The customer relationship management (CRM) industry has been on a tear over the last decade. Looking back much has changed in this industry, Siebel Systems the first mobile CRM application was introduced by Siebel Systems in 1999, then the first open source CRM solution was built and released by SugarCRM in 2004. Since this time, the space has grown crowded with new young CRM companies popping up almost monthly. With the growing number of software companies joining the CRM bandwagon, it is likewise growing harder for them to differentiate themselves and their products. In 2013 Gartner predicted the CRM industry will grow to more than 37 billion dollars in annual sales. Which may be why there is such a surge in supply as of late, and the reason why it is important to point out the industry outliers whenever possible. One company that has recently made headlines is Snapforce, a software company that offers a CRM with a built-in virtual phone system - marking the first time a CRM system includes embedded telephony services.

This is a big deal, for starters Snapforce includes free unlimited calling, which means companies can cut their monthly phone bill entirely by porting their phone numbers to Snapforce and canceling their analog phone lines. Aside from the cost savings, this completely changes how CRM Software receives input i.e. how data is entered into it. Let's face it traditional CRM software is nice but it's only as good as the data your users enter into it. Well guess what, that has all changed, every inbound call, outbound call, voice mail, conference call, and recording are inputted automatically.

Call Tracking

This product is groundbreaking, and a first for the industry. Up until now sales people had to log calls manually, and if they forget the calls are lost. This is no longer the case, every call (both inbound and outbound) log to the client's activity timeline. If the call was recorded, a copy will also be saved to the client's timeline. 

Call Recording and Voicemail

Call recording and voicemail will log to the customer's activity timeline automatically

Click to Dial

Sales people love click to dial to help them be more productive and maximize their call output. In Snapforce, click to dial is invoked whenever you click on a phone number.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

Large sales teams can create rules and setup their phone system to route calls automatically.

Call Monitoring, Call Coaching, Call Barging

A feature you normally see in expensive call center software, giving the sales manager access to monitor, coach, or barge agent phone calls when necessary.

CRM Software is a growing industry, and up until now has been all but stagnant in technological advancement. Since it's inception the only innovative changes to this category of software have been mobile versions, and social media integrations. This new product moves the bar and will likely spur innovation amongst it's competitors.