Item: Nimble
Rating: 9
Author: Chad Stewart

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Nimble is used by the organization to handle leads, future advocates, existing advocates. The entire organization is using it. This CRM solution is dealing with the challenge of keeping track of and pulling into one view all the social signals and streams of people and organizations we provide services and solutions today. And, the more it is utilized the better it becomes for it's intended purpose. I believe that ideally this is likely one of the best social intelligence tools for organizations with simple CRM needs.

Pros and Cons

This CRM tool allows us to save a tremendous amount of time in data entry. On any web browser or email client communication via Google (and soon other clients), we have the means to quickly add users into the system, view all their pertinent social media streams, enter notes, to do's, follow ups, schedule meetings, all without going into the actual Nimble solution. It's awesome!
The integration with other systems is powerful. Integration to systems such as email marketing solutions, marketing automation like ACT-On (via cazoomi), and financial accounting systems like QuickBooks is a big time saver for a small organization.
The Nimble System has an integrated email inbox where you can capture and communicate back with every email which comes in without leaving the tool.
With it's Nimble Contact Widget automatically fills out the contact record from just a name and email. It's automagic—Saves time. Recently, the company launched the Nimble contact widget for Google Chrome, Hootsuite, Safari and Firefox. It's an awesome new feature.The Smart Contact add in is awesome! The ease of getting a contact record into the system on any website (LinkedIn, Twitter, or company websites) is 2nd to none. Not only are you able to get information into the system quickly there, but even in Gmail. Beyond the data entry efficiencies, with Nimble you can immediately connect the dots in terms of what the contact likes,dislikes, follows etc. with it's ability to pull in all the social intelligence via their digital footprint. From there, you are on your way to developing stronger relationships.
On the main dashboard, we can view all the "engagement" opportunities we have with contacts who have "followed" us or otherwise had some interaction so that we don't miss enhancing our relationship opportunities. In short, from one view we can listen and respond in one CRM tool!

Reports: Opportunity Management and/or Forecasting is an area of improvement. In June, we had a major improvement for reports and sales forecasting. This was a major step in the right direction.
Import: The Import process is cumbersome. I have used many import tools and while this is not the worst it's mediocre at best. The key is having an implementation partner or using someone on the App Market to import your initial data such as demographic or profile information from your legacy system like Goldmine, ACCESS etc. If all your data is in Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, GMAIL contacts it's no problem. We just had specific fields which needed to be pulled in twice for "contact" and "accounts" linked information. For example, Revenue was a field we captured at the contact level and account level. We wanted to see that information in both places. As a result, we had to import twice due to the lack of linkage right now. I am sure it will get improved but not that good now. It can be overcome and not that expensive to do it once you get the process down.
Templates: There are no standard word templates which can be used to send out regular communications without going out to a third party system like MailChimp. In other words, when you have follow up emails which are routine to check in you have to copy and paste those type of "word" or "google docs" templates into the Inbox of Nimble to send out accordingly. There is a work around but if you are using some other CRM tools this is something to be aware of in your evaluation process.
Account Management: Many tools have ways by which to "link" shared "data" between accounts and contacts. For example, XYZ company has 3 or more employees. When you input information you would like the address to "flow" down to others. Or, you have a shared "field" on the contact record but would like to have it also displayed on the "account record". There is no way to do that. Therefore, be mindful of that situation. If you work with company records, it's a bit cumbersome to deal with this right now (as of 1/1/2015).

Return on Investment

Google Chrome Add in, dramatically improved data entry time.
With ease of capturing new contacts into the system with Google Chrome Add In, it has improved data entry errors and improved our ability to get the lead into the "nurture phase" of marketing activities
Social insights are now actionable information in real time rather than having to piece it all together from other systems

Alternatives Considered

Nimble fits nicely in the "contact management" "social crm" space. As mentioned, it's not a full fledged CRM tool yet (sales, marketing, service, projects, defect tracking) etc. but it's in a good class for those small organizations who haven't any experience with automated tools and need to get into the Social Media world in order to be successfully develop relationships in the 21st century Social Selling world.

Users and Roles

Likelihood to Recommend

For a contact insights (management) centric organization this is a winner all day long. If you have very dynamic reporting or forecasting needs this is not a CRM for you. This tool is great if you are just starting (alternative to ACT!, Goldmine, Outlook CRM Manager). In fact, it's awesome for providing insights in the social area which can even add to CRM tools like Salesforce.com, Sugar, or SalesLogix CRM which are lacking in this area. And, with API's can be integrated into the tool, it's great for real estate, financial service, or other professional contact driven sales relationships. It is also excellent for Fundraising Development Officers hoping to gain insights into their Donors! So, B to C is super. And, B to B may need a little more power if they are more sophisticated and mature with CRM.

I suggest asking the following questions to discern if this is right for you. Are you B to C or B to B? Do you work with Accounts or Contacts? What are your forecasting requirements? Are you a public company or private? Have you used another CRM before? Do I (or my team) add a lot of new records into a system daily?

In summary, this is a simple Social Intelligence platform tool for a small business development team which is inputting new data to use in their business. In addition, a superior tool for a nonprofit membership director or nonprofit development officer who need to supplant the data provided in their existing donor or membership management system. For most, Nimble is not a replacement for an enterprise wide CRM system but rather would add value to an existing CRM, Donor Management, or Membership Management System.

Support Headcount Required

Business Processes Supported

Sales
Social Insights
Marketing

Innovative Uses

Integration with ACT ON via Cazoomi (an excellent product)
Integration with BombBomb Video Email through Zapier

Future Planned Uses

Sales Forecasting with improved reports release in June 2014 it allowed us to do that

Likelihood to Renew

It's truly a great system if you get it for the right reasons. Don't expect it to do everything a mid market organization would require but for any small business or mid to large organizations which would like to integrate to it for the social insights capabilities this is a leading solution which can add value immediately.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

Social Selling is critical in business today. And, we needed more than the standard CRM tools provided in the market in order to develop meaningful relationships with our future advocates and existing client advocates. It didn't hurt that the price allowed us to comfortably add this to the mix as well.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

No changes.

Training Types Used

Self-taught

Ease of Nimble Training

Yes, the system is very intuitive and there is sufficient online training for the organization or user to benefit from on the "how to's". If you are hoping to obtain "business process" time savers or how to implement "social selling" into your business process then you will need to enlist a trained consultant.

Support Rating

I have not used the support enough to give them a higher rating. But, they have not disappointed.

Nimble Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Nimble Support

During the import process I requested support from them on the specific order of information to allow the custom fields to come over. They actually took my spreadsheet and adapted it to meet the requirements to move some data into the system. They didn't have to do that. They did anyways.

Usability

In terms of ease of use, this is a very intuitive system to get around in today. I have used many contact management systems over the years and this one is quite nicely laid out and easy to navigate for sales people and managers in the field to get data and use it to manage the insights found in the system.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Social Integration
Activity Management

Difficult Tasks

Letter Templates (integrate with Word for standard word merge functions)
Reporting of Sales Forecasts up until June 2014 release which now provides basic features in this area

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - Apple and Android (soon to be here)

Being Nimble in a Social Selling World

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Nimble