When I wrote about CRMs I wanted to see if there was a local provider. It turns out a local company with a reputation for work in tourism has released something new.

A quick email and I found myself at the Mount Offices of the Reserve Group with Roland and Jo.
Reserve Group has been making tourism web sites and booking systems since 2001. It has grown to offer a full marketing and creative service to clients, expanding from only tourism companies. I believe one of their strengths was they offered copywriting and photographic support when creating web sites.
Roland explained as their client base grew, they needed to improve records and client management systems: they needed a CRM.
But after trying many different offerings and unable to find one which suited them, they decided to build one themselves. After running it as an internal tool they decided to offer it to their clients. So they began talking to clients to gain a further insight into their needs.
After a year in the making they launched their new evoSuite Enterprise application, which included the CRM at the re-launch of the Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce on July 1, 2009. I will not go into lots of detail about the full evoSuite, except to say it showed that thought had gone into the entire development. Starting with the CRM as the central focus, they have developed a suite of tools which seamlessly share and make use of data. This was one of the problems they highlighted when looking at other CRMs.
They have not created a sales driven CRM, such as Salesforce, and have instead opted for an approach which builds knowledge and value regarding existing ones - as well as new customers. I was impressed to hear they share my view that everyone you interact with is a customer, not a 'lead” or an 'opportunity”.
Creating a new customer was easy, as was adding follow-on notes which could include attached documents either uploaded or from within the suites document management tool. One thing they have done well is cross referencing different contacts and grouping them accordingly. This is an important but often overlooked part of a CRM; creating a knowledge base of which people know or deal with each other, helping you understand points of reference and opportunity.
Listening to their customers was important in this development and led them to achieve something Microsoft should have done; making Outlook the centre of your business.
The entire CRM and evoSuite is accessed from within Microsoft outlook. The majority of businesses use Outlook as their email and calendar tool, so this makes a lot of sense. Any doubts I had as a non-Outlook user were easily put aside when I saw it in action. One of my consistent prerequisites for a CRM is its ability to work with my email. I have to say they nailed that one nicely.
The reporting and tracking of business activity was well thought out and they are open to suggestions on tweaks to make it work better for the customer. In fact, they have taken a note from the open source community. If a customer makes a good suggestion it goes into the application and everyone benefits free of charge. That's customer service.
Your data is stored in their servers, backed up continually and with power backup provision. The chances of not having access are very slim. Reserve Group has built up its data farm for this. I asked Roland and he stated there and then, 'It is and always will be the customers' data. They can export it as and when they want.”
The entire suite is designed to work with a web site built by Reserve Group but this is not mandatory. The pricing seemed reasonable for an SME, when you consider this is a monthly SAAS offering - not a one-off cost.
Their packages come with 10 gigs of storage per user. I am not convinced this pricing will be attractive to some smaller businesses but it's probable they would not get the full benefits of such a complete system. I would have been tempted to start with pricing for one user with lower data storage and work up from there.
If you are thinking of getting a server and using Sharepoint, look at Reserve Group first.
If you have experience of evoSuite with CRM, good or bad, please comment and share with us and our readers.