Posted by Commence on March 1, 2011 under Commence News | 
Photo owned by bigcityal (cc)
Customers Offered Big Discounts on Top Rated CRM Software
TINTON FALLS, N.J. (March 01, 2011) – Commence Corporation, a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM), is offering new customers big discounts on their world class online CRM software during the month of March. “March is the company’s fiscal year end and we are looking to sign up as many new customers as possible” says Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation. “In order to achieve this we are offering substantial incentives to earn their business. We appreciate that customers have a lot of options to choose from, but Commence is a top rated CRM solution from a company with a twenty-three year track record of performance. The incentives we are offering should make the selection of Commence an easy decision over competitive offerings.”
“We are taking a page out of the college basketball March Madness program says Tom Gibson, a senior account manager with Commence. In week one, the first (64) companies to sign up will get the first incentive, in week two, (32) companies will receive a different offer, in week three, (16) and so on until the final week. Each week the offers will be posted on the company’s web site in the CRM pricing section. This is an exciting program that will provide exceptional value to new customers continued Gibson. I am confident a large number of them will take advantage of it. It’s a “win-win”; great for the customers and good for Commence Corporation”.
About Commence Corporation:
Founded in 1988, Commence develops and delivers a diverse suite of award winning CRM software that integrates people, processes and technology. Commence CRM is used by several thousand businesses to streamline the front office business processes that directly impact sales execution and customer service. As a result, Commence clients increase workforce productivity, generate positive customer interactions and reduce operational cost. For additional information visit www.commence.com or call 1-877- 266-6362.
Media Contact:
Nicole Reed
info@commence.com
Posted by Commence on January 19, 2011 under Commence News, Press Release |
Commence Corporation Makes the Selection Process Easier with “Try Before You Buy” CRM Program
Why are so many people disappointed with their CRM system? Nigel Park, Managing Director of TPS Consulting believes he has the answer. “Customers are simply not experts in selecting CRM software. I often find that they have not properly documented their critical requirements list. As a result, these firms have tendency to shop solely on price because they perceive that all CRM offerings are the same. They find out later that there are limitations they were unaware of. Another reason customers may be hesitant about making a decision is because the vendor’s free trial offering does not enable the customer to truly ensure that the software meets their requirements. The free trials often consists of a vanilla out of the box program that is not tailored for the customer’s business so while free, they have limited value. Unique work flow capabilities may not be incorporated in the trial versions and other key components such as e-mail integration that traditionally involve some assistance from the vendor cannot be properly tested. And because it’s just a trial, customers are unable to take advantage of the vendor’s expertise in helping them to realize the maximum value from their software. I don’t blame the vendors says Park, because they cannot afford to address questions, tailor the software, integrate e-mail, and provide support services for a free trial, but if I am a customer I want to ensure that the software will work as advertised,” he concluded.
Commence Corporation has introduced a unique solution to this problem by offering customers a 90 day pilot program that includes the company’s award winning CRM software coupled with a set of best practices that ensure that the customer attains immediate value from the solution. “We appreciate that customers may be apprehensive about making a CRM decision and may not fully understand the value they can realize from our software, said Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation. We want to mitigate the risk for them by providing them with an opportunity to utilize our software and provide the professional expertise to solve their business requirements. Our professional services staff will implement the software, assist the customer with the customization they require, integrate their e-mail, Outlook, calendar, mobile devices, and even provide training.”
View the full press release.
Posted by Commence on December 30, 2010 under Commence News |
Tinton Falls, N.J. December 30, 2010 — Commence Corporation a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management software for the mid-market is doing a bit of celebrating to end the 2010 fiscal year. The company has recorded a record number of new customers and just completed the release of a new version of their cloud based CRM product that incorporates a Project Management application and a Customer Service portal.
“The new applications add significant value for our customers” said Larry Caretsky, President of Commence Corporation “ and continue to differentiate Commence in a very crowded market. The Project Management solution is designed to enable project managers to properly assign resources, manage project delivery dates, stay within budget and address issues before they become a significant concern and impact deliverables. The integration of this information with all other CRM data provides authorized personnel with complete access to full account, contact and project information.”
“The Customer Service Portal is all about enabling our customers to provide customer self service to their customers by allowing customers to update their profile, check the status of a service ticket or access the company’s knowledgebase for information anytime and anywhere. This capability significantly enhances the quality of service Commence customers can offer to their customers and should give them a leg up on their competition”.
The company concluded the year with a company luncheon that included several international dishes followed by a highly competitive miniature golf tournament inside the company’s corporate headquarters in New Jersey. “We don’t have the luxury of going outside this time of the year” says Caretsky, “so we had the course set up inside our offices. We also offered prize money for first, second and third place which made the tournament highly competitive.”
About Commence:
Founded in 1988, Commence develops and delivers a diverse suite of award-winning CRM solutions that integrate people, processes and technology. Delivered via the popular software as a service (SaaS) model or implemented as on premise software, Commence CRM solutions are used by thousands of businesses to streamline sales and customer service front-end business processes. As a result, Commence clients increase workforce productivity, generate positive customer interactions and reduce operating cost. More information about Commence can be accessed at www.commence.com or by calling Commence sales at 1-877-COMMENCE.
Media Contact:
Nicole Reed
info@commence.com
Posted by Commence on December 3, 2010 under Commence News |
December 03, 2010 - Commence Corporation invites customers of the discontinued Intuit Customer Manager CRM product to review Commence CRM as a migration option. Commence CRM is an online CRM system designed for small, medium, and large enterprise and provides comprehensive CRM functionality as well as QuickBooks integration.
“After much consideration, we’ve made the decision to discontinue Customer Manager, effective October 11, 2010”
“Intuit Customer Support will provide support for all issues through November 30, 2010.”
These surprising notices were posted on the Intuit website just 2 months ago leaving many small and mid-market businesses scrambling to find an alternative solution for their Customer Management and CRM needs.
“Many of these businesses were taken by surprise by this announcement and then further surprised that they had to find an alternative by November 30 when the system was being shut down”, said Todd Pape, CTO at Commence Corporation, “We are happy to provide an option for these customers to migrate to our web-based CRM solution with QuickBooks integration. We invite these customers to review our CRM solutions and believe we offer a very compelling option with our web-based Commence CRM and optional QuickBooks integration.”
Commence offers a robust suite of CRM software applications for managing sales, marketing, customer support, and project management. The Customer Management software can also be integrated with QuickBooks for 2-way synchronization of customer data.
Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation, welcomes the addition of these customers. “Commence has been servicing small and mid-size businesses for over twenty years,” noted Caretsky. “A good portion of our business comes from companies that have outgrown traditional contact management software such as Sage ACT! software and Goldmine software. These companies need more than a simple contact manager, but not the cost and complexity of enterprise CRM software. We are positioned right in the middle of the two, which has served our business very well over the years. Our CRM solution is comprehensive yet intuitive and affordable, and is quickly deployed over the Internet,” says Caretsky.
About Commence Corporation:
Commence Corporation is a leading provider of Customer Manager software. The company’s products are designed to provide small to mid-size businesses with flexible solutions that leverage the Web to offer an integrated platform for managing sales execution and customer service. Commence supports several thousand customers through a worldwide distribution network, with outlets in North and South America, Europe and Asia. For more information see www.commence.com or call 1-877-COMMENCE.
Tags: Act Software, CRM, CRM Migration, CRM Online, CRM Replacement, CRM with Quickbooks Integration, Customer Manager, Goldmine Software, Hosted CRM, Intuit CRM, Intuit Customer Manager, Online CRM Software, Quickbooks CRM
Posted by Commence on October 11, 2010 under Commence News, Customer Success |
For the past two decades Commence Corporation has worked diligently to ensure that our customers have the opportunity to periodically evaluate our company, our product and our service and submit their opinions, recommendations and suggestions directly to Commence Corporation’s management. These recommendations have served to fuel the growth of our business and the high customer satisfaction rate enjoyed by our customers. Outlined below are the results of the company’s most recent survey.
The Survey Says:
Question 1 How long have you been using Commence?
- 31% 1-3 years
- 53% more than 5 to 10 years
- 16% more than 10 years
Question 2 What is the principal industry of your company?
More than 27 industries were represented.
Question 3 Which Commence product do you use?
- 78% Designer Edition CRM Toolkit
- 16% Desktop CRM Application Suite
- 6% Commence OnDemand (New Cloud based CRM offering)
Question 4 What is your primary use of the product?
Evenly split among the choices:
Contact & account management, sales, marketing, customer service
Question 5 How important is Commence to your business?
- 79% Mission Critical
- 19% Important
- 2% Not that important
Question 6 How satisfied are you with the product you are using?
- 74% Very satisfied
- 19% Satisfied
- 7% Not satisfied
Question 7 What do you find is the greatest strength of the product?
- 61% Flexibility
- 39% Reliability
Question 8 How likely are you to recommend Commence to a colleague?
Question 9 How would you rate Commence Corporation’s ability to keep pace with current technology?
- 69% Very satisfied
- 13% Not satisfied
- 18% Don’t think about it
Question 10 How would you rate the level of functionality incorporated in the product you are using?
- 96% Very good meets our requirements
- 4% Does not meet our requirements
Question 11 What improvements would you like to see in a future release of the product? (Respondents could check several options)
- 51% Better integration with third party applications
- 43% Better documentation
- 37% Enhanced mobile capabilities
- 33% Remote access to data
- 30% More programming features
- 23% Make product easier to use
Question 12 Do you have a service agreement with Commence?
- 41% Yes
- 59% No, we do everything ourselves
Question 13 How would you rate the quality of service received?
- 64% Excellent
- 27% Very good
- 9% Fair
Question 14 How would you rate the value of the annual software maintenance program that provides updates and enhancements to the product(s)?
- 68% Very good value
- 22% Good value
- 2% Fair – program is too expensive
Question 15 How would you rate the level of communication the company provides?
- 62% Very good, we get all the information we need
- 32% Fair, would like to see more communication from Commence
- 6% Poor, the company does not communicate enough
Question 16 How would you rate your overall experience with Commence Corporation?
- 73% Very good, the company has an excellent product and service organization
- 19% Good – the experience has been good
- 8% Fair – our experience is not what we had expected.
Question 17 Commence is evaluating some enhanced services for our customers. How would you rank each of the items below based on the importance to your business? (Respondents could select several options)
- # 1 — Searchable knowledgebase 53%
- # 2 — Internet forum 34%
- # 3 — Technical support blog 30%
- # 4 — Self help videos 26%
- # 5 — Quarterly webinars 17%
- # 6 — Social networking 6%
Question 18 Commence now offers a hosting service for managing the Commence database in our datacenter and a cloud based CRM solution, Commence On-Demand. How likely are you to consider moving to one of these offerings in the future?
- 21% Very likely – I would like to learn more
- 61% Not likely we are happy with the on-premise system
- 18% All ready using your hosted service
NOTE: Responses containing personal information about your company, your name, your role and if we may contact you have been removed from the results page.
Posted by Commence on April 21, 2010 under Commence News |
I started my career in the Mortgage industry selling re-financing services. The job was quite structured: call fifty people each day, document my discussions then follow-up with those that were interested as well as any I was unable to reach. The company had no automation, but people learned to manage their daily business using a spiral notebook or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. At the time I had no problem with this because I had a limited perspective on the most efficient ways to capture information, follow-up with potential prospects and keep my product and service in front of prospective buyers. While I was one of the more successful sales people I was beginning to have difficulty organizing customer files, finding information about past telephone conversations, knowing which documents I sent people or didn’t send and following up with those people that asked me to contact them at a later date. I found myself staying in the office later and later each night trying to get myself organized and keeping things from falling through the cracks, but it became an exercise in futility.
This all changed for me a few years later when I joined Commence Corporation, a provider of Customer Relationship Management software. At Commence, I was forced to trade in my spiral notebook for a sales automation tool and while I was a bit dubious that a sales automation system would help me, after a few weeks of use I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I began capturing every customer and prospect interaction from basic telephone calls, quotes and documents I had sent to e-mail correspondence. I learned to enter follow-up activities on my calendar and set alerts that reminded me to contact people on the dates and times I committed to. Each day new leads with contact information were dispatched to me electronically and an automated sales methodology helped me to manage each opportunity through a structures sales cycle. Best of all, with the simple click of a button I had the ability to view a complete 360 degree view of all current and historical information about my customers and prospects. This was truly unbelievable. I even learned that I could integrate a Smart Phone so that I could have contact information at my disposal and have also begun to utilize the systems mass e-mail feature to help generate more business. I had never imagined that I would attain so much value from this tool.
“On a personal level I am more productive than ever.”
The CRM system has impacted me both personally and professionally. On a personal level I am more productive than ever. I have access to customer and prospect information anytime and anywhere and I am confident that things are no longer falling through the cracks. On a professional level I have become almost fanatical about the product, which has helped me to serve potential customers more effectively. I continue to utilize my past experience as a vehicle for delivering a powerful testimonial of how CRM software has helped me better manage the sales cycle and improve sales execution. It’s a well known fact that prospects are more likely to buy from someone who believes whole heartedly in the product or service they are selling and my newly found enthusiasm for CRM software has enabled me to gain credibility with potential buyers.
As I talk with new prospects each day I understand and appreciate the reluctance they may have in implementing a Customer Relationship Management solution. I’ve learned that It’s a lot easier to understand their concerns and provide valuable assistance if you have been in a similar position, so I tell my story. Their interest level grows and often turns into a new sale. If you are considering a CRM system give me a call. I am confident that I can help you consolidate data, and improve sales execution so that your team and sell more and sell more easily.
About the author: Steve Fischkin is an Account Manager at Commence Corporation, a leading provider of CRM software which can be deployed in a web-based, cloud-computing environment or on premise. For more information about Commence visit www.commence.com or e-mail Steve at sales@commence.com
Posted by Commence on February 4, 2010 under Commence News |
February 4, 2010 - Commence Corporation has announced a competitive upgrade program for small businesses currently using the Goldmine contact management software. More than a year ago FrontRange announced that they would no longer be enhancing their standard contact manager product, leaving many small and mid-size businesses with the option to migrate to the company’s more expensive product or seek an alternative solution.
“Many of these businesses have simply stayed put and have continued to utilize discontinued versions of the Goldmine software”, said Nicole Reed, Customer Manager at Commence Corporation, “but with the release of the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, these older versions will no longer work. This has generated a number of calls to Commence Corporation from Goldmine customers seeking a migration path to newer, supported CRM software.”
Commence offers a robust contact manager along with a suite of CRM software applications for managing sales, marketing and customer support. The Customer Management software is available for deployment on-premise or hosted under a “software as a service” or SaaS model. Commence also supports the Microsoft Vista and Windows 7 operating systems along with the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 software.
Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation, welcomes the addition of these customers. “Commence has been servicing SME businesses for twenty years,” noted Caretsky. “A good portion of our business comes from companies that have outgrown traditional contact management software such as Sage ACT software and Goldmine software. These companies need more then a simple contact manager, but not the cost and complexity of enterprise CRM software. We are positioned right in the middle of the two, which has served our business very well over the years. Our CRM solution is comprehensive yet intuitive and affordable, and can be deployed over the Internet,” says Caretsky.
About Commence Corporation:
Commence Corporation is a leading provider of Customer Manager software. The company’s products are designed to provide small to mid-size businesses with flexible solutions that leverage the Web to offer an integrated platform for managing sales execution and customer service. Commence supports several thousand customers through a worldwide distribution network, with outlets in North and South America, Europe and Asia. For more information see www.commence.com or call 1-877-COMMENCE.
Posted by Commence on January 4, 2010 under Commence News |
Commence Corporation, one of the leading providers of Customer Relationship Management software for small to mid-size businesses, has announced the release of the first in a series of product and training videos for prospects and customers. The first video provides a brief overview of Commence Corporation’s web based CRM offering along with customer testimonials and is now available on the company’s website at http://www.commence.com/video.
Commence has been providing contact management, sales force automation and CRM software for more than two decades and has several thousand customers in more than 22 countries around the world. The company’s web based CRM software has proven to be a comprehensive and affordable alternative to industry leaders such as Microsoft CRM and SalesForce.com.
The company provides personal demonstrations and free trials of their on-line customer management software.
Posted by Commence on October 27, 2009 under Commence News |
-FREE Software Upgrade Offered to Existing Customers-
TINTON FALLS, N.J., (October 15, 2009) – Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions, today announced that it is extending its managed services offering to existing desktop customers and offering a complimentary software upgrade with its new hosting service.
“Today’s economic crisis has created an environment whereby companies are finding it difficult to upgrade and maintain their own IT infrastructure,” said Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation. “Some have been forced to reduce their IT staff, making the management of their systems even more challenging. As a result, these businesses may now be working with older, fragile hardware or unsupported software and they are rightfully concerned about the impact this will have on their business.”
Commence Corporation has created a unique Managed Service designed to address this business challenge for existing customers. The service places the role of managing and maintaining the Commence Server hardware and software with Commence Corporation. It provides customers with the use of state-of-the-art high-speed server hardware at Commence Corporation’s data center as well as 24/7 management of the system by trained engineers. Customers are also entitled to a free software upgrade and continued upgrades for as long as they remain on the service. This ensures that they are always working with the highest quality server hardware and the latest version of the software.
Abhijit Joshi, president of White Hedge Inc., recently switched over to the service and is pleased with the outcome. “As a small company I did not have the resources to purchase the equipment and staff necessary to manage and maintain my Commence system,” said Joshi. “In addition, keeping up with the latest product releases became difficult. By outsourcing this function to Commence I freed up time and resources to dedicate to growing my business while Commence manages and maintains the hardware and software.”
Joshi, is not alone, several dozen new companies are already utilizing Commence’s managed service. For more information contact Commence sales at 1-877 – COMMENCE.
More About Commence Corporation
Founded in 1988, Commence develops and delivers a diverse suite of award-winning CRM products that integrate people, processes and technology. Delivered via the popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) model or implemented as on premised licensed software, Commence CRM solutions are used by thousands of companies to streamline sales and customer service front end business processes. As a result, Commence clients increase workforce productivity, generate positive customer interactions, and reduce cost. More information about Commence can be accessed at www.commence.com.
Posted by Commence on October 13, 2009 under Commence News |
Industrial CRM Solutions That Eliminate Company Inefficiencies
When it comes to using Contact Management and Customer Relationship Management software for Industrial Sales, Commence literally wrote the book. Using Six Sigma, lean practices, Commence CRM can help you implement smart business processes that will make your company a more efficient sales and service organization. Manage the selling cycle from introduction to closure though our contact management, lead management, activity management, quoting and sales automation software. Our off-line or disconnected capability is ideal for field sales representatives who need customer information with them at all times.
Our Sales Tools Combined with Smart Business Practices will Help You To Maximize Every Business Interaction and Achieve Your Sales Potential
Industrial Sales Tools
Rapidly deployable, easy to use tools for managing the sales cycle from introduction to closure. Commence takes the guess work out of sales management, contact management, lead management, pipeline management, forecasting and reporting. Commence can even help your company set up it’s own sales force automation services.
Smart Practices for Industry
This compendium of CRM smart practices offers real life examples of how to create a customer centric marketing strategy, efficiently manage the sales process and use CRM technology to achieve industrial selling results.
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