Cirrus Insight vs. GridBuddy Connect vs. Shared Contacts for Gmail

For someone who uses both Gmail and Salesforce as part of their main role, this software is an invaluable connector for them both. Some of the features are also not Salesforce specific - such as the Meeting Scheduler, which has proved invaluable to me, and I would recommend to any Gmail user who frequently set up meetings (either internally or externally).

Incentivized

GridBuddy is a very good tool for allowing users to work with multiple records simultaneously and saves a great deal of time for staff who have to view and edit multiple similar records. We have used it very happily for a number of years at our nonprofit organization. I would rate it more highly than 7 except for the fact that GridBuddy was acquired by a larger software company and the pricing has been raised significantly. It used to be a very affordable solution for small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations but it is now much harder for organizations in this market to afford the product.

Incentivized

When working with several people at the same time, being able to access the full directory [with Shared Contracts for Gmail] makes things 100% easier. Provides a faster look at the company wide directory and grants access to contact whoever is needed. Now if its a company like mine; merged between two, sometimes it becomes a little complicated, due to the fact that it doesn't recognize some email domains (outlook based) and can cause problems sometimes when sending emails (you get an undeliverable email response, and sometimes the emails do get send and other they don't). And they won't pop-out as easy as a recommendation. First you would get the gmail based email and then the 'outsider' email.

Incentivized

• Log email to Salesforce. You click one button and it logs for you. This is easier than adding the BCC email address that Salesforce provides as a way to log email.
• Track views and engagement on these emails. It's nice to know if the email was opened and if links were clicked.
• Update quick fields in Salesforce directly from their inbox using Cirrus. This prevented reps from needing to click into Salesforce, wait for it to load, then update fields like the phone number or name.
• If the rep did need to open Salesforce, Cirrus provides a quick button to navigate to the Lead/Contact/Opportunity page quickly.

Incentivized

• Layered Reporting: The ability to bring in data from 3 objects, unlike Salesforce reports.
• Mass Edit: In comparison to inline editing, it allows the ability to create multiple views, personalized layouts, and again seeing, more than one object at a time.
• Workspaces: Ability to create a space with all the important grids a user needs.

Incentivized

• It has helped us save a considerable time.
• A simple way to share your connection with other Gmail users.
• It provided us with a centralized contact list that anyone could use instantaneously.
• The ability to share connections encourage you to have everyone's contact information at your fingertips without having to look them up.

Incentivized

• Email Tracking is not always accurate - this can be due to the nature of the device and the email client used by the recipient.
• Gmail app is subject to being glitchy and auto-log out out behavior.
• Meeting time function is limited in its functionality and is prone to glitches as reported by clients.
• Send later function works about 85% of the time.
• Follow up intervals are too short and should provide more customised options.

• We have used GridBuddy with both Salesforce and SAP C4C. We didn't have any problems when it was synced to Salesforce, but when synced to SAP C4C we have had a few problems, which makes me think the integration with it isn't as mature. See subsequent points with details.
• When synced with SAP C4C, we are unable to use multi-level sorting on custom fields. Multi-level sorting is apparently only functional on standard C4C fields.
• Our current instance of GridBuddy synced with C4C has been stuck in a metadata refresh for four weeks, so we can't use new C4C fields until this is resolved.
• Support has been slow and not too impressive at least since using GridBuddy with C4C. It took a couple of months to finally diagnose the issue with multi-level sorting with different employees giving us different answers and eventually they told us the sorting wasn't working with C4C custom fields. It has been over three weeks since we reported that our metadata refresh was stuck and other than an acknowledgment that our issue had been forwarded to the product team, I have had no updates.

Incentivized

• I have been looking for a way to share our contacts within our organization for a while now. This process really improves how we were doing it within Google Sheets.
• My only negative is that it has taken so long for it to be functional within Google.

Incentivized

It is the best google to salesforce integration on the market. support is incredibly responsive and very helpful. They are constantly adding new features, and the current feature set is well beyond anything else that is currently offered in the market

- Easy of use - Visual nature of using the product (as compared to Dataloader) - Quickness of making changes/updates/edits to long lists of records, live and real-time

Incentivized

Very easy to use. Everything opens in a familiar interface right inside the google apps sidebar. It brings in salesforce records, so as long as you know google apps / gmail and salesforce you'll be all set. It's point and click.

- Ease of use - Real-time and visible nature of making mass changes - Ease of setting up a Grid - Ease of filtering the Grid to see the records that I need to change

Incentivized

Very easy to use. Mostly related to the design of the program, but also due to the layout. I find it easy to find what I am looking for. As noted in earlier comments, greater implementation of AI would probably make the program even easier to use, as sometimes finding certain functions is not entirely transparent.

Incentivized

Haven't had a down issue in the almost 2 years I've been using the product. Support is also super responsive.

Pulls in salesforce data very quickly, and syncs very quickly.

The plugin is installed inside your internet browser as an extension/add-on. It can be found in most add on stores and is easy to install. Usually just a few clicks. It handles authorization for you once you sign in, and then takes care of all the rest. It couldn't be easier to get working right out of the box. You're up in running in less than 5 minutes.

GridBuddy was very easy to implement

Incentivized

Yesware regularly sent me alerts that my emails had been opened by someone who I hadn't sent them to, from locations they couldn't possibly have been. I also don't recall its Salesforce activity logging working as smoothly, though I last used Yesware more than 12 months ago so my memory isn't as fresh as it could be

Incentivized

This is the 1st inline editing product we have tested. The only reason we would ever go with another product is the price.

Incentivized

Shared Contacts for Gmail is amazing to use when you need a lot of contact information on the go. If there's a medium level organization that needs a contact network that is easily accessible for remote work. I wouldn't recommend this for organizations whos works are based on leads and immediate revenue.

Incentivized

• More efficient. It only takes a few seconds to upload an email to the right location.
• More emails in Salesforce now, where as before, people didn't even try uploading it due to the difficulty.
• Equality across the board. Everyone is on the same page in how we record things.

Incentivized

• GridBuddy has allowed us to make more outbound calls and handle more concurrent tasks that using Salesforce alone would have allowed. Considering the costs of Salesforce, the small additional expense is well justified under the correct circumstances. We were very disappointed with the vanilla Salesforce UI. GridBuddy means that we actually engage with salesforce now.

• Ease of contacts syncing across various device types helped minimize the tech support calls into our helpdesk
• Easy to use/self-help tutorials helped minimize the need to train end users
• Helped standardize the platform for the targeted business units