| Introduction |  | |
RightNow CRM | | |
Microsoft CRM 3.0 | | |
Verdict |
RightNow Technologies
RightNow Technologies was one of the first vendors to deliver on-demand applications, and made a name for itself with products aimed at improving the customer experience on the Web. From those humble beginnings, RightNow's CRM offering has grown to include modules for Sales, Service and Marketing.
On the initial login to the system, there is a download dialog that appears and a blue bar that shows the progress of various components being downloaded. This can take a few minutes when the application first loads, but as you login a second or third time, the dialog only blips by.
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| [Click to enlarge] RightNow Support provides a flexible knowledge base where you can store answers to questions your customers commonly ask. |
When you login to RightNow CRM, the session console provides an at-a-glance view of what is going on in the system, with messages, message queues, outbound marketing e-mails, recent marketing e-mails, and more. From there you can launch any of the RightNow modules (Sales, Service, Marketing) to enter customer information, track opportunities, sales, amongst a list of activities.
The Sales module provides a number of different areas to explore, including organisations and contacts, where you can enter information about your customers and individuals within each customer organisation. The user interface is intuitive, with a task bar down the left-hand side and even the most novice user should be able to navigate through their contact list, add entries and lookup contacts.
In addition to maintaining customer information, the Sales module also provides the ability to manage sales opportunities for each customer. These openings can then be managed to provide an up-to-date view of what is in the sales pipeline.
Switching to the Marketing module, it feels like the marketing toolset is actually a number of different tools or applets put together on the same menu. Where the other two modules have a slick interface that brings all of the information into one spot, there are multiple areas and tools for tracking outbound e-mail and managing documents, for instance.
There are also a number of powerful tools included in the Marketing module, so Web-savvy organisations can take advantage of the contact opportunities that the Internet provides for building campaigns, generating out-bound e-mails and tracking results.
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| [Click to enlarge] RightNow's reporting capabilities provide a comprehensive suite of reports and analytics, but the presentation of data and formatting could be better. |
And finally, the Support module is really where RightNow CRM shines. The tools for logging, managing and solving customer issues are intuitive and provide a -one-world" view of what is going on, both from the business and customer point of view. For example, a customer service rep and easily manage all of their incidents logged through calls, e-mails, etc. and then use the knowledge base to build up a number of articles to solve common user problems and hopefully cut down on the number of incidents in the first place.
RightNow's CRM offering can also be easily integrated into your existing web site, which is another selling point for the product. A customer-centric view of the world means that you need to be able to easily interact and communicate with customers and increasingly, the web is the way to go.
In our testing of the different RightNow features and functionality, the only thing that we found lacking was the reporting capabilities included with the product. Their focus on the reporting side of things seemed to be on-screen presentation and analytics. While the product suite does provide a comprehensive suite of reports and analytic tools, the presentation of the data and formatting could be improved.
| Product | RightNow CRM |
|---|---|
| Price | RightNow Sales, starting at AU$82 per user for two-year licence. RightNow Marketing, starting at AU$12K for a two-year licence. |
| Vendor | RightNow Technologies |
| Contact | 02 8198 1300 |
| Web site | www.rightnowtech.com.au |
| Interoperability |  |
|---|---|
| Integrates well with other Web-based applications. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Browser-based so proprietary issues don't come into play. | |
| ROI |  |
| Reporting capabilities were lacking. | |
| Service | |
| E-mail, Web and telephone. | |
| Rating | |
| Introduction | | |
RightNow CRM | | |
Microsoft CRM 3.0 | | |
Verdict |
