Thanks for sharing that Drew!

I have recently done a survey of dozens of CRM offerings - it was a real eye opener as I have really only used CRM superficially in the past.

It is such a crowded and noisy marketplace with a huge variance in the initial customer engagement process. e.g. A free trial should be a quick and painless process but I can’t tell you how many providers took days and didn’t respond when the capabilities desired/advertised were not available in the trial version.

They all also have a way of doing things. If your business doesn’t work that way you are going to be pushing water uphill.

Solve on the other hand is more like a toolkit. You can pretty much make it do what you want (as I am learning) but the flip side to that coin is that there really isn’t a standardized implementation to learn from. This is where the Norada folks and forums, etc. have to assist (and they have been great) so that we can leverage the capabilities of the toolkit to suit our particular business need.

Cheers

In order of your queries:

1.  I am not a big fan of Google Docs, but we do embed some docs into clients records.  Works very well for collaborating on client reports, etc.  We use it for creating/updating marketing reports.  Team members are never in the same physical location, so this works well.  We can all work off the same doc - saves ever so many phone calls; emails; arguments; etc.

    We synchronize all contacts to Iphones/Ipods/etc. and after some pfutzing, are now 100% successful in syncing thousands of contacts from S360 to Google Contacts to Apple devices.  This is handy for us as we are evidently officed under some sort of nuclear cloud that louses up our internet connection.  No problem because everything I need is also on my Iphone and I am internet free.

2.  We create Projects in S360; post all relevant docs and correspondence; then send a link to a client.  This basically creates a free and secure “war room” for collaborating with others.

There are many other ways to work with clients, but you will need to ask a more specific question.

3.  Disabilities? Perhaps if you are more specific, I can try answering this . . .

4.  Support?  Unbelievably good.  Try the Forums or drop a line to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  - You will usually get an immediate answer.  I consult/beta test etc with several software companies and Norada is the best I have ever encountered.

5.  I work in an industry (Commercial Real Estate) that does not play well with Macs.  That said, I do have some experience.  Since S360 is Cloud based, it really doesn’t seem to make much difference.  Maybe your buying decision can be made on other criteria.  My team seems to be migrating more and more to Google based apps and are holding onto our older technology until we see what Google does with Chrome OS.

6.  Commiserate?  Helllooooo . . .  We are in Commercial Real Estate, which is slated to be circling the drain for a few more years.  But, yep, changing CRM can be a pain. 

    This app can do anything you want it to do.  It is an “outside the box” CRM, so it can be a simple rolodex or an incredibly potent CRM.  But you will need to MAKE it what you want.  I find something new almost everyday, and I often “re-stack” my data because I been shown a better way.  (Oops, got a little Zen-like there . . .)

    You will need to be open minded and a bit creative in order to tap into all the possibilities.

    After more than two years of working with Norada I have only one continuing nag . . . . I hate the name.  My office calls the app “Fred” because Solve360 is too hard to incorporate in every day speech and is so (dare I say?) old school.  But then, I lost the coin toss.

8.  You should now be able to answer this question with no further help from me.

Gotta go - it’s time for Elevensies here in Elfin land . . .

Kathleen

Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/kathleenhoward

You had to read the initial message + parts 1 and 2 to understand why there is a part 3 to this email.  I almost replied in a similar manner than realized he was actually praising Solve360 for both an outstanding product and effort by sharing his novel of an email :)

I just found Solve360 but after working with no less than 6 other solutions - i think i have truly found a home for our company.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan.

rkrause -

You are so right.  Drew had been very busy . . . . I had not noticed his earlier, longer posts.

Hopefully, the comments will work for those ADD folks who like short answers.

Kathleen

Hey Kathleen and Ryan,

True, it is a novel.  But I can also do it Hemmingway style: CRM nightmares. Discovered Norada.  Bright future.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

Drew

Drew,

Great response.  LOVE Hemingway.  Was going to respond with a Haiku, but that was taking too long and this is (after all) one of those days when I should be generating some $$$, so I am responding as one of my cellmates might (those would be the non-techies) – if required to compare our old CRM with S360:

“My old system was, like, ok but those little sticky notes would keep losing their stick’um and that was causing a bunch of y’know . . . .  issues.

I mean that idea we had of using different colored notes for different kinds of client and product was just SUPER – (belly bump) but the stick’um thingee was a tough one to overcome.

And, like, it was just a HUGE idea when “The Millenial”* noted that we had a lot of portability because we could use the sticky notes at the office; on our pc’s; at home; in the car, etc.  – Like Wow!  I thought we had died and gone to heaven.  No worries about the internet; batteries; or getting the planets to y’know line up or something like that . .

But then that stick’um kept losing its, um . . . . . what do you call that?  Um . . . . stickiness? So that when I was, like, in the car the AC would blow them all around the inside of the car and I lost a few of the stickies on “acccounta” some of them getting stuck to passengers and just walking away from me . . . . what-evah . .

But this Norada thingee is way cool – still miss the colors of the stickies but now that we can get S360 to transfer its stuff to an apple thingee I can carry it with me and it sticks to the car way better than those sticky notes.  Dunno about the name but the app is DOPE.”

The above “review” is almost true.  We migrated from GoldMine thru a crevasse of methods that included the one above.  Then vetted 48 products before bumping into Steve Ireland and his former product.  This one ROCKS.  As for the reference to The Millenial – he truly is a team mate and he is in every sense a Millenial.  We practically have to give him a daily Certificate of Appreciation.