Clari is a predictive sales analytics and sales forecasting solution from the company of the same name headquartered in Sunnyvale.
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Claris FileMaker
Score 8.1 out of 10
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Claris' FileMaker is presented as a Workplace Innovation Platform, and is used to create a custom app. Manual processes can be automated with Claris FileMaker Pro, and apps can be created to manage contacts, track inventory, organize projects, etc.
Clari works well for sales and executive leadership teams that perform at a high level and collaborate well together. Everyone utilizing Clari needs to understand that it will provide the company with the information it needs to make strategic business decisions. It can not be seen as a more sophisticated way to manage SFDC information. If the company is truly dedicated to improving its forecasting capabilities, then Clari could be worth the investment. If it is just being used to capture sales leaders' forecasts, you don't need Clari. Overall, Clari is a great capability, but you need a good business case to justify the expense.
If your company is really small, I can understand the need for a product like this. However, I would go for MS Access... FileMaker Pro can not be integrated with other systems (like MS Access can at least be handled by C# for instance, and can be integrated with MS Excel or even SQL server). I'm really not sure in what scenario one would choose for FileMaker Pro. If your application or company grows bigger, you're going to have a problem to move to another environment. Also, the fact that only one person can work with the backend at any given time is a problem in a somewhat larger company.
Sales pipeline management: Clari provides real-time visibility into the sales pipeline, enabling sales teams to track the progress of deals and make informed decisions.
Revenue forecasting: The platform integrates with existing sales and marketing tools, giving organizations a comprehensive view of their sales pipeline and enabling accurate revenue forecasting.
Advanced analytics: Clari uses machine learning and advanced analytics to provide actionable insights into sales performance and help organizations make informed decisions about their sales strategy.
The relational database management system makes the program highly customizable to fit the needs of any product. You can add a ton of information to each record and update your inventory on a regular basis with an Excel import or manually inside of the record. It has the capability to incorporate barcoding, which can manage your available inventory with ease.
The scripting language allows FileMaker to automatically calculate complex algorithms automatically or generate report outs with the click of a button. This allows for greater UI, especially with active users who are not familiar with writing code. Almost all of our internal data is linked to the FileMaker database
The server license allows many users to update the database in real time, which is handy if your inventory is constantly changing. We have users with Macs, PCs, iPhones and handheld tablets linked to our FileMaker database and they are updating the information constantly throughout the day.
If you invest some time into formatting and scripting the database, there is a high ease of use for users without knowledge of any programming or FileMaker itself.
Forecast screen could be easier to interact with. I believe UI's that make users scroll horizontally lead to confuse and missed content since we rarely scroll horizontally on the internet. It's not as natural
Enablement; I am confident my team is underutilizing Clari and that there are many more features that we should take advantage of. For example, the Dashboard screen looks good but in our company, our practice is to use the forecast and opportunity tabs instead. Reps and managers could benefit from a 30 min or 1-hour training session quarterly
I like the opportunity score tracker but it would be great to know more of what comprises the score instead of feeling that it is just an AI. Perhaps giving the user more opportunity to validate or put their own spin to the score
Developer features need to be beefed up - namely adding the ability to search code for a phrase or keyword and the ability to do the same in the "relationship graph" in the database.
Add ability for users to edit the same table record at the same time by version control.
Allow Filemaker Server to use more than 1 core; currently multi-processing is not supported and it can be tricky to find just the right server to support the application you've built to the fullest capacity.
It it not really up to me but my opinion does have some weight in the decision and the reason I would renew my use FileMaker Pro 8.5 is because I am finally getting used to it! Now that I have been working with the program, tasks have become quicker and projects are getting done faster. File Maker Pro 8.5 really is a versatile tool and I think we are just scratching the surface with it's abilities.
Clari is very good when it comes to usability as I'm accessing it on daily basis as long as I'm on my Notebook, it helps a lot having visibility on my business status and progress on achievement. I can estimate my weekly, monthly, and yearly opportunities closure and revenue. I have some saved views which are so useful to get what I want to see.
The usability rating I'm providing is for the development interface - the usability of the application you build is relative to how much effort is put into the application. Filemaker needs to roll out some features that are "modern" sooner rather than later. They do roll out new features every year, but at a slow pace. We generally get 1 new TRULY useful feature every year. They need to step it up some!
Clari is very willing to jump in and build out use cases. They will work to do anything for you. That said, their follow up is not great. We have had to reach out for follow up several times on a project, which is still not complete. I wish they taught us how to complete what we want, rather than doing it in house for us
The forums are great with lots of helpful experts and the staff monitor them to provide help where needed. There have been a couple of unique technical issues I've had to deal with that I haven't been able to get resolved so I chose to score this a 9 instead of a 10.
Suggest you use an iterative R.A.D. or AGILE development approach. (i.e. rather than writing a gigantic spec for a system, then building it). FileMaker facilitates quick prototypes. Developing an example, then allowing users to "try it out" is a snap.
Clari was selected due to the flawless integration with Salesforce, updates are made in real time. Being able to monitor everything at a scalable level has also been critical for our team. For example, we have different views established that show the rep level, manager level, director, customer segment. This eliminates unnecessary forecast/pipeline meetings
FileMaker is still the quickest way to go from zero to having a minimum viable working solution. Simple solutions can be built in as little as a afternoon of development. It is the only tool I am aware of which allows tech savy end users with domain knowledge to build bespoke apps for their businesses without undertaking professional software development training.
We have significantly decreased the number of overdue deals in our funnel.
We stay on top of deals within the pipeline much better now, since there is more transparency and accountability. This has sped up our sales cycle and our funnel is much more clean.
We are a more agile company because of FileMaker. A few of us who are tech-savvy enough to manage the database (but are not professional developers) can make needed adjustments to our database without having to employ an in-house developer or contract with a 3rd party. As our business processes evolve and change, it's easy to update the database to accommodate those changes.
