An interesting press release I stumbled across from Microsoft makes brief mention of it’s CRM strategy. I find it very interesting that Microsoft are choosing to enter this market, although not as aggressively as I would have thought. Word is on the street that they haven’t been pushing it too far because their CRM solution was left wanting, but also it is rumoured that they are bringing a new CRM solution to market that may turn the tables.

It will pay to keep a close eye on Microsoft over the next little while to see what happens.

I’ve been contemplating the need for a CRM solution for churches. Church is all about people, so why not have a software package that assists with managing all the related data about people?

Churches probably have more people interaction than a small business. A small business (in general) has set bounds that their people fit into, suppliers, customers, etc. Whereas a church has interactions with all sorts of people that aren’t bounded by anything! Some examples may be visitors, members, neighbours, council members, school principals, other church relationships, missions organisation relationships, equipment suppliers and local businesses, the list goes on!

There is an immense amount of people data that church have to deal with on a daily basis, yet most churches that I know of use technology sparingly. Why is that? Does this mean that there is no solution available for them? Maybe they don’t realise the power of a CRM system? I think the answer would be interesting, and a good challenge for a CRM solutions provider to overcome.

Recently I had the pleasure of e-mailing Clarke Scott of Vivid Software to ask him some questions about his CRM offerings currently under development. Here’s what he had to say.

Q: When did you start Vivid Software, and what were you reasons for starting it?
Vivid Software was started in February 2004. The reason I started Vivid Software is because I love building software and I have been building software as a consultant for quite a while now and I never really owned the whole process nor the product.
The beauty of being an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) and in my case a one person ISV or micro ISV is that you get to own the whole process. What to build, how to build it, when to build it. Marketing, sales the whole thing and I’m really enjoying it.

Q: Why develop another CRM software suite?
Well, I have some sales experience and I believe there is a gap in the CRM space.
Most of the CRM applications out there are multi user application and sale for between $250.00 to $400.00 per license. I believe there are business people out there that need a CRM application for their own use. There are also a lot of small sized businesses that could use a CRM application but don’t need multi user applications. However current there are many SME companies that try and run Goldmine or Act desktop application as a client/server application. I have personally seen this happen. A large Australian company I worked for a couple of years back tried this approach and it was a complete disaster. For this reason we will be building a real client/server application to meet the needs of this market. Again we will be trying to bring quality at an affordable price.

Q: What features will separate your CRM software from the competitors?
A modern user interface. I have designed the user interface to look and behave similar to Microsoft Office 2003. Whether you like or dislike Microsoft as a company most will agree that they do build good user interfaces. For this reason I wanted the UI to be modern and easy to use.

Q: What platform or operating systems will your software be compatible with?
Windows 98, 2000 and XP.

Q: Do you need to purchase any extra software packages to run your CRM software?
No.

Q: What type of industries will your software support? Are there any in particular that you are targeting specifically?
I have tried to design the application based on a process not an industry.
Different companies from within the same industry often have very different ways on doing business. I believe that CRM is not just a software application but, it’s a process.

Q: What major features are planned for version 1, and what does the
development plan look like over the first 12 months after release?
I plan on adding a quoting, marketing and Group’s modules over the next 12 months. These will be free to any existing customers. We will also start to design the Enterprise edition around Christmas 2005.

Q: What do you think about online CRM services? Do you have any intention of offering such features?
There are plenty of online CRM solutions out there and not an area that I want to get into. I also don’t see this as a developing market. With the advent of web services it is now very easy to build scalable and robust disconnected client/server application that don’t run inside a browser.

Q: How will licensing and pricing look? What should SME customers expect on release day?
The first public beta is around 6 weeks off and as for pricing. I would like to make it as cheap as possible. We have not yet come up with the final price but it will most likely be $199.95 per license.

Q: What kind of technical support are you offering for potential customers?
Support will be provided via Skype www.skype.com and email.

Q: Getting technical, what technologies are you using to develop your CRM
system (development language, database platform, etc)?
The application is built using Microsoft’s .Net framework 1.1, C# and MSDE as the database. It is an N-Tier application in design and uses multiple threads wherever possible.