How ABLE Measures Up
In each installment of our “How ABLE Measures Up” series, we compare ABLE to another CRM tool on the market. We evaluate each CRM by system, features, and pricing structure in order to give you a good idea of how it measures up against ABLE, our CRM for accountants.
A quick comparison between ABLE and SugarCRM appears below, followed by an in-depth, categorical analysis. We hope this will be helpful to you as you seek to find the CRM that is the best fit for your accounting firm!
About SugarCRM
SugarCRM is a relatively scalable product—it is targeted to small- to mid-size businesses, larger enterprises, and freelancers. SugarCRM offers several products for sales, marketing, IT, and customer service.
About ABLE
ABLE is a business development solution for CPA firms that simplifies contact and pipeline management. Because CPAs have a limited amount of time to dedicate to tracking business development activities, users can quickly add information regarding contacts and deals, assess the status of their relationships to determine necessary actions, and build their personal brands.
Conclusions of the CRM Comparison
SugarCRM is a flexible system that does well in managing customer relationships. It is very customizable, but can be overly complex. With a number of products available and a confusing multitude of training options, deciding which solution and course of implementation is best for your firm can be overwhelming.
ABLE’s functionality centers on the theme of ‘doing smart well.’ Its primary focus is developing the top client, referral source, and prospect relationships that grow a CPA firm. Every feature addition and enhancement builds on that theme. With ABLE, it is possible to complete the bulk of the training in two hours, and ABLE is far more cost-effective than Salesforce. When it comes to accounting CRMs, ABLE is the ideal fit for CPA firms.
In-Depth SugarCRM Comparison
Read on to learn more about how ABLE and SugarCRM measure up to one another when it comes to systems, features, and pricing structures.
System Comparison
Feature Comparison
To compare feature sets of the two platforms, we focused on four major components of successful business development: relationship management, internal collaboration, accountability tools, and content delivery.
Client Relationship Management
The core functionality of SugarCRM is sales automation and customer support. SugarCRM’s dashboard allows users to monitor marketing, sales, and customer support metrics.
ABLE focuses on facilitating rapport between users and their most important contacts. By nurturing these relationships, ABLE users secure additional ongoing engagements. ABLE’s CRoPs Tiles system ensures the continuous support of its users’ most important clients, referrals, and prospects. CRoPs Tiles guide users in effectively managing their relationships.
Internal Collaboration
SugarCRM is primarily customer focused, rather than geared towards promoting internal organizational relationships. ABLE offers strong tools for team synergy and collaboration, allowing teams to stay on top of customer/client relationships and pending deals.
Accountability
The states purpose of SugarCRM is “to create wildly successful customers.” It offers a Self-Service Portal for customer issues resolution. It does not offer any means of measuring customer satisfaction.
With ABLE, everyone in the firm is aware of all pending tasks and deals, as well as who is responsible for them. This establishes a culture of responsibility, which drives action and growth. Additionally, users can assess client loyalty with the Net Promotor Score® Survey, benchmarking their progress, promoting high scores on future proposals, and uncovering any dissatisfaction before the relationship is lost. ABLE’s annual subscription includes this functionality. High NPS scores are useful to marketing teams in both promotions and future proposals. Additionally, the NPS survey helps users to uncover any customer dissatisfaction early on, giving them time to take steps in preserving relationships.
Content Delivery
The systems approach content delivery similarly, but ABLE offers built-in content, while SugarCRM requires users to input their own content.
SugarCRM includes a Knowledge Base module that allows users to create, maintain, and publish articles for both internal reference and external publication.
ABLE’s Thought Leadership enables users to send clients the right piece of content at the right time. Articles are added to ABLE’s Content Library weekly, and users can share their own content or articles if they wish. The articles and summaries are professionally curated, categorized, and tagged for easy access. Users need not integrate in order to leverage Thought Leadership.
Pricing
The SugarCRM pricing model is complex because the platform offers different tiers of products and services. SugarCRM’s “Community Edition” is an open-source option for developers—it is not, however, a viable option for non-experts.
While one tier of SugarCRM’s software costs less than ABLE, it is lacking features of the higher-priced editions that are desirable for many users. Additionally, SugarCRM offers implementation only through partner companies—pricing is not available on their website. Sugar has a 10-user minimum.
ABLE not only beats out SugarCRM as the best CRM for accountants, it also measures up well against other available tools. View our full CRM comparison to find out more.
Are you wondering if ABLE is the right CRM for your accounting firm? Schedule a demo today! Our team will show you how ABLE can make a difference in YOUR business.