BQE CORE vs. Customer Focus

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BQE CORE
Score 8.5 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
BQE CORE is a business management solution built specifically for professional service firms. BQE CORE is a combination of a billing assistant, project management, and accounting solution. CORE is designed to do the hard work of delivering actionable insights directly to the user's dashboards or inbox. BQE CORE replaces the products Engineeroffice, Archioffice, and BillQuick; the functionality of these applications is now found in BQE CORE.N/A
Customer Focus
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Customer Focus is solution that includes order management, inventory management, warehousing, CMS, E-mail marketing, CRM, and general accounting functions. E-Commerce web stores are also included in the solution.
$50
# of stores and users
Pricing
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$50
# of stores and users
Ultimate
$99
# of stores and users
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$249 Site setup and training
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
8.1
55 Ratings
8% above category average
Customer Focus
-
Ratings
Task Management8.537 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.138 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.716 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.226 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.627 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration8.031 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.712 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.312 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management7.230 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration7.225 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.532 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.355 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management8.521 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.343 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
8.4
38 Ratings
13% above category average
Customer Focus
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates7.820 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.737 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software8.424 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Customer Focus
9.2
1 Ratings
18% above category average
Product catalog & listings00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Product management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Bulk product upload00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Branding00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Mobile storefront00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Product variations00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Website integration00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Visual customization00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
CMS00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Customer Focus
9.0
1 Ratings
17% above category average
Checkout user experience00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Customer Focus
8.0
1 Ratings
7% above category average
Personalized recommendations00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
SEO00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Customer Focus
9.0
1 Ratings
14% above category average
Shipping00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Custom functionality00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(148 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(100 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(90 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.9
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
4.5
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BQE CORECustomer Focus
Likelihood to Recommend
BQE Software Inc.
BQE CORE is well suited for a firm trying to get a better understanding of their project performance as a whole as well as better manage time and project resources. It is not the greatest for client management through a project or through invoicing, but it is do-able within the system.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
Today, with a globalized competition and without truce, a company must evaluate and take into account its size, and use this to analyze which of the tools available in the market is more suited to their needs. If it is a small company, you can improve your customer service by incorporating a chat. But a company of national level must evaluate other aspects like: marketing, tastes, preferences, tendencies, etc. To achieve the effective management of relationships with our customers, this technology provides us with effective tools and easy access.
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Pros
BQE Software Inc.
  • Invoice Collections within Billing is a great tool because of the ability to take notes and track contact.
  • Invoices are professional looking and easy for our clients to understand the overall progress within each phase of their project.
  • Dashboards are the best tool EVER!
  • The Contact List feature within Clients setup is the perfect way to track multiple project managers within a large company that also has multiple contracts with us.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
  • Facilitates the interaction between the company and customers, through various communication channels, thanks to the storage of information of interest, such as the needs and preferences for products or services.
  • Access data of interest (about the clients, their histories, products, prices, etc.,) from any place with access to the internet
  • An extensive knowledge about the clients allows the company to present commercial offers adapted to their needs, so the income is also higher, through a lower sales cycle. The CRM allows to enhance sales and marketing functions.
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Cons
BQE Software Inc.
  • Customizable Reporting
  • Linking Project to Payment all together
  • Assigning contacts to particular roles - such as Invoicing, Contracts, etc.
  • Accounting Functionality - they are basically a project management accounting software, so in my opinion, they could learn some things from other accounting software such as QuickBooks etc.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
  • Cost is always an element to consider when purchasing a computer solution, both for the purchase of the software and for its maintenance, many forget about the ongoing support costs that come with software.
  • Many systems are backed up automatically through the cloud or through some other solution, but not all. So there is a good chance that the data will be lost. it is therefore necessary to take the safe backup forecasts in the event of any unforeseen occurrence and cause us an unpleasant surprise.
  • There is a difference between being served by a real person when making a phone call, to an automated attention system. Sometimes it is good to make the tasks more automatic, but it is also good to have a little personalized help to avoid losing the human value of relationships.
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Likelihood to Renew
BQE Software Inc.
We have been using Core for a few years now, and honestly started to look at other software systems to see what was out there. What we chose was a nightmare for migration so we never left Core. Now we have added invoicing and payments from Core instead of double entry with QBO. Still only a few cycles in but looks like it will be up to speed soon and working smoothly.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Usability
BQE Software Inc.
The foundation is awesome, like I have said before, however the house being built on it, the educational resources being provided to us (more of sales pitches that don't work), and flexible workflow opportunities, is making us look elsewhere for how much we will be spending on per user. It's crazy to think how flexible they are not when it comes to user settings. Lack of integration with other sources is awful.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
BQE Software Inc.
I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Performance
BQE Software Inc.
This is one area that does need some improvement. It can be slow at time, so we had our IT look at it from our side and we had no issues, so it has to be some slowness on their side.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BQE Software Inc.
As a new employee and CORE user, I talk to support on a weekly basis. I have never had to wait for more than 3 min to get connect with a support rep, and all my questions have been answered. The support representatives are polite and eager to help no matter how simple your question is.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BQE Software Inc.
Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BQE Software Inc.
It does take some time to understand the options and to find the best invoice template.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BQE Software Inc.
Deltek Vision is far more advanced, more encompassing and offers more flexibility with what you want to do. However, it's also quite difficult to use, whereas BQE CORE is intuitive and user friendly. The trade off is worth it in some arenas but overall it's not suited for a larger fast paced company. Great for smaller companies.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
Sales management is based on the management of customer relationships and must be centralized so that its analysis is effective. The data that is collected must be available for the generation of statistics for decision making by the directory. This tool allows us to generate the necessary data to generate results, save time and production cost. The other products did not fit our objectives.
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Scalability
BQE Software Inc.
This software works on a small and large scale.
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Customer Focus, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BQE Software Inc.
  • Quick setup of new tasks under a parent project, with immediate hourly billing to it.
  • Monitoring of details of non-chargeable efforts in appropriate detail
  • Validation of hourly cost, billing cost, benefit cost, profitability by person and role
  • Company tracking of write-off's included in corporate and project reporting, no data is "lost"
  • Can track excessive work time as +PTO in lieu of pay for use as future vacation
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Customer Focus, Inc.
  • With the information available, about the clients, the company can know and segment the markets and develop effective and successful marketing campaigns.
  • With the information the employee can develop more personalized relationships with the client.
  • This customer service tool facilitated the administrative processes of sales to achieve higher performance and better results in the company.
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ScreenShots

BQE CORE Screenshots

Screenshot of Core powered by BQE SoftwareScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Dashboard ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE 360* Firm Performance ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE Reporting & AnalyticsScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Time EntryScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Expense Tracking