Insightly

That we could customize. We were able to make this software work for our needs, which were a bit different than how the typical sales team might. We can track our orders and do great reporting.
Dashboards are very nice feature. Ability to customize pipelines very helpful and visuals are great. Customer support team is helpful and responsive.

Integration with our needs was a bit difficult. Our sales person seemed to understand what we needed to accomplish but I don't think the customer care person is as savvy. Customization is great, but if it impacts how you can report items or get most accurate data, user needs to understand that. We got creative in how we used items and where possible, didn't customize, just repurposed so we got the benefit of the connections Insightly makes. In our haste to be up and using, I don't think enough time was spent on that and rework was involved.

I absolutely love the to-do list. It makes it so much easier to assign tasks to my employees. I always prefer to have tasks written down to verbal tasks, so this program helps so much in that aspect. I also really like the clean, efficient look to this program. It makes it very easy to use and is not as cluttered as other similar programs. I loved the training videos that helped my employees learn the ins and outs of the program. The fact that there is tech support readily available is also a plus. I hate having only email or only phone support available, but Insightly has both!

It’s rather pricey. The free version does not provide all of the features that make this product worthwhile over the competitors’. To get all of the features, you have to pay more, which makes sense, just not for small business owners. The fact that a higher plan is required to forward emails is a big minus. It’s something that almost all businesses need but paying the amount for the professional version is not necessarily a cost that can be justified. I believe that if this program were a little bit less expensive it would be more useful for small and new businesses.

They offer a free version to evaluate. Since it is without a time limit I used it and gradually became totally dependent on it. During a planning meeting with staff it was determined we could increase our efficiency by adding the professional version that includes email marketing tools and an easy interface with MailChimp. Now they have my paid business. It is with confidence that I agree to pay them for a monthly service that will be used by all members of my company. The program can accommodate the growth curve in a company such as mine. We started out simply needing contact management software. Later as our sales and marketing needs became more our focus adding these features was an easy decision. There are many videos to quickly bring a new user up to speed. The experienced user can use the videos to explore the many functions that may yet be used by a company as needs and goals change. The reporting function has recently become important as we need to know the results of our marketing and sales efforts. The tool is there and ready for us to implement. I think the more our company commits to using Insightly the more our communication between owners and employees improves. We openly share information on Insightly and our feedback has been positive. In the past before Insightly, communication was dispersed informally and sometimes led to bad feelings due to the inefficiency of word of mouth. Insightly is constantly making changes and updates to its software.

Its not visually pretty. I know that is silly but staff has to look at it all day and they like pretty.
When a new user/employee first looks at program they make the mistake of thinking it is an old program. While I am able to bring them along and show them it isn't true, their first impression is a temporary detriment to their learning curve and acceptance of the program. In order for Insightly to be the awesome tool it is, requires employee and leader acceptance. Everyone on the team has input and others depend on that input to do their job. Sloppy work seems to come from lack of acceptance. Part of this is my responsibility as a leader to insist everyone use the tools as intended but again, if the program had a new interface and pretty colors it might make a difference. Personally I always choose function first and then presentation but input from staff is a factor I have to consider. One other area I would mention is the difference between leads and contacts. They are not intuitive to some people and I think a better explanation and reinforcement in training videos would make it easier for the new user. This confusion has lead to some mistakes by my users that require a bit of corrective action by more experienced users. There is very little for me to find wrong with Insightly that isn't based on personal style and preferences.