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And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because postin

And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because posting articles isn't something they want? If I as a client came to a company and said I wanted a CRM built for my company, and they gave me a Wordpress blog with a shitty CRM plugin, I'd request a refund and find someone who is actually going to build to my needs, and not hurry me through the tunnel to get my money and go onto someone else. But I believe in quality over quantity. I'd rather spend time building a custom solution (Note, just because I am building a CRM doesn't mean I build the whole thing from the ground up, I use frameworks) that is going to make my client ecstatic and return again and again, than be like a friend's company. No good reviews. My current boss told me he had them make him a website few years ago. He said that lets just say he wouldn't be going back to them anytime soon. Why? Because they build EVERYTHING on WordPress.

eropple 11y ago
> And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because posting articles isn't something they want? No, I tell them to pay for Salesforce, because I'm not going to build something as good as Salesforce in anything approaching a normal project's budget, and I introduce them to trusted Salesforce consultants I know. It's more important to me that they get the right thing rather than pay me to do the wrong thing. And if you are building a CRM, even with a "framework", for any sort of business under, say, ten thousand employees, it's very likely--not without exception, but I'm betting hard in this direction and I will very rarely lose--that you are not doing the right thing for your client.
enraged_camel 11y ago
>>My current boss told me he had [a friend's company] make him a website few years ago. He said that lets just say he wouldn't be going back to them anytime soon. Why? Because they build EVERYTHING on WordPress. Sure, but that sounds like a strawman. The lesson in the original post isn't about building EVERYTHING on WordPress. It's about knowing when to use existing tools and solutions instead of reinventing the wheel. >>I'd rather spend time building a custom solution... that is going to make my client ecstatic and return again and again It completely depends on the project. If it is for a mission-critical application that needs a lot of custom, well-designed features, building it yourself might make sense. Otherwise using something someone else has built is just as likely to make your client ecstatic because you just saved them a lot of money and time.
snowwrestler 11y ago
> If I as a client came to a company and said I wanted a CRM built for my company, and they gave me a Wordpress blog with a shitty CRM plugin, The parent comment at the head of this subthread specified that the client wants a CMS. That's how we got on the topic of Wordpress to begin with. I agree that Wordpress would be a terrible platform for building a CRM. But I am dubious that anyone needs a custom CRM. There are literally dozens of commercially available CRMs at all price points and industries.
- joshmanders 11y ago
  That's just an example. I am building a custom CRM as part of a service right now. Or should I shoehorn Salesforce into this service and tell all my customers that to use that feature of our service, they have to also have a membership with salesforce? My customers pay me for the features I am building all into this service... Not to charge them to hook a membership for another company up to it. Then I have to provide support for Salesforce. Their service goes down, now I have my customers mad at me because part of my service is down. No thanks.
  - snowwrestler 11y ago
    It doesn't have to be Salesforce, but yes, I think you should help them find the right CRM solution, and configure and integrate it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CRM_software_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CRM_software_companie... Giving the customer direct ownership of their CRM database is a feature, not a bug. They will benefit from a CRM development team who has dedicated experience and expertise in CRM, plus they'll benefit from the feature and security requests of the other CRM customers. And it will make them less dependent on you, specifically. Which, from the client's perspective, is a good thing. Edit to add: what's more likely, that Salesforce goes down, or that you are unavailable for some reason?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>And what if the client wants a CRM... SuiteCRM/SugarCRM Salesforce CiviCRM vTiger Insightly Now figure out the integration between it and the WP site.
st3v3r 11y ago
"And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because posting articles isn't something they want?" No, you modify the template so it's not showing the stuff they don't want. Problem solved. "If I as a client came to a company and said I wanted a CRM built for my company, and they gave me a Wordpress blog with a shitty CRM plugin, I'd request a refund and find someone who is actually going to build to my needs, and not hurry me through the tunnel to get my money and go onto someone else." And if I was your boss, I'd fire you for wasting my money. "But I believe in quality over quantity." Nobody here is any different. The difference is that I don't think that the only one who can deliver quality is me. "I'd rather spend time building a custom solution (Note, just because I am building a CRM doesn't mean I build the whole thing from the ground up, I use frameworks) that is going to make my client ecstatic and return again and again, than be like a friend's company." And again, you're assuming that result isn't possible with an off the shelf solution.

eropple 11y ago

> And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because posting articles isn't something they want? No, I tell them to pay for Salesforce, because I'm not going to build something as good as Salesforce in anything approaching a normal project's budget, and I introduce them to trusted Salesforce consultants I know. It's more important to me that they get the right thing rather than pay me to do the wrong thing. And if you are building a CRM, even with a "framework", for any sort of business under, say, ten thousand employees, it's very likely--not without exception, but I'm betting hard in this direction and I will very rarely lose--that you are not doing the right thing for your client.

enraged_camel 11y ago

>>My current boss told me he had [a friend's company] make him a website few years ago. He said that lets just say he wouldn't be going back to them anytime soon. Why? Because they build EVERYTHING on WordPress. Sure, but that sounds like a strawman. The lesson in the original post isn't about building EVERYTHING on WordPress. It's about knowing when to use existing tools and solutions instead of reinventing the wheel. >>I'd rather spend time building a custom solution... that is going to make my client ecstatic and return again and again It completely depends on the project. If it is for a mission-critical application that needs a lot of custom, well-designed features, building it yourself might make sense. Otherwise using something someone else has built is just as likely to make your client ecstatic because you just saved them a lot of money and time.

snowwrestler 11y ago

> If I as a client came to a company and said I wanted a CRM built for my company, and they gave me a Wordpress blog with a shitty CRM plugin, The parent comment at the head of this subthread specified that the client wants a CMS. That's how we got on the topic of Wordpress to begin with. I agree that Wordpress would be a terrible platform for building a CRM. But I am dubious that anyone needs a custom CRM. There are literally dozens of commercially available CRMs at all price points and industries.

joshmanders 11y ago
That's just an example. I am building a custom CRM as part of a service right now. Or should I shoehorn Salesforce into this service and tell all my customers that to use that feature of our service, they have to also have a membership with salesforce? My customers pay me for the features I am building all into this service... Not to charge them to hook a membership for another company up to it. Then I have to provide support for Salesforce. Their service goes down, now I have my customers mad at me because part of my service is down. No thanks.
- snowwrestler 11y ago
  It doesn't have to be Salesforce, but yes, I think you should help them find the right CRM solution, and configure and integrate it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CRM_software_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CRM_software_companie... Giving the customer direct ownership of their CRM database is a feature, not a bug. They will benefit from a CRM development team who has dedicated experience and expertise in CRM, plus they'll benefit from the feature and security requests of the other CRM customers. And it will make them less dependent on you, specifically. Which, from the client's perspective, is a good thing. Edit to add: what's more likely, that Salesforce goes down, or that you are unavailable for some reason?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

drzaiusapelord 11y ago

>And what if the client wants a CRM... SuiteCRM/SugarCRM Salesforce CiviCRM vTiger Insightly Now figure out the integration between it and the WP site.

st3v3r 11y ago

"And what if the client wants a CRM... Do you install a popular CRM plugin, and then tell the customer to ignore 90% of what's in their dashboard, because posting articles isn't something they want?" No, you modify the template so it's not showing the stuff they don't want. Problem solved. "If I as a client came to a company and said I wanted a CRM built for my company, and they gave me a Wordpress blog with a shitty CRM plugin, I'd request a refund and find someone who is actually going to build to my needs, and not hurry me through the tunnel to get my money and go onto someone else." And if I was your boss, I'd fire you for wasting my money. "But I believe in quality over quantity." Nobody here is any different. The difference is that I don't think that the only one who can deliver quality is me. "I'd rather spend time building a custom solution (Note, just because I am building a CRM doesn't mean I build the whole thing from the ground up, I use frameworks) that is going to make my client ecstatic and return again and again, than be like a friend's company." And again, you're assuming that result isn't possible with an off the shelf solution.