Apptivo Review: an all-round CRM solution for SMBs

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Apptivo CRM is an excellent option thanks to its many useful features, reasonable price point, and user-friendly interface.

Apptivo is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that is both affordable and fully customizable. The Premium edition of Apptivo begins at $8 per user per month (billed annually), and prices go up from there. Businesses that are looking for a solution that is flexible and offers a variety of strategic integrations as well as excellent support for mobile platforms should seriously consider this option. In spite of the fact that it is not as well-known as Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional and Zoho CRM, it stands out as a powerful platform that is an excellent choice for small to midsize businesses (SMB) due to the fact that it is simple to use and has a cost that is affordable.

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Lead Management, Users, and Contacts all come into play here

When you sign in to Apptivo, the agenda view that includes your weekly calendar and tasks is displayed. These are organized in a navigation panel on the right side of the screen. You have the option of viewing it in list view, as well as the day, the week, or the month. You can also personalize the view of your tasks so that instead of seeing today’s tasks, you see tasks that are overdue, upcoming, or completed.

Links to frequently accessed resources are located on the left side of the page. These links allow you to access your calendar, tasks, call logs, work queue, follow-ups, emails, and notes. You can access any apps that you’ve added by using the pull-down menus that run along the top of the screen. Apptivo prompts you with a few inquiries regarding the nature of your enterprise during the initial phase of software installation. By providing your responses, Apptivo will compile a list of useful applications that other businesses similar to yours have found to be effective.

A significant portion of getting the software up and running is selecting among the more than 40 apps that are offered by Apptivo. Fortunately, you are able to modify the apps as you progress through the process. For instance, if you are in the retail sales business, you will want to expand your suite to include product management and supply chain tools. Some examples of these tools include shipping apps, inventory management apps, and order management apps. Apptivo seems to take a friendlier approach than Zoho CRM does, despite the fact that Zoho CRM already offers this level of customization.

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You can find the link to create whatever it is you need to create, whether it be a project, deal, lead, or opportunity, by clicking on the Category link that is located at the very top of your page. To begin managing a project, open the drop-down menu under Project Management and select Projects from the list. You will then be brought to the newsfeed for your project, where you will be able to view any and all project activity that has been contributed by a member of your team. After clicking the Create a Project button on the left side of the screen, you will be given the option to either start fresh with a new project or make changes to an existing one. You have the option of adding a budget to the software, which will then allow you to easily generate an invoice or timesheet whenever it is time to get paid by simply clicking a button.

Your agenda will reflect the completion of any tasks or activities that you have scheduled within Apptivo and associated with a project, lead, contact, or any other component of the app. Your teammates’ newsfeeds will be updated with any changes made or tasks that need to be completed, unless you choose something different in the settings. You are free to alter any aspect of the software that does not meet your expectations.

Apptivo also provides tools known as triggers, which can be used to construct individualized workflow automation rules for any app. Rules can be formulated on the basis of particular events or by tracking events over a period of time. The sales apps include additional tooling for managing multiple sales pipelines, as well as the ability to define built-in logic to control when deals can move on to the next stage. This allows the sales team to more effectively prioritize their efforts and close more deals.

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In addition to that, the platform comes with powerful features for managing campaigns. You will also have access to mass email marketing in addition to Apptivo’s capabilities of allowing you to design and send email templates to your contacts. Businesses are able to compile targeted contact lists in CRM for use in a variety of campaigns; these lists can then be used with the visual designer of the platform to generate individualized email layouts.

This degree of individualization is also available for the field options. A Reference Attribute field gives users the ability to form custom associations between data in various Apptivo apps. For example, users could take CRM data (such as business addresses or payment terms) and display it in another app using this feature (such as an invoice). Another brand new field type is called Custom Formulas, and it can be utilized to compute metrics such as a sales commission in accordance with a particular deal amount. The last of the brand-new features is called Field Conditions, and it enables administrators to construct workflow rules within a field layout. For instance, administrators can build visibility rules that will hide or display fields and sections on a form based on the input provided by a user.

Apptivo is now further ahead of out-of-the-box platforms such as Pipedrive CRM and NetSuite OneWorld as a result of the customizations that have been implemented. These customizations help Apptivo close the gap with Zoho CRM.

Creating Custom Field Conditions

Keep things as straightforward as possible if you want your workforce to take pleasure in using the software. Make sure that you take advantage of the powerful configuration tools that Apptivo provides so that you can tailor every detail to the needs of your company. Reducing clutter, using appropriate terminology, enforcing business rules, and making actions easier for your team all require only a little bit of time and some thought, but you don’t need to be a programmer to make complex changes to the system.

One of the most important aspects to look at is the Master Layout, which allows you to choose which fields are included in each and every Apptivo app as well as how those fields appear to the users of your app. Take advantage of Field Conditions when deciding what a contact profile should look like. Field Conditions enable you to build a workflow that guides each user when they are updating details in a customer relationship management system.

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Imagine that a member of staff is updating the database with the addition of a new lead. At this point, all that is required of him or her is to enter their contact information. You have the option to only show the other fields when their presence is required by making their visibility conditional. You could add a field for the type of service, such as “Shipping,” “Consulting,” or “Distribution,” and once the user selects a type, you could display the next set of required details to them.

Using tools of this kind, you can construct your entire workflow, and then you can let the software walk your users through each stage of your company’s procedure.

Integrations with Third Parties and Reporting

The list of software that is compatible with Apptivo is relatively short; however, this is because there is virtually nothing that cannot be performed natively within Apptivo itself. The Google G Suite, Office 365, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, Paypal, RingCentral, and Dropbox are examples of third-party options. The RingCentral integration provides users with the ability to automatically have calls logged into the CRM with corresponding contacts, or to make an outbound call by clicking a contact’s phone number. Alternatively, users can have calls logged into the CRM with corresponding contacts.

Because it offers so many different functionalities, Apptivo enables you to manage every facet of your company from within the same app. However, if you use separate accounting or project management software, you’ll probably find yourself wishing you could integrate these tools rather than moving everything to Apptivo. This is because Apptivo’s interface isn’t as intuitive as it could be. If you choose to use Apptivo’s invoicing features, for example, you won’t be able to import files from any other accounting software, which means you’ll have to create new invoices from scratch. Salesforce’s strength lies in the extensive ecosystem of third-party applications that it can integrate.

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The Apptivo app is available for both the Android and iPhone operating systems. The mobile application, much like the rest of Apptivo, can be modified to meet the specific requirements of your business. Apptivo formerly maintained multiple apps for certain functions, such as invoicing and support, but as of the year 2020, all mobile functionality will be contained within a single app.

The chat support is extremely helpful, and the fact that it is accessible at any time of the day or night is a significant advantage. You can access support via chat by clicking on a button that floats at the bottom of every page; therefore, assistance is never far away. The Ultimate plan is the only one that offers phone support around the clock, while the other packages have more restricted hours for receiving phone support. Email and various social media platforms are also options for communicating with the company (the Twitter account is much more active than the Facebook page).

Apptivo also includes granular security control that determines what actions different users are able to carry out within each app that makes up the CRM. Apptivo provides controls not only over the data, reports, and access to fields, but also over the searching capability and every individual action that can be taken within the application. Access to bulk operations, deleting records, emailing contacts, viewing notes, importing and exporting contact data, and importing and exporting contact data can all be restricted by administrators.

Apptivo Pricing

Apptivo CRM provides three different pricing tiers: the free Starter plan, the Premium plan, and the Ultimate plan. We put the Premium plan, which costs $10 per user per month if billed monthly and $8 per user per month if billed annually, to the test. With this plan, you get company branding, IMAP email, reports, message templates, 3 gigabytes (GB) of storage per user, tracking for licenses and insurance, invoicing, and integrations with third-party services, in addition to many other features.

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When you upgrade to Ultimate, which costs $25 per user per month when billed monthly or $20 per user per month when billed annually, you gain access to more apps, more storage space, more application programming interface (API) requests per day, and 24-hour phone support. Some of the apps you gain access to include Sales Planning and Territory Management. If your requirements are more advanced, the company provides an Enterprise tier that includes features such as a dedicated instance and white labeling; however, in order to obtain pricing information, you will need to get in touch with Apptivo.

You have three options for getting started with Apptivo: you can sign up for the free version of the software, explore the different service tiers, or sign up for the free 30-day trial of Apptivo. You can find a comparison chart that illustrates the differences between the tiers as well as a link to Apptivo Enterprise on the page that is dedicated to pricing. This latter option is Apptivo’s way of assisting larger businesses in getting set up with the appropriate functionality from the very beginning; it features individualized pricing and high-volume discounts are available.

What People Say

The great thing about Apptivo is that it can scale and reach other areas/departments as your company growths. Most apps are suited more exclusively "Big Business" or "Small Business", having a software that can adapt to both is great.
Outstanding! This is the fourth CRM implementation that I have administered in my career and it was by far the simplest and smoothest process with the greatest customization and functionality! After going through the selection process and reviewing all of the "top CRM Solutions" in great depth, I chose Apptivo and I am super glad that I did! Apptivo keeps the system simple to use, which is a must for sales reps, and provides the customization required. The other "top CRM Solutions" have forgotten what salespeople are REALLy looking for in their CRM tool and as a result, made their system more cumbersome for the user. Not Apptivo, they are deploying their system in the right way and there is no extra charge for excellent customer service! The Apptivo team closely manages my account and QUICKLY addresses any items that I want to change. This has been an excellent rollout!
Moving from an Excel-based CRM which was not regularly updated, or even used by most of the team, we had plenty of room to improve. There are lots of products out there and we investigated quite a few. Some were cost-prohibitive and others just didn't feel comfortable, but with Apptivo, there was so much information, so much support, and all at a very reasonable price. I recommend them to everyone I discuss our CRM with.

CRM-in-a-Box, Tailorable to the Needs of SMBs

Companies that invest in Apptivo will receive a solution that mirrors the functionality of higher-priced products like Salesforce, in addition to a large number of options for customizing the software to meet their specific business needs. This is made possible by Apptivo’s extensive range of CRM features. Apptivo permits SMBs to make adjustments and add tools as their company expands.

Because of its adaptability, it can serve as a one-stop solution for virtually any kind of organization, despite the size of the business. All of these features contribute to Apptivo’s success.

Pros

Cons

Software That Grows With Your Business

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