super-simple CRM (sort of) needed

We are a grantmaking organization. Our small board of trustees has requested a way to access contact information for our grantees and grant applicants, with a log for each organization to which all board members could post the details of any meetings or conversations. I'd like to set up a few simple required fields for each entry so we can keep track of who spoke to whom, when, etc.

We need to be able to filter entries by date to identify organizations that have not been contacted recently. It would also be great if we could set simple follow-up tasks for future dates that would show up in date-based searches.

This is ALL we need the program/service to do. Our trustees are not very techie, so I'm looking for something that is simple, intuitive, and doesn't have a lot of other features to confuse or distract. Since we have both Mac and PC users, a web-based system would be best. We need something with reasonably good security (we won't be entering account numbers, but we might discuss confidential observations and considerations).

Any suggestions? I'm not even sure what to call a program/service that does this, which has hampered my search, but we can't be the only folks who need such a thing...

Since you only need your small board of trustees to have access would setting up a computer with "LogMeIn" access where each person could remotely access the single computer that has the informaton be too low tech for your need? 

Well, you could try the community version of SugarCRM - but I believe that you may not find much "out-of-the-box" for what you're looking to do.  Another option might be to build a quick custom application in DabbleDB.  The 8-minute demo right on Dabble's home page is very enlightening.

Two ideas for you:

1) DabbleDB

2) Google Spreadsheets

Thanks for all of these suggestions. I have reviewed each one, but either the features aren't quite what I'm after, or they require too much technical ability to set up/use, or both.

OfficeZilla looks very promising for our needs - I would probably use only the contact manager component and use the notes area in the individual contact record for a contact log, though I might add the calendar and other document sharing down the line if my users like it.

However, I have some reservations about the company. They claim to have been around since 2002, but I can't find any reference to them earlier than 2006. They also claim to have thousands of users, but I also haven't been able to find much in the way of online reviews or discussions by these alleged users. Their website is not very professional, and the only address I can find for them is a PO box. I'm also wondering if it's free and there are no ads, how do they make money?

My main concern is the confidentiality of our data. The contact information is not particularly sensitive, but internal notes between our users do need to be kept private. OfficeZilla's privacy policy is not as clearcut as I would like to see. And what's up with the name? Initially I associated it with Mozilla products (as I suspect most people would), but as far as I can tell, there's no connection.

I'd feel a lot better about using this solution if I could hear from some other organizations who have actually used it.

Hi, we potentally have an alternative that may be of interest to you especially since your trustees are not technical.  This solution is new however this should not be a concern because like most web-based services it provides all the functions you are looking with the additional positives of not constraining you to continue to use the service more than the month you pay for.  If you want to leave you can get all your data off in a file easily.   This keeps us honest in ensuring we continue to provide a service that you want to use.    You are welcome to have a look at Javelin and get access to try out the system.  We are aiming to be very intuitive - so you do not need to look at Help for most activities in the system - so if you find it isn't we would appreciate your thoughts.  We have tried to also allow you to create a system specifically for you rather than have lots of information that your trustees would think they had to enter -  you are able to add custom fields for them to enter information into.  You are welcome to have a look at www.javelincrm.com.

If you want to search for other alternatives I suggest you search on CRM SaaS  or   CRM service and add words like simple or intuitive. There are some big players in this space that provide functionality well beyond your requirements but there are also a number of solution providers that have products like Javelin to allow comparison.

You are welcome to contact us at any time if you would like more information.

Happy searching.

Wendy

> They claim to have been around since 2002, but I can't find any reference to them earlier than 2006.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.officezilla.com

> They also claim to have thousands of users, but I also haven't been able to find much in the way of online
> reviews or discussions by these alleged users.

A total of 27,405 organizations have signed up with a total of 65,213 users.

The largest account has 900 users in it and is the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association
http://www.wisclerks.org/3/membersonly.html (click on members only area button and it takes you to OfficeZilla)

The Privacy Policy disallows disclosing who is using the system but I disclosed the organization above since they have it on their website.

There are others such as the 300 member Syracuse University Newhouse Black and Latino Network (http://progdev.syr.edu/Resources/listservs.aspx bottom of the page) but I especially do not want to bother users of the system for recommendations for people who can just signup and try it themselves and gather there own opinion.

> I'm also wondering if it's free and there are no ads, how do they make money?

As soon as someone says that I usually say 'I am always happy to get donations' but that never happens because people who signup... they do so because they want something for free.  I have a number of years experience in this :) 

You have my mailing address if you want to show me that I am incorrect but no need, I pay for everything myself.  The system costs about 5 McDonald Big Macs a day to run the system.

> OfficeZilla's privacy policy is not as clearcut as I would like to see


Data You Store and Manage:
OfficeZilla provides functions that allow you store store and retrieve data online. This data comes in the form of contacts, calendars, files, urls, email and more. This data is only available to you or those you allow to see it. OfficeZilla maintains no interest in your data except to make it available for your use. We do not disclose, sell, or examine data. 

I am not sure how that could be misread, I feel if a person believes that weboffice.com or some other web based platform is more secure they should use it.  I do not beg people to use the system.  Many people use it and find it works fine for what they need.  I get many people leaving paid platforms and coming over to OfficeZilla and telling me about how they spent thousands, received bad support, and were unhappy before OfficeZilla but in the Privacy Policy all emails to OfficeZilla are... private and therefore I can disclose none (as you know since you read the privacy policy )

> Initially I associated it with Mozilla products

When I bought the domain in 2002 "Mozilla" was the mascot for Netscape and really didn't mean much, it wasn't part of their marketing.   I was familiar with it but I was more interested in GodZilla as it represented something large and ferocious not something small and wiggley :)  The Godzilla  lawyers had me remove the Godzilla characture from the page which I did right away. 

Now I will confuse you more and let you know intially the system was enterprise-portals.com in early 2002 but that failed because it was to far ahead of people's desires and maybe the lack of a multi-million dollar advertising fund didn't help:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020526214217/http://enterprise-portals.com/

Unfortunately the enterprise portals idea did not work out.  I had 3 customers who paid $99 each (special yearly price) and I needed to get about 30 new customers a month so I gave up and just gave the system away for free and paid all of the costs myself.  That is what you see today, I switched the name to fit into the free model and let the enterprise-portals.com domain lapse.