Whether you work in sales, advertising, or even journalism, your business will always need a way to manage projects, tasks, professional contacts, and calendar appointments.
It's common to spread each of these tasks among your Outlook, Google Apps, or address book. But with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, you can keep all your information in one place and have it accessible to your colleagues.
There are several affordable and easy to use CRM options out there now. (Even some free, open source ones). We listed the best services here.
Zoho is an affordable CRM option
Features: Zoho is a full suite of web-based business apps that are designed to compete with big boys like Microsoft and Google. But Zoho is not afraid to offer the standard set of CRM features while still integrating data from Google Apps, Outlook, QuickBooks, and many more third party services. There's also a suite of more than 30 Zoho apps ranging from chat to document publishing that makes Zoho an excellent web-based Office alternative.
The good: Google Apps integration, affordable pricing plan, and a mobile site optimized for iPhone.
The Bad: Lacks connection to social media sites like LinkedIn or Twitter.
Price: Zoho is a freemium service. The top-tier plan costs $25 per user per month. Click here for more pricing details.
Free CRM isn't pretty, but it'll get the job done
Features: Free CRM will give you all the basic features such as calendars, contacts, and task management for free. (Up to five users). PC World rated Free CRM one of the best free online business tools.
The good: The price is right.
The Bad: The dashboard is an eye sore, PC World says its difficult to set up.
Price: Free for up to five users. Premium plans are available for more users and include extra features.
Salesforce is one of the most popular CRMs available
Features: Salesforce has too many features and options to list here. You can start with a simple contacts manager or opt for the full suite of features that includes 24/7 support. The fact that several cheaper CRMs integrate Salesforce into their services is further proof that this is one of the best services in the business.
The good: Excellent interface, iPhone app, and a million dashboard tools.
The Bad: Salesforce isn't cheap, but it's one of the best.
Price: Starts at $5 per user per month for up to five users. Click here to see a breakdown of each plan.
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