Intuitive software made with a lean time in mind
December 07, 2013

Intuitive software made with a lean time in mind

Vanessa Johnson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Gratis

Overall Satisfaction

Pros

  • Improve productivity or time management - Insightly offers the ability to set reminders to send emails, make phone calls, or complete any other task you assign yourself. These reminders can be linked to opportunities, contacts, organizations, or projects within the system.
  • Increase transparency across an organization - Insightly allows any member of a team to 'follow' a project, opportunity, contact or organization and receive instant updates when action has been taken upon it.

Cons

  • While you can upload and attach a variety of files, Insightly does not have a central area to manage your storage. It would be better if they included a tab called "files." Right now we work around this by creating a project uploading things into 'Projects.' However, this really clutters the area and makes it visually overwhelming.
  • I have had a variety of importation challenges, especially with regard to the Opportunities area. While the process was simple, there were a few bugs that I encountered which led to duplications that needed to be deleted.
  • Insightly does not offer automation of emails or even sending emails from within the CRM. Naturally this means they do not offer any email metrics. This is a very big drawback from a marketing standpoint.
  • Insightly doesn't yet integrate with some of the plugins I use, such as Yesware. This means that the information I have via Yesware (e.g. who opened my email) stays in Yesware and is disassociated from the contact that I have in Insightly.
  • Insightly has had a positive impact with regard to employee efficiency. Time is saved searching through emails. Fewer emails need to be sent with regard to 'status' updates about where an account falls within the sales pipeline.
  • Insightly has also helped to ensure that leads are followed up with, though I cannot say it has had a direct impact on conversion rates.
Insightly offers a great product; it's the right fit for our company at this time. We were, however, considering moving to Contactually due to their cost effective automation features. However, they lacked the project management capabilities of Insightly. As our company grows, we would love to stay with Insightly - and if they can nail the automation and add the ability to customize a little bit more, it would be the perfect solution for us. For a larger company with a more involved sales team, you might find the metrics/reporting to be a bit basic. Insightly offers great customer service even to free customers.
For a small startup, I absolutely recommend this product. It's a 10. It's incredibly easy to use, so you won't spend time learning how to use the product. You'll immediately be able to put the product to work for you. If you're considering Salesforce you might want to reconsider. We were not able to justify the cost or time spent learning how to use the software. Also to note - the product features that distinguished it from Insightly were not ones we really needed or had any concrete plan to use at the time.

For a more established company, you will run into some product limitations. This is not an enterprise level solution. Have a clear understanding of what you need with regard to metrics and reporting capabilities during your sales and marketing process, and ask specific questions about what you hope to accomplish using the product. The Insightly team will be honest with you; they don't "sell."

Product Usage

3 - Everyone in my company uses Insightly (there's only 3 of us), so every function is covered - sales/marketing, product development, HR/management, etc.
No one has been hired specifically to support Insightly. I can't even imagine a need for this because the software is very easy to use. Whenever I have an issue, I visit Insightly University and can teach myself. If I encounter a legitimate tech challenge, I contact their customer support.
  • Documenting and moving prospective partners through the sales pipeline
  • For internal project management and storing documents

Evaluation and Selection

  • SugarCRM,Salesforce.com,ZohoCrm,Base
Ease of use, cost
  • Price
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Third-party Reviews
As a lean startup, price was of the utmost concern. Though, it is hard to separate it completely from product usability because we also wanted to make sure whatever solution we were using was better than our current system at the time (Excel).

Implementation

Making the switch and deciding to use it will be the hardest part of using it. This is not a software that requires hours of training.
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - It takes time. When a change is made, it requires a shift in behavior and mindset. If everyone on your team understands the importance / how Insightly will advance your goals, then I don't think you'll have significant change management concerns.

Support

I prefer to use the Insightly chat, but I don't know what their hours are, and I have to dig around to find it. Problems are resolved quickly.
I don't think that you can pay specifically for premium support - it might come included with a more expensive subscription.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes
I couldn't get importation to work correctly, and an Insightly team member determined the issue was with my .xls file. He converted it to .csv for me and emailed it back!

Usability

I only needed to consult help guides when I wanted to use more advanced features. You'll be able to start using the software the day you install it.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
Yes - Insightly does have a mobile App but..... meh. It's not good - too limited.

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