The networked SME

Michael Fauscette recently blogged about what he calls the Next Generation Enterprise Platform where the emerging technologies that are currently being developed and deployed in many workplaces are leading to new business configurations and disrupting established IT practices. Although Michael is primarily talking about larger enterprises, one of his points resonated with some of my experiences in the SME space:

"The new business model that is evolving will be built on the concept of a business network, tying the traditional business resources closely with those of partners and suppliers. This connected model will also need to include much stronger connectivity to customers. Most currently deployed enterprise IT infrastructures and systems don't support and provide the required management capabilities for this close connected model."

Next-generation CRM systems are making improved connectivity to customers possible but the same technologies are also making life easier for the smaller business.  Cheap and powerful computing hardware, mobile devices, 3G/4G networks and web-based services for collaboration, document creation, CRM and project management are allowing small businesses and individuals to work more efficiently from any location.  I believe this will lead to a fundamental shift in the way that many knowledge workers operate and have implications for the traditional hierarchical structures of larger organisations.  Helping businesses make the most of these opportunities through developing their understanding of the emerging technologies should be a priority for those keen to stimulate economic activity in this country.  

Project Management / CRM tools - price comparison

Every week seems to bring a new web-based project management / CRM solution.  Keeping track of prices and functionality is becoming difficult.   Several years ago when Basecamp and Highrise were the only serious contenders, choosing a hosted solution was relatively simple.  Now we're spoilt for choice. So what do you get for your money?  This table gives an overview of some of the tools I've recently been looking at (the lowest prices are highlighted in green).  I know I've missed some off and, in some ways, am comparing apples and oranges. Some are CRM and some are project management solutions and comparing them might not be fair.  I would have agreed with that view a few weeks ago before I started using Insightly, an app on the Google Apps marketplace.  Insightly does a good job of linking project management and CRM functionalities and, in my view, makes some of the other tools look a little restricted in what they can do. Apart from the 6 services compared here (Basecamp, Insightly, Dooster, Batchbook, Highrise, Zoho Projects) I would have also included NirvanaHQ but they have not yet released a pricing scheme. Insightly's prices were announced on their product blog a couple of weeks ago but have not been put up on the product website.

Observations

Users - there are wide variations in the pricing for users, from free for unlimited users on Basecamp and Zoho to $149 for 50 users for Insightly and Batchbook.  Once competition starts to heat up, I suspect these prices will come down.

Storage - this is relatively consistent and possibly reflects actual costs.  I'm not sure how many use Amazon S3.

Projects - wide variations here with Insightly offering free unlimited projects and Basecamp charging $149 for the same.  As with users this does not look sustainable in the medium to longer term.

Contacts - Batchbook offers competitive pricing here, charging $14.95 for unlimited contacts against $149 for unlimited contacts on Insightly.

Conclusions

This is a relatively immature market and the variations in pricing reflect that.  While Insightly offers the most functionality, it looks expensive for companies that have more than 5 users while is cheap from a project perspective.  Basecamp is almost a mirror image of that pricing model.  Choosing the best for your company will depend on how you plan to use it and I hope this table will help.  Don't forget that Insightly requires users to already be using Google Apps.  If they were able to offer a standalone version it could be a winner.

I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more entrants to this market over the coming year and the winners will be those that offer reliability, competitive pricing, a strong community of users and an intuitive interface.  Ultimately, prices will come down as commodification takes hold.  Let battle commence.

UPDATE - great review of some other CRM solutions HERE