Bitrix24 is a local-hosted or cloud-based social intranet and project management platform that also contains core HR (HRMS) and CRM features. Bitrix24 also provides time management services and employee self-service.
Bitrix24 is highly beneficial for teams that are geographically dispersed or working remotely. Its real-time communication tools, including instant messaging and video conferencing, enable seamless collaboration regardless of physical location. The centralized document management feature ensures that team members can easily access and collaborate on shared documents from anywhere, facilitating efficient teamwork in a remote or distributed environment.
Zimbra is great for an email system for a medium or large organization with appropriate IT staffing. The system is easy to use for end-users, and has a fantastic web interface. Unfortunately, it is overly complex, when considering staffing requirements and price, when compared with Office 365 or Google Apps for smaller organizations. For other education customers, it is hard to compete with Microsoft and Google providing their services for "Free" now though
It's user interface can use some work. Although it doesn't take as long as some other software to learn, there is still a bit of a learning curve when it comes to day to day usage.
Bitrix offers a lot of features. It would be nice to have those features laid out in an easier-to-read layout, versus the long list at the side of the page.
It's mobile app functionality is quite limited. It can be difficult to work with other team members, solely off of their mobile app.
Zimbra's mobile application leaves much to be desired; it is its weakest point.
This forces the use of third-party applications on smartphones, which only offer a more or less complete integration with the ActiveSync protocol.
Zimbra allows for an on-premise scenario, which is not for everyone, especially considering that the trend nowadays is to outsource email; in any case, it also offers this alternative.
The cost of Zimbra as a SaaS solution comes too close to that of more widely adopted competing options.
Zimbra lacks a robust integrated chat system, which its competitors offer.
It has become the central nervous system of the business and has constantly proven to be of value. We are not just renewing but might even upgrade to advanced Bitrix24 plans and will be adding more user licenses in the next 3 months. Bitrix24 has a sharper learning curve initially. However once it is surpassed, it opens doors to a range of creative deployment strategies
It is a time-saving CRM that will help save time by using one application for all your business needs. Our brain sees colors, images, drawings, it is very visual, and so is Bitrix24. You can plan visually and easily see how everything is progressing. It has tasks, projects management, chat and video, CRM (as you know), visual staff structure, calendar, shared drive, mobile app. You can't ask for anything better out on the market for what you get with their free version and also their step-up plan is $20/month, all the way up to $200, they have a plan for your business. Get your free account and try it out for a few weeks.
The web usability of the solution is adequate, with all functions integrated into a single interface. However, it is important to note that in the desktop environment, it lacks its own application and relies on ActiveSync synchronization with reference solutions like Outlook or Thunderbird. Some features, such as the briefcase, will be excluded. The same happens on smartphones.It is also common for competing solutions to include integrated chat or video call tools, which Zimbra lacks. These shortcomings are among the most frequently requested by users.
I can't recall any instance of unplanned outages over the past 1 year of use. Likewise for application errors. However note that, advanced users will have a learning curve
The absolute worst! Your only contact method is via the paid version and via a chat window. They will take days to answer and when they finally do answer, they will provide nothing but a half baked canned help file.
Overall the training was very comprehensive. The trainer did provider necessary additional reading materials as well. However the general approach at Bitrix24 is to divert users to self-help documentation and videos. It is recommended that atleast 1-2 personnel in the organization be "Bitrix24 experts" so that lower phases of training requirements are covered internally itself. Also the best part about Bitrix24 is that not all users need to go very deep while using it. We have multiple counsellors who started using it on day 2 without any major hiccups
Overall, we were satisfied with the implementation. We perhaps should have spent more time consulting with Zimbra or others regarding best practices but as we got to know the system better we were able to make changes relatively easily after the fact.
In fact, I use both, but in different ways, monday to control the internal agenda, Bitrix for all other parts within the company, such as task control, chat with employees and with calendar also for control in two systems. Bitrix is more complete and has many more features, but its purpose is also different from monday.
Zimbra is a significantly cheaper option than one of the Microsoft solutions, such as Exchange. It is able to run in a free environment, as it is in the case of Linux. It offers the advantages of a powerful mail manager, such as indexed searches and the integration of contacts and notes, all in one platform. It is constantly updated and the operation of its connection in mobile equipment is remarkable and very efficient. Additionally, it is able to easily integrate with Outlook solutions with its connector, which brings all the benefits of Zimbra to the user under the interface known as "mail manager." So far, I have been using Zimbra for several years and I have not missed my previous work platforms.
The scalability and reliability is almost 9.5/10 to be honest. We istarted with Bitrix24 for just 2 functions and now have expanded its usage to 2 more. In terms of users, every full-time employee (FTE) now uses Bitrix24 without fail. We are also working on giving limited/partial access to external service providers
Zimbra is a cheaper email service than other similar platforms and in my point of view offers better features, that's why the company migrated services to this platform several years ago and without a doubt, it has been the best investment.
Zimbra has a more user-friendly interface for employees, this has improved response times to external customers of the company.
The implementation of Zimbra in the company motivated the IT engineering department to make improvements in open source to adapt it to the needs of the company.