37Signals has added an online contact manager to their online productivity suite. The new product, Highrise, to keep track of all the contacts you’ve inevitably made while drumming up clients for your Basecamp projects. The customer resource management (CRM) space is packed with a lot of big players, Salesforce and NetSuite being two of the largest.
37Signals is taking a more streamlined approach from the big guys, opting for a laser focus on only online contact management, serving as a good companion to Outlook. Contacts can be added manually or imported from Basecamp and vCards. Each of the contacts you add to Highrise gets a bio complete with photo and can be assigned task to-do lists and labeled with notes (including images and files). Each of these contacts can be locked down through user permissions, and dropped into project groups that keep your contacts, notes and files all together. If logging on is too much, you can also CC email notes to Highrise, which it will attach to the right contact.
Their basic business accounts start at $24/month for 6 users and 5,000 contacts, and work their way up to $149/month for unlimited users and 50,000 contacts.
Zoho has a similar CRM application that’s free with all features for 3 users and $12/month for each additional user. However, Zoho CRM is better suited for the sales pipeline, tracking leads from potentials to completed sales and forecasts. Zoho CRM also integrates with your web forms so leads can go right from your site to the form your database, and back out again as a .csv export.
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A very cool application, but I wish they let free users track more contacts- $12 a months for a glorified personal address book is a bit much.
You can also check out Funclient.com
Its a similar application to Highrise, and we are giving away a limited number of free accounts with 1G of storage.
Regards
I like Zoho, sometimes I feel like 37Signals gets too much automatic credit just because it’s them.
Too expensive.
I thought that if it is a good companion of Outlook then it should be possible to import Contacts from Outlook or am I missing something here.
It seems like a good idea, I just wish it were integrated into my basecamp projects.
Highrise Team, will this be a feature in the future?
Agreed with Kewtr. This release seems pretty hohum to me, but of course will covered by every blog just because it’s 37…
They make some web apps, no doubt, but I think they should make their free versions a little more useful. They’re always so crippled that I can’t imagine anyone actually uses them.
Wes - contacts can be imported from Outlook in vCard format ( http://www.highrisehq.com/help/importing/ ).
Exporting contacts and other data is planned ( http://forum.highrisehq.com/forums/1/topics/70 ).
The thing I’m not digging about Highrise is the whole “Import” concept. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t we be demanding “Sync” capabilities from Contact Managers?
PS: Everything else looks pretty solid though
This is another quality 37 Signals project but I am curious why they haven’t spent time tying their applications together more. Most of the Highrise features should, in my opinion, be built right into Basecamp and bundled accordingly. More on my blog at http://foroobar.wordpress.com/.....7-signals/.
Also, Nick… CRM usually means customer relationship (not resource) management.
To some extent, I believe 37Signals tried too hard to create a new niche application foregoing some very important details of how we would use this product. Considering it’s relatively similar to SalesForce in cost, I’m disappointed by the functionality. It was originally pitched as a simple and usable alternative to complex CRM programs. However, it’s so stripped down that I’m not convinced that it’s useful. Some obvious missing features include better integration with Plaxo, Outlook, or CRM’s. I should be able to easily import information from these programs. 37Signals is all about less software, but I think this time the product falls short on functionality.
I use all of 37signals products but this one is flat out overpriced. Odd, because I thought their others were spot on. It’s a cool and useful app, but their pricing is about 2x higher than it should be.
I signed up for a pro account - as I am always looking for better ways to manage contacts/sales etc. We currently use Campfire and we used to use basecamp. I have experience with Salesforce, Netsuite, MSFT CRM, used to be a CRM developer/consultant in an earlier life.
First thing I look for - a way to import the 3000+ contacts that I have. This is also the reason why I signed up for the ‘Pro’ account @ $49/mo. since the lower plans support 25, 250 and 1000 contacts only. Who in the world needs a contact manager for 25 or 250 contacts I don’t know - perhaps these users do exists.
Anyway, I couldn’t import my contacts. Adding a contact gives me a form, ‘import’ gives me a form where I can upload a vCard - problem is that a vCard can only hold a single contact. My 3000+ contacts will never see Highrise. Address Book can, however, export multiple contacts into a single vCard. If you are using Outlook/Exchange at the moment you will need to use a Mac as a proxy to get your contacts into Highrise. For me, that is a big oversight.
Despite that, here is my quick summary of the app with a look at all the diff objects:
* You have “people”, who are your contacts. each of these has a bunch of contact info, and may or may not belong to a company.
* “company” is a set of people, but also has its own set of contact details (you can’t define a primary contact and use that persons contact details as the company contact details)
* “notes” are “things that you did”, eg. a phone call. you can attach a note to a contact or a company, and it is your history of contacts with that person/company.
* “tasks” are things that you have to do, they can be associated to notes
* “cases” are objects that bring notes, people and companies together. cases have a state of either being ‘open’ or ‘closed’
permissions are done on a per person or per company basis. defined as you add the company or afterwards. nothing more to permissions (eg. let support see all support related contacts, let sales see all new leads, etc.)
you can’t define different types of people (eg. contact, friend, employee, supplier) or companies (eg. lead, partner, customer)
highrise isn’t an CRM, I don’t think it is a fully-featured PIM either. The application is very one-dimensional. They must be targeting companies who currently are not using any sort of application outside of an email program to manage their contacts. I can’t see why a person or group using Outlook would move to Highrise - considering how much more outlook can offer (then you have mobile synch, web editions, etc). Also, Highrise has no reporting, or any way to break down the views of your contacts/companies.
Perhaps if you are a one-man company and you use a spreadsheet to manage your contacts, you might find that you would get more from using Highrise.
If you are a small company, I would recommend you look at getting hosted Exchange + Outlook, or just Outlook (with contact manager). There is also Zoho CRM which is a full-featured CRM with a proper pipeline, views, reports, cases, opportunities and you can customize or create new objects in admin - and it is cheap (www.zohocrm.com)
If you are looking for ‘lightweight CRM’ - then you can look at any of these CRM apps as they allow you to use as much or as little of them as you like (eg. only contacts, companies). If you think that is a pain, and you don’t have a real CRM process in your company, then you aren’t being as efficient or effective as you could be.
Nice writeup Nik!
I would like to add that there are tons of other alternatives too - what I describe is just what we use ourselves (plus Microsoft CRM) or what I have been recommending recently (SugarCRM is also good). There is no such thing as a company that is ‘too small’ for CRM - every company, even just a single founder should use proper PIM/CRM from day one (you do plan to get bigger some day, don’t you?)
Nik, the vcard specification (and Highrise) allow multiple vcards to live in the same file. Apple Mail and other mailers support generating vcards like this, but Outlook does not by default. We linked some of the ones we found from the Highrise FAQ.
Like you said, there are lots of other CRM tools, but the one you mentioned and linked to in the post was from Zoho. I was wondering if getting that link/mention is something you offer to all advertisers (like Zoho) or if that is an add-on to the standard rates?
Another question I was wondering about is does having the payment go undisclosed as part of the standard rate, or do you have to pay more to get the mention without the disclosure?
Thanks for the write-up. A few quick clarifications:
“problem is that a vCard can only hold a single contact”
That’s not accurate. The vCard spec allows you to export multiple contacts into a single vCard. Apple Address book does it and there are a variety of shareware tools that let you export all your Outlook contacts into a single vCard as well.
http://vcard4outlook.4team.biz/
http://www.daesoft.com/OutlookExport/
Hopefully Microsoft will modernize and allow people to export multiple contacts into a single vCard so you don’t need to use a third party tool.
“permissions are done on a per person or per company basis. defined as you add the company or afterwards. nothing more to permissions”
You can also set permissions on individual notes and emails as well. The permission system is very flexible yet very simple. You can make an entire person private or just 3 notes on a page private. Or you can say “Only Executives” can see this person or “Everyone can see this person but only Executives can see this note.” Or only John and Jane can see this email. The simple flexibility is really powerful.
“They must be targeting companies who currently are not using any sort of application outside of an email program to manage their contacts…”
That’s one of the biggest markets in the computer business. It’s easy to dismiss that market since it’s not sexy, but it’s bigger than the market of people who manage their contacts with specialized software.
I’d be careful not to underestimate the size of the market for people looking for the simple solution that does a few things well and gets out of their way. It’s way bigger than the market that is looking for the “robust enterprise” tool that does everything.
“Who in the world needs a contact manager for 25 or 250 contacts I don’t know - perhaps these users do exists.”
Not people who write for Techcrunch, clearly ;). There’s only a few of you, but there’s a lot of other people. Step out of your world, get creative, and you may be surprised. I’ve been using Highrise for my own personal stuff (logging dentist appointments, logging car services, keeping track of personal tasks, keeping notes on my conversations with Comcast service, keeping detailed notes on my Heath Insurance plans, etc). 25 contacts has served me quite well for the last 3 months. I only use Highrise to track the people I’ve actively communicating with, not my college roommate who I haven’t talked to for 9 years.
Nick… you really should include a disclaimer that Zoho is a major advertiser on this blog. Your inclusion of them seems rather gratuitous in that direction.
Too focused of an application to be of widespread appeal.
I am glad Sugar was mentioned. If its contact, activity, and pipeline management you are looking for SugarCRM is the way to go. There is a great desktop installer on their forge site. If you need heavy reporting and team selling, you will have to go with their professional edition, but the open source is amazingly feature rich for a free product.
http://sugarcrm.com or the forge http://sugarforge.org
I wonder how SugarCRM compares to ZohoCRM. I’ve got a feeling that they target different users, but not sure which one’s for an SME with 1000+ contacts, and 40+ employees. But anyways, I do feel that 37Signals’ services could be better connected to each other.
37Signals should make integration with their other products a priority with their releases.
Highrise is just too expensive for what it does.
That’s a ridiculous price to charge for what it does.
Highrise is too expensive for single users. I am still looking for a web contact management tool but haven’t found one to handle my 500+ contacts. Currently I use PIMEX.
Welcome to the contact management space 37 Signals. Highrise appears to be a “People Wiki”. I notice it is missing a calendar - you cannot track meetings held with a contact which is pretty critical for a contact manager.
Another product that should be mentioned alongside of them is Big Contacts - http://www.bigcontacts.com We quietly launched an open beta in January and are releasing the product on April 1st. It is a 100% Ajax application designed for groups. You can import any number (thousands) of contacts. Assign tasks. Schedule meetings. Write notes. Attach files, etc. There is a sales opporutnity tracking system and you can build a custom pipeline with products and track sales. You can create as many contact types as you wish.
Big Contacts is completely FREE for up to 500 contacts.
For more on Highrise, here’s my “day 2″ review that breaks down the 6 reasons why Highrise from 37signals is the right solution for 90% of the CRM market. Includes an interesting Flash visualization of the main advantages of the application:
http://www.badslacks.com/6-rea.....a-success/
Great to see (finally) new entries into the Web-based contact management space, it is overdue.
Meet you in the summer with our offering in this space (with a twist, of course). We are closing corporate customers now and will release the product to the internet public by July on our website at http://www.telepark.com
And as always: you will actually be able to buy and own it, too.
Patrick
It’s a great tool.. I’ve been using it for two days and will definitly upgrade to one of the major plans.
My only complain is that the cases tool should be included to all paid accounts, and not just the premium ones.. I’d like to use it with just a few contacts
yeah too expensive; first of all the free account is useless; I can remember 25 names and associations lol ….
- Then 250 which sounds ok … ummm … wouldn’t handle my current 3,000.
- How is this better; than buying the same or building the same, for 1,000.00 then owning it forever?
- How hard can it be?, just build a PHP/Mysql/250 gig Godaddy hosting; then use it for only your company; total cost $1,000 (build cost) $70 a year.
Does anyone else think that the mail integration is clever but not quite functional?
It is the reverse of Salesforce. In SF, you can send emails from SF but not receive them. I think that receiving email is possible at higher license levels or with their spring ‘07 release.
In Highrise, it seems like the integration with the rest of your life is via a Highrise dropbox. I tried to forward some meetings I have set up in my outlook calendar to my dropbox to see if they would register in Highrise.
Highrise rejected them all for a variety of different reasons. Am I missing something? There doesn’t seem to be much of real value here if I can’t sync Highrise to my calendar even if I am willing to do it manually by copying all my meetings into outlook and my dropbox.
I also can’t forward vcards to my Highrise dropbox. Frustrating.
I think 37Signals is overhyped. They claim their products are focused and simple and they are unless you need something more than their simple features. I think they accomplish simplicity by breaking apart a single into smaller ones so from that perspective they are simpler, just not as useful.
Why not use SugarCRM? You can go with the Free version or pay for versions. No limitation on contacts. At My company, we actually bundle SugarCRM with website packages for SMB / SME customers.
Why would you pay (this much) for Highrise?
I like all of 37signal’s products and I’ve been paying to use Basecamp and Backpack for a year plus.
I agree with most people though. Highrise is overpriced for what you get.
I have used Salesforce, SugarCRM and ZohoCRM and I think they are super clumsy and WAY to complicated for most uses.
I personally think Pipeline Deals is the one to use. https://pipelinedeals.com/content/pricing
They have a simple interface with almost no bloat and a decent price. There is no limit on contacts or “deals” (what 37signals calls “cases”) but they charge per user. They have no email integration though from what I’ve seen.
I signed up for a trial a while ago and used it and liked it but didn’t sign up for a paid account because I was waiting for 37signals solution. Well I’ve seen it (Highrise) and I’m not to impressed from a bang-for-the-buck standpoint.
I’ll throw my voice in here - I think their implementation is great (from what I’ve seen), obviously there are some pricing and feature issues that they are getting feedback on (their blog post has over 110 comments on it right now). I think its a fascinating case study from many angles on software, releasing, customer response, etc. Cool stuff.
My perspective is that of a job seeker. I wanted CRM-like funcitonality but with specific features for me. I also didn’t want to have to translate sales lingo into personal professional career management lingo.
So, I developed my own thing (JibberJobber) - which has been live since May. No matter what CRM tool you have at your office (unless of course you are a one-man show) I strongly encourage you to have your own personal system. You are making contacts every day. You are meeting people that might have an impact on your career future. And when you get pink-slipped, fed-up or whatever, those contacts will be crucial.
Go check out Highrise for business CRM (or Salesforce, or Goldmine, or any of the hundreds of other solutions), but make sure you have your own personal system (even post-it notes for all I care) — I was laid off and I wished that I had my own network just the way I had a CRM tool at work (it was Goldmine). Cuz when you get laid off (or whatever) they won’t let you access their database.
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
Jason: Sorry I sorta rushed that comment, most of it was stream-of-though, I meant to say ‘from outlook’ which is why I followed up with “If you are using Outlook/Exchange at the moment you will need to use a Mac as a proxy to get your contacts into Highrise. For me, that is a big oversight.”
I still think it is an oversight, considering Outlook gives you at least 4 different text file formats to export to.
Point taken on permissions, but you are still talking about per-instance, rather than based on groups or types, but groups/types I found out later don’t exist so you can’t put permissions on something that isn’t there
As for markets, I don’t think this market is sexy at all - it is actually dead boring, which might explain why CRM penetration in sub-50 person companies is less than 10%. There can be many reasons for that, one might be that it is lack of solution, some might think its lack of demand or understanding. I guess the simple open question there is - how do you get somebody who is using Outlook or even Outlook Express to use Highrise. My comment about “not using any sort of application” was supposed to be tounge-in-cheeck, but I didn’t re-read so it probably doesn’t come out that way - what it meant was ‘who really is there that doesn’t already use contact management as part of their email application’.
I am sure that the answer there is todo lists (which you have a solution for), cases, for which the user compensates in lag (eg. looking up contacts in highrise, clicking on their email address. Having to CC highrise etc.), cost and complexity of an additional app. The question that keeps coming up is, if I have an email app with ok contact management - does Highrise complement or supplant that?
As for the number of contacts, thats fine, but if this app is for business users or groups then the people who can afford to pay for it are likely to have more contacts than a handful.
As an aside, my list of contacts are from the past 15 months - people I have emailed with (reply and response) as well as leads and customers. It isn’t my personal contact book either - its business related.
Oh and my comment is just my feedback from trying the app - I actually had a few ‘applications’ for it, not just as a primary personal or business PIM. I know that you take customer feedback into consideration. This isn’t meant to be a point/counter-point exercise
I was excited to see this app, but was very disappointed in the features and the price is way to steep for what it offers. And where is the implementation between 37signals apps? I like the way you can layout things in backpack, but this functionality is non existent in the messages of basecamp, and why can’t I have my CRM with my projects, why does it have to be completely separate. I know that after three months of using basecamp I will not be paying for another month as it offers too little for the price. If they were to combine all three basecamp backpack and highrise together, they might have a quality app, but these single apps are becoming more of a headache to use by themselves.
FYI, we’ve made some changes to the plans, opened up cases for everyone, and added a new Solo plan:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/p.....disk-space
Spencer wrote “why can’t I have my CRM with my projects?”
I agree and built it:
http://honeypitch.com/
I REALLY like Highrise… but it has one fatal flaw.
Nearly all the contacts in the medical industry (where I’m working now), below to several organisations - eg one person is a director of one company, holds an academic position at a university, and also runs a private venture as well.
Highrise does not support having one contact belong to multiple companies, which is an absolute necessity for us.