Cheap CRM Solutions

By Neil Zawacki
Updated: August 11, 2011

Many small businesses need a CRM solution but just doesn’t have the budget available to large corporations. This article will discuss several inexpensive solutions and the benefits they can offer to your company.

ZohoCRM - Zoho CRM allows you to directly manage your Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support activities. You can manage leads and track sales activities, as well as generate sales quotes for potential customers. You can also generate customizable reports that can be stored in public or private folders. In addition, the software comes with a comprehensive integrated inventory management system.

There are a few limitations if you decide to stick with the free version. You won’t be able to set up auto-responders for emails or have role-based or workflow-based security within the system. These features can be added for a monthly fee that is cheaper than the majority of CRM solutions, however.

Office Interactive CRM – This CRM solution allows you to manage and share documents with fellow employees and people from other organizations. You can prioritize emails with special icons, monitor the progress of team tasks, and discuss plans on personal blogs and message boards. You can also use the software to convert emails into documents, appointments, cases, project tasks and leads.

The system is extremely user friendly and can be accessed from anywhere at any time. It also automatically comes with location based user access permission and round-the-clock network security monitoring. In addition, the vendor provides free setup assistance technical support for the first ninety days.

FreeCRM – FreeCRM allows you to manage phone and email campaign and fully automate your sales team. You can create custom tasks for your business, assign them to specific employees, and provide status updates to people as needed. FreeCRM also comes with an extensive document management features and lets you generate more than 70 different types of reports.

They offer a free version of the software that supports up to fifty users. If you are willing to upgrade to the pro version, you gain access to 128-bit SSL Encryption, unlimited mail storage, advanced synchronization, and enhanced email campaigns. It’s also pay as you go – no need to sign a long term contract with the company.

Appshore – Appshore is an online customer relationship management solution with a cheap and flexible pricing plan. The software allows you to generate sales leads, manage email marketing campaigns, organize activities and set up an extensive list of contacts. It also comes with roles based access control that lets you restrict parts of the system to specific users.

The software creates a daily backup of changes that is stored for 30 days, so you won’t necessarily lose all your data if the system crashes. It also allows you to customize the solution by adding drop down lists, logos, and personalized translations. Furthermore, the vendor offers a 30-day trial of the solution if you would like to try it out ahead of time.