Best CRM tool for Mac?

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I'm a Mac user that converted to PC because of perceived TCO and just converted back after about 4 years on Winblows. I'm currently using Sage Act! software as my CRM tool to manage contacts, appointments, opportunities, etc. and sync with my Treo.



What are the best CRM applications for Mac and do they sync with handhelds?



I know of Reidlin Account Executive and Opportunity Manager... any opinions on those? Any others?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 56
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    I use ical, address book and a .mac subscription.



    Works fine for me.
  • Reply 2 of 56
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    It would help a great deal if you specified what, specifically, you need, what's important for you, what you've already tried, why you didn't like it, etc.
  • Reply 3 of 56
    beleybeley Posts: 30member
    I can live with just about anything... but it has to sync to my Treo 600. I have just under 1000 contacts and have imported them into the Address Book in OSX but it's kind of limited.



    I'd like something that can track opportunities (I'm in sales/consulting) and attach documents (or link rather).
  • Reply 4 of 56
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
  • Reply 5 of 56
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
  • Reply 6 of 56
    fahlmanfahlman Posts: 740member
    Daylite or Redlien's Account Executive.



    I see that Daylite is out of beta. I tried it a few times but never had much time to really use it to see how good it was. Though the new GUI is much improved.
  • Reply 7 of 56
    beleybeley Posts: 30member
    Thanks for the suggestions -- I downloaded a few demos and am trying them now.
  • Reply 8 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by beley View Post


    Thanks for the suggestions -- I downloaded a few demos and am trying them now.



    Hey beley,



    Just curious which one of these solutions you ended up going with. I am in the process of picking out a CRM for my company as well.



    Did you ever take a look at Filemaker?
  • Reply 9 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    As far as I know, Redlien's dead in the water. You can still purchase it from the site, but the developer seems to be MIA. The blog hasn't been touched since 2006 and the comments from VersionTracker say it all.



    Daylite's interface is still confusing and un-Maclike. I know the developers are from OpenStep, but they've been on the platform for years. MWSF saw some good integration with key business apps, but the product's still not going to go anywhere without an interface overhaul.



    Nighthawk from Now Contact and Contactizer Pro from Objective Decision are both lightyears ahead of Daylite in interface design.



    Unfortunately, there are also light years behind in adding a CRM module. From the talk on their blogs, Nighthawk's CRM module won't be out for maybe a couple of years. Contactizer's coders don't seem to be all that impressed with the idea of adding sales features to their contact manager at all.



    If their a bright light at the end of this tunnel, it's Bento. No, Filemaker's little sibling doesn't do CRM (at least not well) but the fact that it exists at all means that Filemaker X can't ship without picking up its ability to talk to Address Book and iCal.



    With that piece of the puzzle in place, we will finally be able to really replace ACT on the Mac, whether Filemaker builds a truly first class Mac competitor (my preferred solution) or some enterprising programmer does it for them.
  • Reply 10 of 56
    After countless hours of searching and playing I found a little company that makes a plug in for Filemaker called: Youmehub. It is simple to the point and has decent calendar functionality.





    With your experience Frank, what do you think about the filemaker feature set in general? Is there a specific plugin extension that grabs your attention and which CRM in particular do you use?
  • Reply 11 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    One of the most frustrating things about Filemaker is that you know the program is capable of doing what you want it to do, but you can't get to the power of the program to harness it. Only really high level developers can, and even they haven't come up with an easy way to integrate standard Mac apps like Address Book, Mail and iCal.



    I have no idea why Filemaker never expanded their product line from being a one-trick pony to include quality CRM, Accounting and Project Management apps. Apple should have slapped them in the face years ago. I'm thinking that somebody finally realized that the company was owned by Apple, and needed to either support the platform properly or risk becoming even more irrelevant and sold off. Hence, Bento.



    I've been looking for a quality CRM for the Mac for years. Until I find something usable, I build a solution myself in Filemaker, but it lacks the integration with the Mac communication apps, the 'Dashboard' interface of today's CRMs and the polish of a real Mac solution.



    I'm hoping the next version of Filemaker will support integration with the iApps, along with Tag Clouds as in Things, the possibility of building a "sidebar-style" interface like Address Book and be a generally better Mac application. I could care less if it even gets upgraded on Windows.
  • Reply 12 of 56
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by beley View Post


    I'm a Mac user that converted to PC because of perceived TCO and just converted back after about 4 years on Winblows. I'm currently using Sage Act! software as my CRM tool to manage contacts, appointments, opportunities, etc. and sync with my Treo.



    What are the best CRM applications for Mac and do they sync with handhelds?



    I know of Reidlin Account Executive and Opportunity Manager... any opinions on those? Any others?



    Salesforce.com has some cool tools, but they may be a little pricy
  • Reply 13 of 56
    @Frank777 (and everyone),



    Thanks for the breakdown. I've tried every app you listed in your initial post with the exception of Filemaker. It really is too bad Contactizer and Nighthawk do not support sales workflows. I'm used to the workflow of ACT! but want to work on my mac. Also, I just feel like there has to be something better; like I'm restricted in a lot of ways. And, as a graphic designer, ACT is UGLY.



    For me, in their current forms, Redlien is actually the BEST thing I've found. Better than anything even on Windoze. It has a logical interface, nice workflow with follow-ups, activity logs with AWESOME report structure. And all with an easy to use and clean UI. One question... why has the dev dropped it!? He was onto something great! If I had the ability, I would ask him for the code and get to work on it myself, if just for personal use.



    If it were possible to get the code from the dev, is there a place where I could submit it for open source development?




    OK, as far as Filemaker and Bento...

    Bento doesn't even let you link tasks with contacts as far as I can see, so that's out. How do you work with Filemaker? How much time should I expect to spend getting it up and running? Is it worth the time? Does anyone know if they planning some big UI and sync improvements with Apple apps for version 10 (google gave me nothin)?



    -E
  • Reply 14 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eroc View Post


    @Frank777 (and everyone),



    Thanks for the breakdown. I've tried every app you listed in your initial post with the exception of Filemaker. It really is too bad Contactizer and Nighthawk do not support sales workflows. I'm used to the workflow of ACT! but want to work on my mac. Also, I just feel like there has to be something better; like I'm restricted in a lot of ways. And, as a graphic designer, ACT is UGLY.



    For me, in their current forms, Redlien is actually the BEST thing I've found. Better than anything even on Windoze. It has a logical interface, nice workflow with follow-ups, activity logs with AWESOME report structure. And all with an easy to use and clean UI. One question... why has the dev dropped it!? He was onto something great! If I had the ability, I would ask him for the code and get to work on it myself, if just for personal use.



    If it were possible to get the code from the dev, is there a place where I could submit it for open source development?




    I don't know. Redlien AE definitely had the right concept down, and a much more user-friendly interface than Daylite. Nobody seems to know what happened to Corey Redlien or why development has seemingly ground to a halt.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eroc View Post


    OK, as far as Filemaker and Bento...

    Bento doesn't even let you link tasks with contacts as far as I can see, so that's out. How do you work with Filemaker? How much time should I expect to spend getting it up and running? Is it worth the time? Does anyone know if they planning some big UI and sync improvements with Apple apps for version 10 (google gave me nothin)?



    I have also been looking for preliminary info on Filemaker 10 and have come up empty.

    The big question is whether they plan to separate the Mac and Windows codebase to allow the Mac version to be REALLY good. Links with Address Book and iCal are urgent needs and a Sales CRM won't go anywhere without them.



    AI really need to get the goods on Filemaker X. Fast.
  • Reply 15 of 56
    Another to look into would be Merlin, I don't know if it is more than what you need, but check it out nonetheless.



    http://www.merlin2.net/



    I say Daylite also one of the better choices as well.
  • Reply 16 of 56
    I was in the same boat as you. (Coming from windows ACT!)



    I use Daylite now and it does a fair job. I with some of the merging actions were simpler. I looked at Bento and it doesn't seem in depth enough for true CRM work. More like a basic list keeping file.
  • Reply 17 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Chronos has just updated SOHO Organizer to Version 7.0.



    I haven't heard much about SOHO Organizer other than version 5 was a train wreck.



    However, this new version seems to have everything I need except for sales management.



    Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with this one?
  • Reply 18 of 56
    eroceroc Posts: 3member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    Chronos has just updated SOHO Organizer to Version 7.0.



    Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with this one?



    For me, the ability to have contacts directly linked with tasks/notes is a MUST. This software doesn't appear to, but rather has a "iCal-like" approach to tasks.







    Just as a quick update- I've been using Highrise and I have to say that overall, I'm VERY happy. True, it doesn't have the reporting features of ACT! but I never used those anyway. (I would have used them in the form that Redlien had them in, but that story's over.)



    Things I LOVE about Highrise so far:

    - nice, CLEAN, user-friendly, logical, BEAUTIFULLY SIMPLE WEB 2.0 INTERFACE

    - I can use it on my Mac OR PC because it's a web app

    - fairly active development team (about 1 new feature every 3 weeks)

    - the plan I'm on right now is FREE! (and it's really all I need at the moment)



    It also meets my primary criteria for a CRM:

    - logical workflow centered around task completion and follow-up creation

    - tasks linked to contacts- easy interaction between them

    - mobile access (I'm trying out a couple of 3rd party mobile solutions for my Treo (mobile web)).



    By this point I must have tried (at least "clicked around") 20+ apps and visited the sites of another 20; prices ranging from free to $125/mo. Though I'm giving up some "features" with Highrise, it's got the one feature that REALLY matters- USABILITY. I actually WANT to look at and use the thing every day. (And you can't beat the price either.) There are also some really cool collaboration features for those working with at team.



    Here are some links:

    Highrise http://www.highrisehq.com/

    Mobile Highrise apps:

    Ncontxt http://ncontxt.com/

    WhoBook http://www.whobook.mobi/



    My personal Google Notebook on every app I researched (a good list of links to apps if nothing else)

    http://www.google.com/notebook/publi...YXIwoQ9s_RlP8i



    Hope this helps!

    Eric
  • Reply 19 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eroc View Post


    For me, the ability to have contacts directly linked with tasks/notes is a MUST. This software doesn't appear to, but rather has a "iCal-like" approach to tasks.



    If you go to the SOHO Product Page and scroll down to the Contact Management features, the third point from the bottom says that it can create and attach events, tasks and notes to contacts.
  • Reply 20 of 56
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    I'm giving serious thought to moving from Filemaker to the new version of SOHO Organizer.

    It seems like a well-thought out CRM (minus the sales tracking). Anybody using this one?



    Does anyone know if you can schedule recurring calls in SOHO?

    (To reminder you to call certain customers each month.)



    Does this use OpenBase or Apple's CoreData?
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