We are a small company, looking for an easy solution to use, low cost of implementation, and low cost of ongoing support CRM package
We are a small company, looking for an easy solution to use, low cost of
implementation, and low cost of ongoing support CRM package. We have Office
2003 w/BCM throughout our company, and have evaluated BCM 2003 and found it
to be lacking. Now we see BCM 2007, and we think it is still lacking, but
might be more acceptable. We have some issues that we need to resolve before
we can move forward with this.
1. We have a SBS 2003 server at our home office, but most of our employees
work from home offices. They need to access the server data, which we
understand we can accomplish via VPN connections. However, we want to ensure
that no one makes a copy of the entire database on their individual computer.
How can we force the issue of not letting individual users establish offline
capability?
2. We would like to separate individuals from seeing all contacts. In
essence, we want our sales people to see client contacts, and purchasing
people to see purchasing contacts only. We think we understand that, with
BCM, users are all in only, and that we have no security controls over what
contacts that they can see. However, we can have two databases, and grant
the appropriate priveledges so that sales people only have access to the
client contacts, and purchasing people only have access to their contacts.
Is this the only alternative that we have? Is there a different solution?
There are people in our company that need access to both sides of the fence,
and I was curious if I have to flip flop between the two databases or not?
3. If I have to use two databases, how does the auto linking of emails
work? Will the emails that get in from clients go to the client database
contact records and the emails that I receive from the purchasing contacts go
to the appropriate contact in the purchasing database?
4. If we have the full versions of SQL Server, does BCM still use the SQL
Server Express, or can we get it to work with the bigger/better SQL that we
own?
5. In reviewing various postings on this discussion board, it seems like
BCM is somewhat cludged together, and doesn't fully use Exchange or sub
folders (which would have solved our issue with two separate databases I
believe). Is there any hope that this will be addressed, or should we embark
on finding a third party solution better suited to our needs? I have only
seen one person on this board singing the praises of Avidian's Prophet, but I
haven't read any other suggestions from anyone else of any other products
without having to invest $$$$ into MS Dynamics CRM. I should mention that we
evaluated ACT! 2007 Premium for Workgroups and found so many issues with it
in the first week that we shelved it right away. We don't want to waste our
time (don't have enough of it) or money (again - don't have enough of it).
We would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks in advance for anyones help....
I'll answer by your numbering below:
1. You could require them to work online all the time, and not make an
offline copy. The ability to backup the database is disabled but I don't
think the File, Export is disabled. That said, I think that someone who
knows what they're doing could get a copy of your data.
2. You're correct -- users are either all in or all out. You could use two
different databases but you can't specify that Bob only sees this part of
one database. You can filter the views so that they only see the contacts
you want them to (based on conditions you create in the filter), but someone
who knows what they're doing can change the filter. If this is for
convenience, it'll work fine. If it's for security, it's not very secure.
3. The email linking might miss a few. You would have to manually tell BCM
to go Search and Link emails at the end of the day, for example, in each
database.
4. You can use SQL Standard instead of SQL Express.
5. Sad about ACT!, I know... MS CRM will do what you want... I know Tim is
very strong on Avidian's Prophet and other consultants I know have good
things to say also. I'd like to HOPE that MS will add BCM to Exchange's
powers which would solve all this quite nicely. Another vote from you will
help! There are other solutions out there that can handle the security you
want, but none at BCM's price point.