offering. A quick email and I found myself at the Mount Offices of the ReserveGroup and sat down with Roland and Jo.
ReserveGroup have been making tourism web sites and booking systems since 2001. They have grown to offer a full marketing and creative service to their clients and expanded from just concentrating on tourism companies. I believe one of their strengths was that they offered copywriting and photographic support when creating web sites.
Roland explained that as their client base grew they needed to improve their records and client management systems: they needed a CRM. But after trying many different offerings and unable to find one which suited them, they decided to build one themselves. After running it as an internal tool they decided to offer it to their clients and began a process of talking to some of them to gain further insight into client needs.
After a year in the making they launched their new evoSuite Enterprise application which included the CRM at the re-launch of the Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce on the 1st of July 2009. I will not go into lots of detail about the full evoSuite except to say that it showed the thought which had gone into the entire development. Starting with the CRM as the central focus they have developed a suite of tools which seamlessly share and make use of data. This was one of the problems they highlighted when looking at other CRM’s.
They have not created a sales driven CRM such as Salesforce and have instead opted for an approach which builds knowledge and value regarding ones existing as well as new customers. I was impressed to hear that they share my view that everyone you interact with is a customer, not a “lead” or an “opportunity”. Creating a new customer was very easy as was adding follow on notes which could include attached documents either uploaded or from within the suites document management tool. One thing which they have done well is the ability to cross reference different contacts and group them accordingly. This is an important but often overlooked part of a CRM; creating a knowledge base of which people know or deal with each other, helping you understand points of reference and opportunity.
Listening to their customers was important in this development and lead to them achieving something which Microsoft should have done; making Outlook the centre of your business.
The entire CRM and evoSuite is accessed from within Microsoft outlook. As it is still true that the majority of business use Outlook as their email and calendar tool this makes a lot of sense. Any doubts I had as a non-Outlook user were easily put aside when I saw it in action. One of my consistent prerequisites for a CRM is it’s ability to work with my email, I have to say they nailed that one nicely.
The reporting and tracking of business activity was well thought out and they are open to suggestions on tweaks to make it work better for the customer. In fact, they have taken a note from the open source community. If a customer makes a good suggestion it goes in to the application and everyone benefits free of charge. That’s customer service.
Your data is stored in their servers, backed up continually and with power backup provision. The chances of you not having access are very slim. Reserve Group have built up their data farm for this. I asked Roland and he stated there and then, “it is and always will be the customers data, they can export it as and when they want”. Always a concern and nice to hear!
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