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Author Topic: Is CiviCRM right for us?  (Read 2359 times)

GroundworkNE

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Is CiviCRM right for us?
May 03, 2012, 03:20:18 am
Hi All

I work for an environmental regeneration charity in the North East of England and I am really needing some help with CiviCRM. I have been asked to do some research on Civi to find out if it is right for the organsiation I work for. We currently have a project management system and a seperate finance system that are very robust and the trust is not wanting to get rid of these any time soon, however they are interested in whether a CRM system like Civi could compliment the systems we already have. I am sceptical about this because from what I understand of a CRM system, it is introduced so that no other project or finance systems need to be in place and a CRM system will hold all customer infromation, including all project info and the financial info attatched to this. Could someone please tell me if I am correct and whether you think Civi could be integrated with the systems we already have? If someone could tell me the main functions of the system so that I can understand the benefits and what it could do for us. Thank you so much

xavier

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Re: Is CiviCRM right for us?
May 03, 2012, 03:50:30 am
That's quite common to have other (financial/project management) tools around a CRM. That's the ERP that's trying to be the all encompassing monster of a software.

Check out the list of features of Civi, but in a nutshell:
- do you send newsletters?
- do you organise events?
- do you have members and send them info?
- do you get online donations?
- do you have other contacts (media/providers/partners....)?

Then might be that you could benefit from Civi. I'd suggest you to try the demo to get a clearer sense of what it can offer and if it could be useful for your org.

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Hershel

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Re: Is CiviCRM right for us?
May 03, 2012, 06:36:09 am
You said you have a project management system and a seperate finance system, but CiviCRM is a CRM, a constituent relationship management system, which is actually something different.

Yes, CiviCRM can certainly (it sounds like) compliment what you have.
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GroundworkNE

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Re: Is CiviCRM right for us?
May 03, 2012, 07:08:34 am
Thank you for your replies. I am going to have a closer look at the demo etc. Our orgasnisation currently has the Outlook Web App for our email system, so can CiviCRM be integrated or linked to this in anyway? I know Civi is web based, so would it have to be a seperate programme from the email system? I know some CRM systems can be integrated into an email system, such as Microsoft Dynamics. In terms of filling in contacts and setting up the system, would we need to copy contact information over to Civi manually? Also, do you know if Civi can also be linked to the information from our two other systems, although they have different functions, would we be able to link them up in anyway? Thanks

Hershel

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Re: Is CiviCRM right for us?
May 03, 2012, 07:25:19 am
There has been work done on integrating Outlook and CiviCRM: http://civicrm.org/blogs/polestar/civisync-outlook-synchronization-civicrm so it is possible.

Contacts can be imported via CSV files or via the API if necessary.

CiviCRM can be connected to any system via the API. Just a matter of how much work is involved. :)
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  • CiviCRM Community Forums (archive) »
  • Old sections (read-only, deprecated) »
  • General Discussion (please no support requests here!) (Moderator: Michał Mach) »
  • Is CiviCRM right for us?

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