Well Prophet CRM has some features that I like:
- Outlook integration (which I like as I’m also running LinkedIn for outlook which as CRM functionality too)
- List management (includes grouping and filtering for prospect companies which takes a little getting used to but still quite effective)
- More detailed and flexible reporting of pipelines, follow up dates etc
- Reasonably good online tutorials
However I have found it has the following disadvantages:
- Not free – and no free trail – I am using the On-Demand version at $20 a month. The full personal version is $200.
- Outlook only
- Slow – although I’ve found this to be the case for all CRMs, particularly Outlook based ones which are resource hungry and web based ones which aren't AJAX or based on similar technologies. Prophet appears to be just mildly faster than BCM
- Website Enquires – have to set up manual Outlook rules to move enquiries into the Opportunity Manager folder (haven’t tried this yet)
- Contact sharing (Microsoft Exchange)requires Premium version $400
- Automated follow-ups requires Advanced Edition edition $300
- No timesheeting function
- Can’t be integrated easily
Their sales crew appeared to be completely automated which meant I couldn't get great pre-sales advice.
Some specific bugs did rear their head, although their support seems to be active. One in particular I found annoying was that although I could generate reports with data in Excel, the inbuilt functions of the Report Manager (preview and view) in Standard modes did not work. No matter what I did, they came up blank. However their support staff called me on the phone and diagnosed the problem, which was a conflict with Brother P-Touch's software. They also provided me with some training and advice.
Despite the problems, Avidian seems to be ok and slightly more productive than slower online CRMs - Salesforce sucks and SugarCRM is ok, but in my opinion fatally flawed.
