We have recently won a couple of projects from clients who were also considering Salesforce.com. Salesforce dominates the CRM industry, so why did they decide to use Sage instead? When Sage CRM wins out, it is because of Sage’s key differentiators. Let’s breakdown the differences of Sage CRM vs Salesforce.com.
One of the main differences between Sage and Salesforce is price. At the lowest end, Salesforce.com is actually less expensive than Sage CRM. However, once you’ve past the initial pricing tiers, Salesforce quickly becomes obscenely expensive compared with most other CRM solutions. Sage skips pricing tiers altogether, so per-user costs remain the same regardless of functionality.
Another big differentiator is hosting (where the CRM lives). Some companies want their CRM hosted by a provider and some prefer to host it on their own servers. At this stage of the game, Sage seems to be the only top CRM that is geared towards clients hosting it themselves on their own servers (or at least servers they control).
Hosted, or “cloud” solutions offer a certain amount of convenience, but require a high level of trust in the provider. Self-hosting removes the need for that trust, and offers potentially higher levels of flexibility and control.
That flexibility is Sage CRM’s strong point. Salesforce.com can often seem rigid by comparison.
In our view, Sage’s best features are its workflow engine followed by integration with accounting. The workflow engine allows you to avoid a common problem with CRM’s like Salesforce. That is, having to change the way you do things in order to align your business with your CRM. Sage’s complete flexibility allows you to adapt the software to match your process, instead of the other way around.
On the accounting side, Sage CRM integrates directly with accounting systems like Sage 100 and Sage 300 ERP. Integrating Salesforce with accounting systems often requires moving sensitive data from the external cloud platform into an in-house application.
Deployment
Sage: Web-application that resides on servers you control.
Salesforce: Web-application hosted by Salesforce.com.
Flexibility
Sage: Configuring Sage CRM to meet the unique requirements of a company happens with every Sage CRM project. With Sage you can make the solution your own. Customization is done through common languages like ASP, VB.net or javascript.
Salesforce: Creating new fields is somewhat easier, but the overall system is comparatively more rigid. Customization requires knowledge of Salesforce-specific scripting languages (Apex).
Pricing
Sage: Licensing is approximately 30 to $40/user/month. With Sage there is no concept of tiered pricing.
Salesforce: Has a variety of editions, ranging from $5 per user per month to $250 per user per month, on an ongoing basis.
Integration with Accounting
Sage: Sage has a built in integrations with the various Sage accounting solutions including Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300, and X3.
Salesforce: While certain integrations with accounting exist, they are not as heavily used (and require transfer of accounting data over the open internet).
Interface
Sage: People comment that Sage looks easier to understand.
Salesforce: Complex, but does support a few more browsers.
Typical size
Sage CRM is applicable for systems between 8 and 150 users. The sweet spot seems to be between 10 and 20 users.
Salesforce can be used by just 1 user, but tends to be more popular with larger companies (50+ up to 1,000s of users).
Want to learn more about your options? Managing Sage CRM projects is the exclusive focus of DCAA. This singular focus over the past 12+ years gives us a unique and experienced perspective. We’re happy to help with any questions you may have. Contact us today!
