BitPlusCMS 

It is critical for businesses to manage customer related information. Such information is stored in different formats, either on paper or on computer in applications like Word, Excel, FrontPage etc. This makes searching and retrieving them difficult and also time consuming. Also as the customer base keeps increasing day by day, managing their profiles effectively becomes important. Not only storing but communication with the customer at right time is equally important. If the information is not communicated to the right customer at the right time, there is a risk of losing the customer. Many CRM-based software are available for the purpose.

BitPlusCMS is a standalone Windows application designed particularly for managing profiles of customers and associates. It manages only the contact and communication management part of the CRM domain.

The installation takes only a few steps and system requirements are also very low. We tested the standard version. It also has an alarm to remind of important messages and tasks.

Features



The software is divided into a number of modules. The master module has pre built templates for recording details of different types of companies, their addresses etc. The contact module allows you to enter individual customer and company details. For example, for each customer you can store their likes, number of cars they own, credit cards they use and communication preference such as e-mail, fax and phones. 

Send reminders,email updates from BitPlus

The query module fetches the records entered using the contact module. The queries can be saved for later use. But this module lacks the option to query about specific details of the customer. For example, you cannot fetch information about a customer who has more than five credit cards and at least four cars. This kind of specific information is important for financialservices and like this. 

The communication module keeps track of all communication for each customer. You can directly dial a phone number from this software, instead of having to use your phone dial pad. There is no facility of sending out faxes from the software. The software has a built-in wizard for sending and managing e-mail. With Outlook Express, this wizard uses some of its features such as spell check, font colors, etc. The wizard has options such as tracking of already sent mail on a per-customer basis, reminders, follow-ups and updates, which can be set up easily. Repetition tracking option helps you track messages sent to your customers and avoid the same messages from being sent again.

The scheduler module manages the meetings, tasks to be done and appointment details.

The report module builds customizable reports, which can be saved for viewing later. But we found a bug in this module which causes text overlapping when zoom level is reduced, rendering the reports unusable. We have reported this issue to the vendor.

The software comes with a built-in RTF and HTML editor to compose documents so you don't need MS Word or other editors. Plus the software can back up and restore data either on the local drive or remotely on network drive. 

The software comes with a single-user license. A nominal amount has to be paid for upgrades. Currently, only the 'standard' version is available, but the 'professional' and 'enterprise' versions are expected soon. 

The competition



Outlook 2003 offers even better features with Microsoft Business Contact Manager but the system requirements for running Outlook 2003 are much higher than for

BitPlusCMS. 

Small businesses can go for open-source CRM software such as SugarCrm and hibergate, which run on a Web browser. But installing and configuration takes time. We found that the SugarCrm demo online has a better look, feel and search options compared to BitPlus. SugarCrm, however, lacks report generation, backup and restore options.

The bottom line: A good buy for companies with non-computer savvy customer management teams, of less than five employees.

Sushil Oswal