Learn what the pros and cons of Sage CRM are and why you should or shouldn't use it this year.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are at the heart of all successful businesses. They combine the processes and technologies that help you create rewarding customer relationships.
Sage CRM is a market-leading software with highly adaptable and customizable features. We carefully examine the modules it provides, as well as the pros and cons, to help you decide whether it is the best solution for your company.
What is Sage CRM, and what is it used for?
Sage CRM (also known as Accpac CRM) is a web-based customer relationship management solution designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. This comprehensive solution automates your sales, marketing, and customer service, allowing you to concentrate on other aspects of your business.
Sage CRM is designed to be simple to deploy (on-premises or in the cloud), install, and manage, and it also includes practical learning resources to help businesses onboard quickly and efficiently. With this cost-effective solution, you can be up and running in a matter of days.
You will gain a better understanding and visibility of processes across your organization by using Sage CRM, allowing you to save time and increase productivity. Above all, increased visibility will enable you to make more accurate assessments of your company's current state and make more informed decisions about future growth.
Sage CRM is a scalable and adaptable solution that grows with your company. Sage’s product is used successfully by over 15,000 businesses worldwide, and it clearly contributes to their growth and prosperity.
The main features of Sage CRM
Sage CRM is a versatile software that automates sales, marketing, and customer service processes. By helping users accelerate sales, drive business productivity, and leverage customer relationships and data, Sage CRM is a valuable addition to your technology stack.
Here we look at the main modules and features of the Sage CRM and the benefits it offers to your business.
Sales module
The CRM’s sales module allows users to manage sales leads and opportunities. It also tracks performance and enables users to manage and schedule meetings, forecast revenue, and manage customer relationships.
This module provides a wide range of features, including
- Sales team and target management
- Sales lead management
- Creating quotes and orders
- Interactive dashboard and reporting
- Territory management
- Salesforce integration and automation
- Comprehensive customer relationship management
- Diary management and follow-up scheduling
- Recording and actioning all activities
- Contact and account management
Marketing module
The marketing tools offered by Sage CRM enable users to generate new leads efficiently and manage campaigns while communicating with existing and prospective customers.
Sage’s marketing module offers the following features:
- Advanced lead capture
- Website activity tracking
- Marketing dashboards and reports
- Social media and Mailchimp integration
- Campaign management & campaign response rates
- Lead scoring
- Customer segmentation and targeting
- Surveys & telemarketing
- Marketing workflow tool
- Nurture marketing campaigns
Customer service module
Sage CRM’s customer service module enables users to provide excellent service to their customers. This module provides comprehensive help desk and support functionality, allowing users to troubleshoot client issues.
The following features and benefits come with the customer service module
- Support dashboard and reporting
- Automated workflows
- Customer support web portal
- Contact and account management
- Advanced problem-tracking and resolution
- Ticket management
- Problem tracking system
- Service level agreement management
- Large support knowledgebase
- High-quality incident support and case management
The pros and cons of Sage CRM
This section will look at the strengths and weaknesses of Sage CRM to help you decide whether it is a good solution for your business.
Pros of Sage CRM
Sage CRM is an affordable and easy-to-use software that offers several benefits and is available in the Cloud or on-premises. It was developed to accommodate growing small and medium-sized businesses by automating their business workflows and providing business insights. This software is an excellent choice for the following reasons:
1. Advanced customisation
Sage’s flexible CRM offers several customisable features and allows you to create processes that better fit your workflow. Your developers are granted access to the CRM, so you can customise the product based on your business requirements. Moreover, users can also customise forms, calculations, and views, as well as access to data and system features.
2. Reporting and forecasting
Sage CRM's reporting and forecasting functionality is a standout feature that allows effective decision-making based on understanding your current cash flow. Sage CRM displays real-time data through its top-of-the-line dashboards.
3. Quick access to data & documentation
Sage CRM helps you improve your customer service by providing instant access to customer, shipment, and delivery details and quotes. You can even view these details before answering an incoming call, making your customer service quick and efficient.
4. Integration with Sage 50 and Sage 200
One of the critical strengths of Sage CRM is that it integrates with its leading accounting systems, such as Sage 50 and Sage 200, empowering customer services with seamless access to customer data. Moreover, sales staff gets access to critical financial data, such as accounts, orders, and invoices, making their work much more efficient. Integrating Saga accounts and Sage CRM simplifies work, as you only have to enter data in the CRM once, making it available to the accounting software.
5. Mobile features
With Sage CRM, you leverage the on-the-go access to the software and get things done from anywhere, on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Sage CRM supports Apple, Android, and Windows, making it widely available and allowing you to respond to customer needs quickly.
6. Drag-and-drop calendar
It has a modern and easy-to-use calendar that allows you to handle business appointments effectively.
7. Customer contract management
Sage CRM makes creating and managing multiple customer contracts easy.
8. Google integration
Sage CRM offers a handy Google integration with your contacts, calendar and Gmail.
9. Sage 100 cloud migration
If you opt for the cloud-based version of the software, you will have instant access to your customer data from anywhere in the world. If you change your mind, you can always opt for the on-premises solution.
10. MailChimp integration
Sage’s CRM offers seamless integration with MailChimp, enabling you to manage email campaigns effectively.
11. Better customer targeting
Sage's business intelligence analytics help you better understand your customers and develop more effective marketing strategies to drive sales.
12. Sales pipeline management
Sage CRM gives you an overview of your sales processes from beginning to end. It allows sales personnel to quickly turn a lead into an opportunity, a quote, and a sale.
13. Community access
Sage offers several valuable forums and platforms, such as Sage University, where you can engage with other customers, find appropriate support, access FAQs, and gain insights. You can also participate in the Sage Townhall and suggest further improvements. Sage also hosts global events available via their digital platforms once you have been onboarded as a customer.
Cons of Sage CRM
Although Sage CRM is an excellent customer relationship management solution, it can improve some of the following areas:
1. Limited number of integrations
Although Sage CRM offers excellent integration with other Sage products and some other software, it needs to integrate better with more applications.
2. Slower customer support
Sage CRM provides an excellent community forum where customers can interact with each other and exchange helpful knowledge. However, reaching customer service can take a long time, especially with complex problems.
3. No transparent pricing
Sage CRM does not offer a transparent pricing plan; you must provide business information and schedule a call for a quote. When attempting to compare CRM prices, this can cause some friction.
4. Complex UI
For some users, Sage CRM’s UI can be overwhelming and take time to learn if they are not used to dealing with CRMs.
5. Single data centre
Most SaaS vendors use multiple data centres, but Sage CRM’s Cloud is supported by only one, which increases the risk of downtime.
Is the Sage CRM worth it?
Sage CRM is a fully customisable solution that is easy and quick to implement. Within a few days, you can benefit from its ability to provide actionable insights and excellent collaboration tools. With Sage CRM, you can make better business decisions and increase your sales processes' efficiency while ensuring that your customers are happy and satisfied.
It is an excellent tool for improving your workflows in sales, marketing and customer service and allows you to understand your business better. Sage CRM improves sales and marketing strategies by making data available at all times, thus boosting your revenue. By providing a better understanding of your clients, this CRM also helps you build better customer relationships.
Due to Sage CRM’s practical collaborative tools, your teams will become more productive while any output duplication is prevented. With total visibility over the customer lifecycle, you can make the most of your budgets allocated to marketing and sales campaigns while providing excellent customer support.