Antharia: CRM Idol review
Posted by Neil Davey in Technology on Fri, 26/08/2011 - 00:15
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- For up-to-the-minute coverage of the CRM Idol competition, visit the official website.
The CRM Idol judges panel from the Americas – Paul Greenberg, Esteban Kolsky, Denis Pombriant, Jesus Hoyos and Brent Leary – are viewing and reviewing contestants for the quality of their product, the vision of their company, the presentation that they are making and a variety of other factors. Each of the reviews has been reviewed and modified if need be by all the primary judges. This is a joint review signed off by all the judges who attended the session.
Fortyfourfish is a very complete CRM tool for not-for-profit organizations. Featuring an intuitive and easy to navigate interface, a full set of features (including donor-management, development, volunteer management, and an end-to-end relationship data model for non- profit), and a very low entry price.
Indeed, in a market mostly controlled by Blackbaud and Convio, and where starting implementations are bound to cost upwards of $30,000-$40,000 for just the first year, their entry price is a comparatively frugal $1,200.00 per year per person (it is a hosted model, so unless there is an increase in the number of people using it - that price should remain through the rest of the time it is deployed).
fourtyfourfish, the name of the product, is a creation of Antharia - a consulting organization for not-for-profits. The product’s tight integration means that the professional services for the product are provided by Antharia - a well known firm in the not-for-profit world. One of the most salient features of the product is its flexibility and ability to be customized as needed - which is what Antharia does in addition to traditional business and management consulting.
The CRM product generates low recurring license revenue, and the product generates few other sources of revenue. The business integration with Antharia gives the combined product and service company a sustainable revenue and business model, solving our concern over viability.
We were impressed by the quantity of features and functions it covers, both as a not-for-profit product and as a general CRM tool. It covers the basic gamut of functions necessary to identify, contact, interact, track, and retain customers (or in this case, donors and volunteers). One of the most remarkable features is the development tool, which is not something seen in anything but high-end products. It seems at first look to be a very complete module and to do its job quite well.
While the interface seems a tad busy and at moments may seem overwhelming – it is easily customized and shrank or expanded (more or less information used, per the needs of the customer) to deliver an intuitive way to capture and incorporate information into specific processes. We would definitely recommend those interested in adopting this product to think about the experience they want to provide for the volunteers or employees using it and right-size the number of functions (and options for those functions) to deliver a cleaner and more productive interface.
While we like the price point, as we are sure their clients and prospects do, we are concerned over the addressable market. A combination of not-for-profits traditionally preferring more expensive solutions, a product that is mostly used by smaller non-profit, and a finite number of non-profits in the United States (international expansion is hard due to compliance regulations) yields a low potential client pool.
While we don’t foresee Antharia or fortyfourfish needing additional funding – or other sources of income – we are concerned about their potential for growth. We would like to see more funds invested in marketing and sales to ensure a continuity of the brand by deeper adoption in their market.
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