I’ve been touting the virtues of web-based software here on ReadyMadeWeb for quite some time, and recently I’ve talked a bit about how SalesForce is the ideal solution for non-profits looking for a comprehensive, easy, and worry-free database solution. Though I’ve worked with SalesForce, I’m not a day-to-day user, so I thought I ought to get someone on ReadyMadeWeb to talk to our audience about why SalesForce is so great.
Thankfully, I ended up talking to Nathan Spiwak of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation (and soon-to-be certified SalesForce consultant) when I recently spoke there on the subject of web traffic measurement. Spiwak was kind enough to answer a bunch of a questions I sent him via email.
After talking about tools like content management systems (CMS), customer relations management (CRM) software, bulk emailers, social networks, web forms, and a bunch of other tools here on ReadyMadeWeb, it seemed like it was time to do an overview of these tools and outline how to run an entire organization using only ReadyMade tools.
For a small non-profit, it’s impossible to beat SalesForce.com at a customer relations management (CRM) solution. Through SalesForce.com Foundation, this revolutionary web-based database is available for up to 10 users at absolutely no cost and additional users can be added at incredibly discounted rates. SalesForce.com comes with all the advantages web-based software like enhanced security, managed backup, accessibility from any web browser, and SalesForce.com is regularly updated three times per year—updates which require no involvement from customers and are guaranteed never to break customizations.
Many non-profits may resist the notion of switching to Google Apps because its productivity software—Docs & Spreadsheets—lacks many of the features that Microsoft’s Office suite contains. However, a transition to Google Apps doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposal. Adopting Google Apps to replace your Microsoft Exchange email server can save your organization a heap of cash without having to abandon your Microsoft Office desktop-based applications.
The primary reason to switch from Exchange to Google Apps is price. In January, I wrote a head-to-head comparison of Exchange & Google Apps which noted a study showing that adopting Google Apps Premium could cut the average company’s email hosting costs by about 65% when compared to Microsoft Exchange and by about 55% when compared with Microsoft’s own cloud-based email service.
But the premium addition of Google’s email offering is likely overkill more most non-profits. Google Apps Standard Edition offers a whopping 7.4GB per inbox, offers full POP3 and IMAP email compatibility, and boasts bevy of free applications for the Blackberry, iPhone, and Android.
Finally, Google Apps integrates seamlessly with SalesForce, allowing you to instantly add notes to customer contact records whenever you send an email. No more clunky copy/paste needed!
Your website needs to be flexible keep up with the pace of technology. That’s the primary reason why ReadyMadeWeb recommend WordPress and Drupal, the only self-hosted CMS solutions used in our portfolio.
According to Water & Stone’s 2009 Open-Source CMS Report, Drupal and WordPress weekly downloads clock in at 62,500 and 433,767 respectively, making them gargantuan in comparison to their competitors. These thriving communities of users and developers are the driving forces behind the flexibility of these platforms.
As both WordPress and Drupal are open-source, additions to the projects are also shared amongst the community of users. This means that rather than paying a developer to add social networking features to your website—a job that could cost tens of thousands of dollars on a proprietary platform—you can pay a developer to simply implement one of the many freely available add-ons that’s just sitting on the (virtual) shelf.
Too many non-profits are spending their donors hard-earned money making web design companies rich when they could be embracing open-source solutions.
Google Analytics integrates with Drupal and WordPress to measure your website’s performance and also integrates with SalesForce and MailChimp to track customer conversion rates and traffic from email campaigns.
Once you have people interested in your cause, you need to stay on their radar. You can keep that presence of mind by sending regular emails updating your supporters, contacts in the media, and colleagues at other organizations. Using a bulk email solutions like MailChimp will ensure that your emails aren’t blocked by spam filters and will also allow you to measure how frequently your emails are opened and what links your recipients are clicking on.
MailChimp also features out-of-the-box integration with Google Apps and SalesFoce, allowing you populate lists with the contacts you’ve gathered using either platform.
Price: $0 per month for up to 500 subscribers. Pay plans vary from $10 for to $240 per month based on your number of subscribers.
To easily gather information about donors, process donations, and automatically populate your database and email lists, check out FormSpring. SalesForce, MailChimp, and Google Apps integrations make this web form creation service a no-brainer for non-profits following the ReadyMadeWeb approach to web software.
Price: $0 for up to 10 forms and 50 sign-ups a month. Pay plans vary from $14 to $159 per month based on number of forms and entries.
Update 6/7/2010: FormSpring has changed its name to FormStack.
There are all sorts of other great ReadyMade services and open-source software platforms out there that also integrate with many of the platforms we’ve talked about here. Keep reading ReadyMadeWeb to learn about more and feel free to email us at info@readymadeweb.com if you ever want advice choosing the right solutions form your non-profit. We’re glad to help.
Many programs—especially bulk emailers and payment systems—have their own form creators which will generate a form for your website, but that form is single-purpose, processing data for only that one program. Its great that services provide these form-creation features, but they just don’t cover situations like automatically processing a payment, adding a person to your CRM, and placing them on a bulk email list.
Up until recently this sort of data processing could only be done by paying a developer to build a customized HTML/javascript form that would send information out to all the services you employed. But with so many people using the same set of popular services out there, a clear space in the market has developed for data collection form experts to simplify the process and give more control to site owners.
That space has been filled by services like Wufoo, FormSpring, and StringTwo software, which offer data collection forms that are incredibly easy to build and even easier to plug-in to a whole variety of other services.
Wufoo - The biggest feature offered by WuFoo is its incredibly wide range of 3rd party integrations. The bulk emailers covered are Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, CakeMail, and Sendloop. Website building services Yola and BroadChoice are coveredalong with Amazon’s human-powered automation service Mechanical Turk, which is a big plus for anyone needing data review to be done by hand but outside their own shop.
FormSpringFormStack - With drop-dead easy drag and drop interface, FormSpring FormStack is a technical solution fit for even the most non-technical person. FormSpring FormStack’s functionality and ease-of-use is covered on their What it Does page which includes a quick video overview.
Though FormSpring FormStack doesn’t integrate with as many services as WuFoo, it does offer integration with SalesForce. So if you’re a SalesForce user, FormSpring FormStack is your solution for data collection.
Update 6/7/2010: FormSpring has changed its name to FormStack.
StringTwo - If you’re an advanced user who would rather implement a licensed software solution than pay a monthly fee, then StringTwo may be your answer. Currently, StringTwo offers form processors for HighRise or FreshBooks for $39.00. Both processors create new contact records in HighRise or FreshBooks when any data is added to them, which could be an issue for businesses that see a lot of repeat traffic through their website. That said, if you’re just looking to get information into HighRise or Freshbooks, why choose anything else? The cost savings make the one-time implementation well worth the effort.
If you’re looking for a Customer Relations Management (CRM) solution, I strongly recommend HighRise by 37Signals, the CRM solution we use at ReadyMadeWeb. There are a lot of other CRM solutions on the market, so why choose this one? It really comes down to four reasons: simplicity, web accessibility, price, and extensibility.
Simpler is Better
Simplicity is really what software should be all about, but that’s rarely the case. Too often people choose the most feature-heavy software title because they believe more features equals better software. Its understandable why this happens—you want to get the most for your money. But software isn’t just about the number of features, it’s about usability, and a big factor in usability is cutting away unnecessary features in order to make the software intuitive and friendly—you shouldn’t have to force yourself to use a tool that’s supposed to make your working life easier.
Usability is where HighRise excels. Not only does its focus on the core tasks of CRM software keep it from being a cluttered mess of buttons, it helps keep you focused on the core elements of your business, namely the people you interact with, the conversations you have with them, and the tasks you need to complete to get paid.
Brief Aside: This isn’t software for people who can’t tear themselves away from Gantt Charts or Event Chain Diagrams. But really, unless you’re constructing the Three Gorges Damndo you really need to be diagramming things all day?
So let’s walk through the features that make up this elegant simplicity. One of my favorite features and perhaps the most mind-blowingly simple and obvious thing that HighRise does is track your contacts in a way that is nearly effortless. Capturing a conversation is as easy as blind carbon copying (BCC) or forwarding emails to your HighRise account. Each account is given a unique, numbered email address which will capture your emails and either add them to existing contact records or create new contacts when needed. For added security, HighRise will ask you to authorize which addresses can send email to this address, so if your address were to become publicly known, your account would become filled with spam contact records.
HighRise also contains much of the same sort of contact management you would imagine from a simple CRM. It allows you to create contacts, associate them with a company, look-up everyone you know at that company, and enter notes from conversations. A powerful tagging feature also exists which works much like the tagging function within Gmail. You can look-up everyone with the same tag or set of tags, creating an endless number of possible associations between records that you can tailor to fit your organization’s needs.
HighRise also enables you to create reminders that can be sent via email or text message, so you’ll never forget an estimate that needs to be sent, a phone-call to the printers, or a upcoming meeting. You can also manage leads and assign tasks to other members of your team, keeping everyone coordinated.
The Advantage of Web-Based Software
I’ve talked about this before on ReadyMadeWeb, but it’s worth reviewing why web-based software is so great. By locating your applications on the web, you’re ensuring that your data is centralized and organized, rather than tucked away in disorganized folders, spread across multiple computers. By centralizing and organizing your data using web-base software, you’re also making that data accessible to everyone on your team at all times. That applies to more than just location, it also applies to platform—PC, Mac, and even Linux machines can access your web-based applications and data. Any computer or smart phone with a web browser will work.
Web-based software also frees you from managing IT infrastructure. You’re not an expert in security, backup, rolling out office-wide software updates, or keeping track of software installations on dozens of machines—but thanks to companies like 37Signals you don’t have to be. Even if you already have an IT staff, you’re better off placing your data in the hands of a company that specializes in managing data and building software. This will free up your IT staff to work where their comparative advantage really lies, in helping your staff work with technology. Let them do what they do best and outsource the rest.
That’s the real power of web-based software, it saves your organization the time and worry of managing your own IT infrastructure. Why are you buying, setting-up, and maintaining costly servers? Why are you having planning sessions about upgrading to the latest version of your expensive software package? Stop wasting your time.
Price
HighRise is incredibly cheap when compared to the competition. ReadyMadeWeb uses the free version of HighRise, which limits us to two users, 250 contacts, and no file storage. You can easily try out HighRise using this free plan. If you like what you see, you can choose plans ranging from $24 to $149 per month. The highest priced plan has no user limit, 75GB of online storage, and will support up to 50,000 contacts—this is incredibly cheap by industry standards, totaling only $1788 per year.
The Virtuous Cycle of Easy, Cheap & Open
Software is extensible when it’s easy for other developers to make additions to that software’s functionality, but what motivates developers to create add-ons for software?
The biggest barriers to adoption of software is price and learning curve, so the cheaper and easier the software, the more people are likely to use it. A large user base is attractive to other developers—they’d rather write software for 100,000 users than 1,000 users. If a popular platform is open to add-ons—that is, if it provides developers with a way to access a user’s data when the user grants them permission—then developers will make their products compatible with that cheap and easy software. This attracts more developers. And so on, and so on, creating a virtuous cycle.
These easy integrations just don’t happen with proprietary software hosted on your own servers because they fail to become part of the virtuous cycle of easy, cheap, and open software.
Conclusion
If you’re serious about your business or non-profit and if you can get beyond the idea that more features, buttons, boxes, and bobbles make software better, then HighRise can be a very powerful tool that will save you time, money, and countless headaches.
For a quick tour of HighRise, check out this video:
Note: Some organizations are so big and so complex that they need more features—it’s rare, but it happens. If that’s the case with your organization, ReadyMadeWeb recommends choosing SalesForce. Though it has a much higher price point than HighRise—from $65 to $250 per user per month—it still has all the benefits of web-based software including a cheaper overall cost than an in-house, proprietary software solution.
ReadyMadeWeb loves web-based software and there’s no better example of how software in the cloud can serve your business like SalesForce, especially when you combine it with Google Apps.
If you have any questions about about using SalesForce with Google Apps or any other web-based software, please email ReadyMadeWeb at info@readymadeweb.com.
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Wufoo
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