Insightly – A CRM for SMBs

Insightly is a customer relationship management solution built specifically for small business owners. The web-based platform can be used to manage projects, tasks, and contacts in the cloud, and it integrates with many of the apps that small businesses already use.

Take control over your assets by gathering all the business information you have stored separately in various Excel files and cloud storage apps, and importing that data straight into Insightly. The platform can be broken down into two main components: customer relationship management and project management. Thankfully, these two primary components are seamlessly integrated throughout the Insightly platform. Use the global search box to search through everything you have stored in Insightly. You can use this feature to find a contact, a file, or an upcoming event. To make the process of looking up information even faster, Insightly provides a dropdown menu of the last 10 things you looked at in the platform.

One of the ways that Insightly stands apart from competing CRM applications is by offering integrations with all the most popular business apps. If you primarily communicate via email, for example, then you’ll want to connect your Gmail or Office 365 accounts with Insightly. The platform also integrates with popular services like MailChimp and almost all social media sites. For custom integration options, businesses also have the option to use Insightly’s REST API.

Practical Uses:

• Get a clearer overview of how your business is performing
• Share sales goals and project status updates with your entire team
• Check out the last 10 things you looked at inside the Insightly platform
• Quickly add new contacts to the system using the dropdown bar

Insider Tips:

• Link your Insightly calendar to Google Calendar, or share it with another person
• Merge contacts and organizations to avoid having duplicate records
• Use Insightly’s Web to Contact feature to collect contact information through your website
• Individual contacts can be assigned roles, and those roles can be edited at any time

What we liked:

• Insightly can help small businesses manage large batches of contacts
• Insightly provides both a macro and micro view of a user’s business
• The social media integration feature is useful when trying to research potential business contacts
• Users can track all correspondence by linking their email accounts to Insightly

What we didn’t like:

• Insightly doesn’t allow users to update existing contact records during an import

Alternatives:

• Batchbook – http://batchbook.com
• Highrise – https://highrisehq.com
• Infusionsoft – http://www.infusionsoft.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Anthony Smith
• Web site: http://www.insightly.com

Costs:

• Gratis plan is free
• Standard plan is $7 per user, per month (billed annually)
• Enterprise plans with custom pricing