The CRM software sector offers a myriad of solutions for small businesses that have very simple or minimal requirements. This is because the cost of entry into this sector is very low.  Any solution provider that manages contacts, notes, activities and can produce a sales forecast falls into the small business CRM bucket. These products range in price from free to $19 per user per month, offer minimal customization, and often have limits with regard to how many contacts you can have and how much data you can store.  Reporting is also very limited. Customer service is via e-mail and other than training manuals and videos they don’t offer any professional services such as, assisting with creating a sales methodology, customization services, third party integration, lead generation or digital marketing services. Of course, this is by design. These companies cannot afford to offer an array of customer service for free or at their price points.

So, what can you do if you require more functionality and customizability than these solutions can offer?  Well, there are the big names like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These products offer a wealth of functionality, are highly customizable and scalable as well, and they offer a variety of professional services. The problem is they have been designed for Enterprise Level companies and as a such, offer too much functionality and are expensive and cumbersome to use. This middle market is an underserved sector, but there are a handful of “All-in-One” CRM solutions in this range. One of them is Commence CRM.

Commence CRM is a solution designed for and targeted at companies of 20 to 200 users.  What’s different about Commence?  First, Commence CRM is an All-in-One solution that in addition to the traditional functionality outlined earlier, Commence CRM offers Marketing Campaign Management, Lead Qualification and Scoring, a Help Desk Ticketing system with a Knowledgebase, FAQ, and a customer portal. In addition, Commence CRM offers an integrated Project Management system, is highly customizable, can be scaled to several hundred users, and offers integration to disparate third-party systems. Commence also offers an array of professional services for lead generation, sales enablement, and marketing campaign management services. See https://commence.com/ to learn more about these services. Commence CRM fills the gap between low end solutions that do not meet the needs of midsize companies and the enterprise guys that are too expensive and too hard to use.

You can see the product in action via the link below and free trials are available.