MS CRM offers less than Prophet CRM Software.
Shopping for CRM software is one of the most important decisions that a business
can make. Deciding whether to use MS CRM or Prophet CRM to handle your customer
relationship management issues can make or break your productivity. Comparing MS
CRM to Prophet can help you choose the version that has the features you need at
the price your business can afford. Take a look everything the MS CRM has to offer,
against the Prophet software and decide for yourself which is the better deal. Just
because the MS CRM comes from a company with a household name, does not necessarily
mean that it is the better choice of the two. Depending on the needs of your business,
the MS CRM may not be the right decision for you.
Features of MS CRM vs. Prophet.
While the MS CRM and Prophet have many features that are similar and are
both compatible with Outlook. Both MS CRM and Prophet have sales management features
that will assist you in everything you need to effectively service all of your customers.
Both versions of CRM allow you to track sales, create reports, follow quotas, and
view complete customer records within a single database. Prophet allows users to
generate instant quotes that are customized to the parameters of their business,
as does MS CRM. Both Prophet and MS CRM also allow the company to import records
from other tracking and database software, as well as to synchronize files among
different users within a network. Both software packages feature automated email
generation and tracking capabilities. As a whole, the features of MS CRM and Prophet
are very similar.
Outlook Integration of MS CRM vs. Prophet.
The major differences between the MS CRM and Prophet are seen within the
Outlook integration. Prophet is a software program that works completely within
Outlook, whereas MS CRM requires users to install a separate client. MS CRM does
not allow complete sales records access during use, rather the user must complete
the work in Outlook and synch with MS CRM, after completion. Users of MS CRM must
have the Outlook CRM client installed to use the email and group email features
of MS CRM. All of these features are accessed directly through Outlook with the
Prophet CRM.
System Requirements of MS CRM vs. Prophet.
MS CRM only works with Outlook versions that are version 2003 or later,
Prophet can be added to anything from Outlook 2000 and up. Users of the MS CRM must
have either Windows XP or Vista. Prophet is supported by anything from Windows 2000
and newer. Prophet requires 700mb of open hard drive space and 512mb of RAM, where
MS CRM needs a user to carry 400mb hard drive space, but at least 1mb of RAM, however
the MS CRM recommendation for RAM is 2gb. MS CRM needs a 1.8 GHz processor, while
Prophet can be handled by a system running at 800 MHz. Prophet can be run on slightly
older and less powerful systems, where MS CRM may require a complete system upgrade.
Cost Effectiveness of MS CRM vs. Prophet.
As both products have many of the same features, common sense would tell
you that MS CRM and Prophet would be similar in price. However, this is far from
the case with MS CRM. The MS CRM starts at nearly one thousand dollars for a full
license and upgrades to the software can increase that price. This doesn't even
include the money that may potentially have to be spent on upgrading your computer
systems to support MS CRM. Prophet, on the other hand, has MS CRM beat in the pricing
department. Full licensing starts at around two hundred dollars and many more systems
can handle this software, making upgrades of a minor concern. Should you have a
massively large business and top of the line system, MS CRM may end up being the
right choice for you, but if cost is an issue and your business system isn't straight
out of the box, MS CRM may cost you even more than the price tag in the long run.
Look at your options and your needs and decide for yourself whether MS CRM is a
better buy for your business than Prophet.