What is our primary use case?
We use Vtiger for CRM work. It contains our entire customer database of all our existing customers. We have the usual details, phone numbers, and addresses, but the customized modules we've built have been specific to our industry. We've added a module for service contracts and finance options, logging if they do business finance or pay cash. We've got a module that captures all of that information. We've also added a configuration module that keeps track of clients' usernames, passwords, IP addresses, and so on.
We're going to build a module that tracks our loans and repairs so that when we have equipment coming in, and then it goes from us, maybe back to the supplier for repairs, we can track that activity so we don't lose stuff.
How has it helped my organization?
It has yet to improve my organization 100%. I'm still getting the salespeople to actually use the system, but it does allow them now to do data mining on our client base. Before, when we bought the company, all of that was still paper-based. We've added that information from paper into this new system, so it's been an astronomical amount of data-capturing work. And we've had to double-check, making sure we have a high level of data integrity and stuff like that.
They're only getting to it now where they're starting to realize, "If I want to know how many clients we have that have CCTV solutions living in a particular neighborhood, I can get that information." Whereas before, we knew we had the information, but we had no way of extracting it because it was all paper-based.
What is most valuable?
The fact that we can build our own modules on the solution is really quite attractive, and it's not overly complex. A bit of IT experience does help, but you don't have to be a developer to be able to produce the goods, so that's nice. It allows us to put in some very fine-tuned customization unique to what we're doing. That's really cool.
What needs improvement?
There are one or two annoying things. For example, if you make a drop-down list of something, it doesn't automatically alphabetize the drop-down list. You have to manually go and drag items up and down and alphabetize them yourself. That's annoying. If you have five items in the drop-down list or if you have a hundred, it's just pathetic. It makes no sense that you have to do that because I've never seen it not work before in any other system that I've ever worked with. If you make a list of things, most solutions automatically put it in an alphabetized order. Or it'll put it in date order, but there is some order. It doesn't just go randomly in the order you create them. For example, I might load about 20 neighborhoods into a drop-down list, starting at "a" and ending at "z." But I might miss one of the "b's" and two of the "c's," so I add them, but they are added after the "z." Then I have to go to the bottom of the list, click on the one that starts with "b," and drag it all the way up to the "b's." That's just a pain in the butt.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Vtiger CRM for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We upgraded Vtiger to the latest version three weeks ago. We tested it and went live about a week ago, and even with all the testing, it broke a lot of things. The stability is otherwise pretty good, so I'll rate it a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't really tested it in terms of "Can I put 10,000 records on it?" But so far, with what I've needed to do, Vtiger hasn't been bad, so I rate its scalability a seven out of ten. We have 30 users using Vtiger CRM in my organization. Some are salespeople, some are back-office technical management, and some are accounting people. Then we have field technicians who make up about 20 of the 30 users.
We use Vtiger rarely now, but we will use it more and more as we finish developing the other modules. People are going to get more and more dependent on it because other systems are going to be discontinued. We'll be 100% dependent on the system six months from now, and everybody will use it.
How are customer service and support?
Tech support hasn't fixed the alphabetizing problem yet, so that will cost them some points. We logged that ticket in the early months of using it, and it's still open, so it's not being attended to.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Vtiger, we used an open-source platform, but nobody used it for a year. The developer was ridiculously expensive with his development work, so doing all that initial work and then not using it for a whole year, we were like, "Okay, now it's gonna cost us a lot of money to check all the data, make sure we have data integrity and stuff." So we decided to can that system and start again.
We chose Vtiger because the developer resource we used for some of the more complex work did customized development on Vtiger for one of our biggest competitors. That carried a lot of weight with the decision-making because, number one, he knew how to do what we wanted, and number two, if the competitor was using it, I could tell that that system could do what we needed it to do.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was simple. The solution is deployed on our website. I rate the initial setup a five out of ten because it's average.
The initial installation wasn't long at all. It only took a couple of hours. Building the modules has been quite a lengthy process. It has almost been a year since we're still adding stuff to the solution because we captured all our records from paper.
Because we're small, I set up the solution with one other IT person. I used more people to capture data, including some temporary casual labor. But it was just the two of us for the actual technical stuff.
Once we're done with this last module we have to develop, maintenance work will not be a full-time job. Our IT people will just have it as part of their work.
What about the implementation team?
We had access to a consultant during deployment for some of the more complex things, but we did most of the work ourselves.
What was our ROI?
We have yet to see an ROI because we're still busy with some development work, but I think it's definitely going to get there. The salespeople are only starting to use it now. They still need to realize the value of having all their data there and being able to pull reports from all different angles. It's more the learning curve from the people and embracing the change as opposed to a limitation of the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing, compared to other solutions, is very good. The price doesn't change when you add users. It's a flat fee, and that's attractive. Especially in South Africa, when you're working in Rand, you can't be adding, "Oh, it's $10 per user, and you have to times that by 20." The fact that it allows unlimited users is very helpful for us.
What other advice do I have?
There are many things we don't really use in Vtiger, so I can't comment on them. There are one or two things in the backend where we have to log a ticket with Vtiger if we want them to fix something. It is difficult to say what we might like to be added to Vtiger because we're not using a lot of its standard features. They have a built-in sales and quoting process, but we're not using that. We have a different system for that. We also have a lot of stuff we've added ourselves, such as the maintenance, ticketing, and configuration modules. We've built those ourselves. It's difficult to say what is in the off-the-shelf system that I would go and change because there's a lot of stuff I've not worked with.
We have been adding modules to the solution for a year since we captured all our records from paper. There wasn't an import or an export from some other system. We had to find the box containing the files, open it, and start going through the pages. It took a very long time because we manually captured all the data.
Vtiger CRM is a stable product. It does need some customizing, even though there are many out-of-the-box features you can use for general stuff. There's a sales process with quotes and things like that. But for something like a configuration manager that keeps track of all your passwords and stuff, we have to do that ourselves. You could use the solution if you have the inclination to develop your own little modules. If you don't need to do that, it's best to buy something already made. I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.