Thread

Has anyone used a CRM (Customer Relations Manager) system in conjunction with (or even integrated with) EE?

We’ve a client that generates leads/quotes off their EE site (currently transmitted by simple email) but wants to be able to manage these leads within EE and track progress or status of each lead.

Similarly, being able to show all leads of a certain status and batch communicate with them would be equally useful.
There are a range of features that would also be useful but in the first instance is there a plugin / software approach that we can manage this with EE?

Thanks

Jos

Nothing I’ve seen, and honestly - EE is a content management system. A really flexible one, but to do what you are after would be a force-fit.  You’d be better off figuring out how to hand off a lead to an existing CRM for the rest of those features.

^ I echo what Mike said.

I’m currently doing some CRM work for an EE client, but that’s providing data that’s stored in EE for export/import into a 3rd party CRM system.

Why would you want to manage the leads within EE? And not within the CRM? A decent CRM is going to kick the pants of EE any day of the week with managing leads/communication.

We’ve deeply integrated Cerb6 CRM into our EE installation via a custom plugin. So customers on our EE site are able to submit/update/manage support tickets.

If you go this route, it’s as simple as writing a small EE plugin to fetch/import data to/from your CRM.

Thanks all for the helpful replies…

It looks like we will look at it the other way around and integrate the CRM into the lead generation pages on the EE site and transmit the data that way. This way the 2 programs can each do their own job without getting in the way of each other

Cheers

Jos

Can I ask what CRM you are using? Almost every CRM will have an API, or even the ability to create front-end forms. So doing it the way you suggest should be both preferable and very easy.

If you then want ultimate flexibility, then just tie into the API which again should be very easy.

We haven’t decided for definite on a CRM yet - this is why I was asking the question here first…

We’ve been looking at SugarCRM, ReallySimpleSystems and TactileCRM so far (all have pros and cons) but are open to other suggestions.
Whatever system we use needs top be able to collate form / lead info from a variety of different channels (and be able to differentiate between these in the CRM) and be able to provide all the expected lead management tasks a good CRM should.
There’ll be about 2-4 people needing access to it too so affordability is also an issue

Cheers

Jos