Executive Summary
- This article is part of our honest vendor series, which is one of the only ratings of vendors rather than applications.
Introduction
Base CRM is a young and small new CRM vendor. They are currently roughly 100 people. Base specializes in small clients. However, this is because this is how new software vendors start. From what we can tell, there is no reason larger companies could not use base CRM, but it will take some time before Base CRM’s profile grows enough to interest these types of customers.
Quality of Information Provided
The information provided by Base CRM’s website is accurate. Information provided by things like the Base CRM implementation guide is entirely correct.
https://blog.getbase.com/quick-start-crm-implementation-guide
Recommendations from this guide include the following:
- Start slow using a bottom-up approach
- Outline just a few KPIs and identify sales activities that go along with them.
- Use Base’s Deal Importer to migrate sales data
- Keep the documentation simple
- Make the executives use it
This is all quite good advice. Another example is found in 5 Myths About CRM Software.
https://blog.getbase.com/5-myths-about-crm-software
“Customer relationship management software is often viewed as a necessary evil. It is the something that is better than nothing, yet thought of as expensive, underutilized and fragmented.”
That is 100% true. However, most CRM vendors will not tell you this. Base CRM does.
“Your CRM should be no different. If you only needed a simple repository of contact information, you’d use an address book. Your CRM must be more than that. Your CRM should add structure to your sales funnel and help your team track and close more deals. One great way to gauge the utility of your CRM is to look closely at how your team is using it. Your CRM should allow you to generate reports based on CRM activity. Not only will reports give you a clear picture of how your CRM is being used, it can also tell you a lot about where your sales approach is succeeding and in what ways it is failing. One promise of the CRM is that it empowers you to make data-driven decisions. Numbers don’t lie and your CRM should prove its worth with a solid ROI.”
Again, also valid, but many software vendors would be happy to charge you for a full CRM system, while it is only used as a glorified address book. Base CRM seems to want to differentiate itself from these types of software vendors. (are you listening to Oracle?)
Much of the information provided by the Base CRM website seems genuinely directed towards helping customers and prospects better implement and use CRM. This has been a consistent result of our research in the enterprise software space that the best software vendors not only focus on the technology but understand the subject matter better and have deeper insights than other CRM software vendors.
As for other areas of information provided by Base CRM, we do not have enough information to say one way or another.
Consulting and Support
We rate Base CRM as better than average in both consulting and support.
Internal Efficiency
Base CRM has developed an excellent product, with a few numbers of resources. This says good things about their internal efficiency.
Innovation
The Current Innovation Level of Base CRM is high. We expect continued innovation from Base CRM.
Vendor Scores
Honest Vendor Ratings
- VC = Vendor Consulting
- VS = Vendor Support
- QIP = Quality of Information Provided
- IE = Internal Efficiency
- I = Innovation
- C = Category
- ACS = Average Category Score
Vendor | VC | VS | QIP | IE | I | C | ACG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average Score for the BI Heavy Software Category | 6.4 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 4.5 | 4.4 | BI Heavy | Category Average |
Average Score for the BI Light Software Category | 7.7 | 6.7 | 5 | 6.3 | 6.8 | BI Light | Category Average |
Average Score for the CRM Software Category | 5.2 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | CRM | Category Average |
Average Score for the PLM Software Category | 7.3 | 7.5 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.3 | PLM | Category Average |
Average Score for the Production Planning Software Category | 7.3 | 6.7 | 6 | 5.2 | 5.7 | Production Planning | Category Average |
Average Score for the Small and Medium ERP Software Category | 7.3 | 6.7 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 5.9 | Small and Medium ERP | Category Average |
Average Score for the Supply Planning Software Category | 7.5 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 5.5 | 5.6 | Supply Planning | Category Average |
Average Score Score for the Demand Planning Software Category | 7.7 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 6.1 | 6.1 | Demand Planning | Category Average |
Average Score for the Big ERP Software Category | 4.7 | 3.8 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 2.6 | Big ERP | Category Average |
Actuate | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 5 | BI Heavy | Application Specific |
Arena Solutions | 9 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | PLM | Application Specific |
AspenTech | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | Production Planning | Application Specific |
Base CRM | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 7 | CRM | Application Specific |
Birst | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8.5 | 9 | BI Heavy | Application Specific |
Business Forecast Systems | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 8 | Demand Planning | Application Specific |
Delfoi | 8 | 8 | 8.5 | 4 | 8 | Production Planning | Application Specific |
Demand Works | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Supply Planning | Application Specific |
ERPNext | 8 | 8 | 8.5 | 10 | 9 | Small and Medium ERP | Application Specific |
FinancialForce | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9.5 | Financial | Application Specific |
Hamilton Grant | 8 | 9.5 | 8 | 9.5 | 8 | PLM | Application Specific |
Intacct | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9.5 | Financial | Application Specific |
Intuit | 8 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 6.5 | Financial | Application Specific |
JDA | 3.5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Demand Planning | Application Specific |
Microsoft | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Small and Medium ERP | Application Specific |
MicroStrategy | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | BI Heavy | Application Specific |
NetSuite | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | CRM | Application Specific |
OpenERP | 7 | 8 | 8.5 | 8 | 7 | Small and Medium ERP | Application Specific |
Oracle | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Many | Application Specific |
PlanetTogether | 9 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | Supply Planning | Application Specific |
Preactor | 7 | 8 | 7.5 | 3 | 3 | Production Planning | Application Specific |
ProcessPro | 10 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | Small and Medium ERP | Application Specific |
QlikTech | 8 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 9.5 | CRM | Application Specific |
Salesforce | 7 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 6 | CRM | Application Specific |
SAS | 9 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 7 | Demand Planning | Application Specific |
SugarCRM | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | CRM | Application Specific |
Tableau | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 | BI Light | Application Specific |
Teradata | 9 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 6 | 8 | BI Heavy | Application Specific |
ToolsGroup | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | Demand Planning | Application Specific |
SAP | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Many | Application Specific |
Part of the Following Software Categories
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