Ringcentral Killer? Stupid Name, Awesome Price!
Oct 22 2009
Posted by Anthony as Productivity Tools, Technology, communications, other marketing
Grasshopper is an incredibly stupid name, but by now, as we all know, most ‘great names’ on the Internet have been taken. Ringcentral has been great to us over the years but the pricing for grasshopper.com can’t be beat. Plans start at just under $10 /mo and give you one number (local or toll-free) and UNLIMITED EXTENSIONS! You heard me right kids, unlimited extensions. Ringcentral gives you one number and 10 extensions for $25 /mo. See where this is headed?
For all of you who are wondering what Ringcentral and Grasshopper are, I’ll tell you. They are virtual phone systems. No hardware required… except your existing phone and service (cell, land line, or VoIP). Did you ever want to sound like a huge company with automated attendants, extensions, and voicemail? This is the type of service you need to sound like the big guys.c
Click below and check it out, sign up for the 30 day trial.
Great Deal On GoDaddy SSL Certificates
Oct 16 2009
Posted by Anthony as Networking, Web Hosting, Web Site Stuff, communications
Here is a great deal we found on GoDaddy SSL Certificates. Instead of them costing $30, you can get them for $13 /year. That’s more than 50% the normal price. I almost signed up for an SSL at $30 /year and then did a quick search and found this deal.
Click below to get the discount!
If you are trying to run a business, make sales, or just manage your contacts, leads, and customers then you need a CRM.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Manager. Wikipedia simply defines it as ‘the process implemented by a company to handle it’s contact with it’s customers. and that is a fair definition, although it can do much more than that.
You can keep track of sales calls, forecast sales, collaborate on sales, track advertising campaign success, you can even manage email communications with customers or potential customers right through the CRM itself!
I’m going to throw a spoiler in here… If you want to skip reading this and go to the one I recommend it is SugarCRM.
The purpose of this post isn’t really to define what a CRM, I am here to tell you how you can use one without going broke. But of course there is a catch. Let’s look at some of the options out there: (keep in mind, I am talking about realistic options for small businesses)
Salesforce.com – everyone knows about this one. This is a CRM as a service… that is it is hosted by salesforce.com and it’s not cheap. This is a great service though, I have had many people recommend it to me and have recommended it on occasion myself. This option has been touted as the best option for organizing a remote sales staff.
Insidesales – Insidesales.com offers a web based CRM solution that integrates some interesting features such as a power dialer, voice messaging, faxing, recording etc… very interesting, but I have not had a chance to try their free trial yet… but I will when I get a chance.
suradocrm.com – I have heard some good things about SuradoCRM, which is why they are on the list. I have not had an opportunity to try this one yet either. give it a try then post a comment here!
Microsoft – Microsoft makes so many different CRM systems and under so many names I’m not going to bother to list them… If your are interested in finding out about them head over to microsoft.com and check them out. Microsoft CRM systems not hosted solutions, that is they will run or a server you own.
SugarCRM - This is the one. SugarCRM has all the features of the competition. The also have a hosted version of the software for a monthly fee, but the reason this is the one that earns our recommendation is they offer an open source version that they call the ‘community’ version. The only drawback to this software is that it has to be installed on your server… but If you can do that or have a decent IT guy on staff that won’t be a problem. The only other issue I’ve ever had with the system is it can be hard to learn… but, If you have ever used quickbooks you will be used to it. So give it a try.
So again, to emphasize: the winner is SugarCRM.com (but keep in mind the free version is not a “hosted, web based solution” it will require you to install the software on a server)
If use a better one (that is cheap) post a comment and let me, and everyone else know….
Your complete business phone system, Online!
Mar 29 2009
Posted by Ken as Productivity Tools, communications
There are many services available to meet your business telecommunications needs, but today I am going to discuss the one that I use every day: RingCentral.com
You can go online and find a service to send and receive faxes, a VoIP for phone service, a unified messaging service, a Virtual PBX service… Or you can get multiple land lines from the phone company, buy phones, buy a fax machine, buy a PBX system, and of course pay someone to get it all working…. And that’s why we are bringing this up, Money. It’s all about getting the most bang for your buck… believe me, if you are using traditional land lines, and fax machines you are pouring money right down the phone line. If your using some frankenstien like combination of land lines and online services you are probably wasting money on overlapping services that don’t really meet your needs.
If your looking for a reliable and cost effective alternative you can use RingCentral. We use RingCentral for multiple companies, and doing so is easy. We have a phone number for each business and each number can go to it’s own extension, it can be set to forward that call to one or more people so you can always have someone answer the phone.
We are even able to have a support line that lets the caller choose from a list of options and routes that call to the appropriate extension.
My favorite feature is the ability to use VoIP lines to expand the system to connect Satilite offices and home offices. And having a button on your website that says “call me” a visitor clicks it, enters their phone number and the system automatically calls the visitor then calls you… that’s pretty cool.
We started with RingCentral with one phone number and the basic plan…. Now we have 6 numbers and utilize soft phones and are planning on stepping up to the RingCentral Office Plan soon. This will act as a complete, fully functional VoIP and PBX system. all taken care of by RingCentral so I don’t have to worry about it. Beautiful.
Head over to RingCentral and get a Free Trial plus 10% Off !