Another online tool I’ve recently discovered is Oprius Software’s Foundations product. In my opinion, it is flat-out an online Act-killer.
I recently posted about GrandCentral’s emerging unified messaging-like service. Much like them, Oprius has a few things to straighten out, about Foundations, but there’s much to like, too.
Foundations is a contact manager, calendar, tasks and email system altogether. At a glance: You can easily import contacts, filtering them in any number of ways…you can create tasks and appointments and link them effortlessly to those contacts…you can create recurring events such as sales meetings…and all of this for free. The email features come for $5 per month.
The system is aimed, for some reason, at network marketers. And while I’m sure it benefits them, I don’t see why it hasn’t been more widely promoted. If your company offers no software-based or software-less database for managing your contacts–if you’re on your own in this area, I’d actually go this route before using Act.
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Taking a bit of an email break this Christmas Eve to find, thanks to Google Alerts, this nice write-up.
Our intention isn’t as much to kill ACT! as it is to fill a large hole. ACT! is becoming really bloated (they install a whole back-end database system onto your computer for crying out loud). Many tools in our opinion are too complex, too confusing, too ugly, and overkill for single owner and small businesses.
Our initial target is network marketing distributors. Why? Each distributor is a single person home based business. They don’t have an IT department, or formal sales training (usually). What they do have is a product they love, and a desire to sell it to make a small successful business. Our goal is to help the million distributors frustrated with trying to keep track of everything. It is no surprise that many other small business owners are also enjoying what we are doing with Oprius Foundations.
We have been running a little under the radar up until recently. I’m curious how you found out about us.
Owen,
Thanks for posting! We’re “sales team tools,” it’s our job to find resources for sales professionals!
I agree completely about how bloated Act has begun. You are forced to have features in your face that you’ll never use–with no way to “turn them on” or off.
You’ve got a great product/service emerging, I look forward to seeing how it evolves. Best of luck!
Not a problem. I was glad to answer some of your questions. I am still curious how you found out about us.
If you or anyone else wants to keep up with what we are doing, signup for our newsletter from our website (http://oprius.com/news.htm). We also have a blog (http://blog.oprius.com). Although last month I hang my head in shame for not posting very much, next month will be different.
Hi there,
I ran across Oprius while trying to find a CRM/Sales Management tool for a small business I consult to. They have about 15 different parameters that need to relate in database form for each customer/ prospect and sale. ACT would work great, but the company is virtual and I wanted to find them something that resided on-line instead of on CPUs — the sales and CSR force is made up of largely independent contractors using their own equipment, so installing software is a real downside. Oprius looks good, but I’m wondering if you’ve seen anything else with most of the functionality of ACT or Salesforce, that resides on-line and is flexible. I looked at the comparisons I could find but they seem largely to be simply Contact managers, not real CRM/Sales Management tools. They buy and place advertising for dealers all over the country (3600 of them), each dealer stocks 10 manufacturer lines, each manufacturer has specific specs, budgets, reps, etc, and every local dealer places their media in their local cable TV (which also have distinct reps, specs, prices and ftp info)…. so the complexity of the db is overwhelming without a tool. Any ideas? (oh yeah — we’re bootstrapping…so big money apps won’t work!)
Thanks.