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Alternatives to Salesforce

Salesforce Customers Share A Few Things In Common:

Salesforce’s strength lies in its tools for basic sales functionality and is useful if the data entry is minimal. People often choose Salesforce for similar reasons: its popularity, its bells and whistles, and its credibility. But once a company actually establishes itself using Salesforce, it often finds itself spending more and more money on basic features.

For example, a quick web search uncovers some common issues encountered by Salesforce users.

1) User unfriendliness; hours spent on tutorials
2) Nothing is a click away, the intricacy of the application requires many clicks to complete the simplest of tasks
3) Low storage amounts included in packages, massive fees arise after surpassing those limits unknowingly
4) Inability to search contacts by account name
5) Lack of full email integration capabilities requiring a third party add-on
6) No product catalog requiring a third party add-on
7) Very little customizability without upgrading
8) Limited multiple currency management
9) Hidden costs, lengthy contracts
10) The original cost is double/triple that of most competitors

After signing up for Salesforce, many companies soon realize they also need a project management and billing application as well business CRM software. They then have to spend thousands more monthly for these add-on applications and work out how to integrate with Salesforce.

Alternatives to Salesforce

Customers ultimately wonder why they can’t just find one tool that covers all three of these features. WORKetc does just that. WORKetc is a total business management platform that combines CRM, project management software, and billing into one smoothly flowing system. Forget about spending thousands monthly adding new applications and dealing with hidden costs, WORKetc will cover all aspects of your business for a quarter of the cost. WORKetc offers all the basic features of Salesforce but also much more:

- Instant conversion of leads into projects/quotes/invoices
- Simple and easy to use interface with drag and drop web 2.0 features
- Email marketing - built in
- Collaborate and share/assign leads
- Product catalog
- Locate contacts easily through a variety of ways including tagging
- Email integration
- Thousands of customized settings
- Customer portal access and collaboration
- No hidden costs
- Monthly payments, no contracts - leave any time.

Here is what Martin Byrne of Search Engine People from Ontario, Canada had to say about WORKetc:

“We did due diligence with everything from Salesforce to Zoho CRM and your system was the only affordable, easy to use system that allowed us to manage business from first call to last invoice. There are lots of things we wish it could do, but we all want lots of software to do more. I’ve used a number of SMB Operations systems over the years (and parts thereof) and this promises to be one of the best affordable integrated systems I’ve worked with.”

Don’t let your CRM platform nickel and dime you to death. WORKetc offers everything its competitors offer plus more; this comparison chart says it all. Do not fear the transition, WORKetc’s staff will even help you import your contacts!

Still in doubt? Take a moment to review the comparison chart below.

Feature	WORKetc	Salesforce*	Highrise & Basecamp	Zoho CRM + Projects	SugarCRM
Total cost (5 users - unlimited everything else)	$195/month	$1150/month	$198/month	$165/month	$275/month
CRM	WORKetc	Salesforce	Highrise	Zoho CRM	SugarCRM
Assign Sales Leads	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Qualify leads, set status	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
View sales pipeline	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Collaborate on leads	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set sales actions & alerts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Web forms for leads	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Generate detailed reports	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Convert leads to quote, project, or invoice	Yes	No	No	No	No
Project Management	WORKetc	Salesforce*	Basecamp	Zoho Projects	SugarCRM
Client collaboration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Unlimited sub projects	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Gantt Chart View	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Project dependency	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Prioritise sub projects	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Set alerts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Time sheet & milestone billing	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Billing & Time sheets	WORKetc	Salesforce*	37 Signals	Zoho Billing	SugarCRM
Time sheet billing	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Product catalog	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Subscription billing	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Multiple currencies	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Invoice tracking	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Future cash flow report	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Desktop timer widget	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Paypal, Google checkout & gateways	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Other Cool Stuff	WORKetc	Salesforce*	37 Signals	Zoho Billing	SugarCRM
Help Desk Software	Yes	No	No	No	No
Document Management	Yes	No	No	No	No
Easy customization options	Yes	No	No	No	No
14 Day Free Trial	Get Started

Download and view the original CRM Comparison spreadsheet here (updated August 2010)

*Please note: All new feature additions under Salesforce for Project Management/Billing and Time Sheets/Other Cool Stuff that say YES are extra paid additions and do not come with the Salesforce CRM original package. Without these paid additions, every single feature listed within the Project Management/Billing and Time Sheets/Other Cool Stuff that says yes would say NO. Without the additional paid Dreamteam and FinancialForce apps, monthly cost is $325. With the addition of Dreamteam/FinancialForce apps the monthly cost is $1150.