REVIEW DATE: February 2009

When I began this 3 week review I was thrown into a program I had no idea how to navigate through. I had seen the demo, but like with most demos they show the program from an unfair advantage. The demonstrator is well trained and shows what they want to show. However, when doing a review I want the freedom to use the program as an end user. I began by setting things up as I wanted only to find terminology different. I chose to use their ‘live' customer training/support chat line. This ‘live' customer training/support chat far surpassed all expectations, it was truly an empowered chat! While setting up and using the system I could instantly begin a chat and get the snag resolved within minutes. Within minutes I received a copy of the entire chat session so I always had the answers in written format to review at a future date. This one key benefit should wipe out every fear anyone would have at using SalesNexus, plus it is included!

One of the immediate differences I saw with SalesNexus was their perspective. SalesNexus has a ‘contact' perspective verses a ‘company' perspective. This is a difference between large corporate companies and mid range companies. Both have the ability to show information in the either format with a little customization. For example, Goldmine's CRM uses ‘company' as their key field allowing you to enter one customer and place every contact (and their specific information) under that company. SalesNexus uses the ‘contact' as the key field allowing you to enter each customer as their own record.

The perspective of SalesNexus revealed a strength for sales. With ‘customer' based CRM's you find all correspondences, from all contacts kept in the history of one company. To pull specific correspondences from a specific contact you will need to create a query to see this information. With SalesNexus and their ‘contact' based approach all history is kept under the contact and reports can be pulled to bring a company together. I found the ‘contact' approach easier to navigate through and understand, once I realized the difference between the two.

The contact perspective was also powerful when it came to entering and completing tasks. With one click, verses multiple clicks in the ‘customer' approach, you were able to enter and view tasks more quickly. This can be the difference between closing the sale or losing the contact.

SalesNexus made the experience of using their online, process intensive, CRM program enjoyable. I can say this with full authority as my company began writing software applications for the shipping/receiving industry back in 1995. Our main goal was figuring out how 3 keystrokes could be reduced down to 1. Time is valuable and many online applications are notoriously slow. The more processing that is happening the slower the program. Each key press has to travel from you keyboard, to the server, formulate what it means, lookup and/or post your entry and return this information back to your screen ~ all within a split second! The speed in which I logged on and was able to navigate through the SalesNexus system was remarkable.

Receiving alerts were received instantly, regardless of the program I was using. This was possible because of their web-based technology!

Reporting was adequate for those who wanted to just ‘print' a report, but for those who wanted to manipulate the data in a different format it was fantastic. It appears that SalesNexus has placed emphasis on exporting the report data to a spreadsheet where the end user can format it in their own specific way. Personally, I like having preformatted reports inside programs so I was a little disappointed when finding their emphasis.

Finding data became quick and efficient once I learned their flow of data. It appeared that much design and technical time was spent on their calendar as it was very powerful and intuitive. I was not able to review their more extensive processes, such as email, but am confident that these processes will be a clean and free of errors as their basic program.

The one point I found difficult is not having my data available to me when I was not connected to the Internet. Having a LAN version of the software that could be stored on a laptop or desk computer would be invaluable for SalesNexus. I don't believe the entire program needs to be duplicated, but basic information so that data can always be available to the end user and then syncronized upon logging in. I hope they choose to address this issue, as I believe this will make them unbeatable in the industry. Email and PDA integration is their primary focus for 2009.

SalesNexus is truly on the cutting edge of their industry and I look forward to see all their planned improvements. I have no problem telling you to check SalesNexus out and see what they have to offer. You will not be disappointed with their program, staff or service.