With so many high-quality CRMs on the market, choosing the one that’s the best fit for your business can be difficult. In this post, we’ll be taking a look at two types: Daylite by Market Circle and FileMaker-based CRMs. Each offers a range of capabilities and the ability to scale for growth. But there are important differences. Choosing a CRM is a vital decision that will impact your company’s success. You are the expert on the unique needs of your business, so doing a careful examination of the most important features you’ll need is time well spent. Now let’s take a closer look at Daylite and FileMaker-based CRMs.

Daylite CRM by Market Circle

Built only for iOS, Daylite occupies a unique niche in the world of CRMs. For business owners who are committed to Apple products, Daylite is tailored for use with devices that have an iOS operating system.

This CRM offers powerful tracking tools that provide various levels of views into the sales process, from big-picture to fine-grained. With Daylite, you can assign tasks, view the status of individual projects, and see calendar availability for each member of your sales team. Customizable forms, sales pipelines, and contact fields allow you flexibility to mold this system to the unique needs of your sales process.

Daylite is designed specifically for small businesses, so it’s not built with enterprise-level users in mind. Its $29/month per user subscription fee is reasonable, especially for business owners with a small sales team. If you’re willing to pay annually, the per-user rate drops to $24/month.

If your team is small, if you plan to use your CRM primarily as a sales tool, and if your team uses all Apple products, then you might want to consider Daylite.

Daylite CRM Pros and Cons

  • Daylite seamlessly integrates with Apple Mail, Siri, Calendar, and Notification Center features. It’s designed specifically for use on Apple devices, including Mac computers, iPad and iPhone.  
  • Daylite’s biggest pro does double duty as its major con. Most businesses are not using Apple products exclusively. If you’re using Google or Microsoft products, this CRM won’t be a good fit. In addition, the reporting functionality is not as robust as some other CRM programs, and it’s not customizable.

FileMaker-based CRMs

Designed as a Workplace Innovation Platform, FileMaker is a “low-code/no-code” platform that serves as an ideal base for building custom CRMs. Building a custom CRM on FileMaker is faster and less expensive than traditional software development, since the platform simplifies the development process. Customizing an already-built FileMaker-based CRM, such as Jarvis CRM, cuts down the amount of time spent on development even further.

Pros and Cons of FileMaker-based CRMs

  • FileMaker-based CRMs are easy to customize quickly at an affordable cost. If you want your CRM to include specific functionality or be tailored precisely to your business processes, FileMaker makes it simple.
  • While FileMaker works well on any computer operating system, FileMaker-based mobile apps using FileMaker Go aren’t supported on Android operating systems. If you want to access your CRM via a FileMaker mobile app on Android-run smartphones or tablets, you can access it via a web browser with FileMaker WebDirect.

More Reasons to Choose a FileMaker-Based CRM

If you’ve shopped around and the pre-packaged CRMs don’t have the features your business needs, building a custom CRM on the FileMaker platform is an excellent option. With FileMaker, you’ll be able to build all of the functionality your team needs to automate tasks and execute your unique sales and fulfillment processes. FileMaker-based solutions even allow for complex functionality, such as an ERP solution. Here are just a few reasons why FileMaker is an ideal platform for developing a custom or integrated CRM.

Get a Custom Solution at an Affordable Cost

By using FileMaker as the foundation of a custom CRM solution, the time spent in development is significantly less than coding from scratch. Even if you’re using an out-of-the-box CRM like Salesforce, the smallest customizations can be time consuming and costly. With FileMaker, you can get the most out of your investment.

Start Using Your Custom CRM Quickly

Building a custom CRM the traditional way can take years to complete. Meanwhile, your business experiences opportunity cost — you lose out on the cost savings you could be experiencing during that time. The flexibility built into the FileMaker platform allows developers to build out custom features quickly, making it easier to deliver a finished product that you can start using quickly. You can also use FileMaker templates to get a faster start.

Integrate with Your Other Systems

A FileMaker-based CRM can mesh with nearly any app (like Zoom and Dropbox) or web service (like Google) using REST APIs. It’s easy to create live, two-way connections with your databases using Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and IBM DB2 to access and manipulate data.

Make Data-informed Decisions with Analytics and Reporting

FileMaker makes it easy to collect and analyze information with powerful analytics and robust reporting. A FileMaker-based CRM allows you to easily manipulate your data to spot important trends, allowing you to make better business decisions. Share critical information with your team using FileMaker’s built-in tools using easy to create summary reports, colorful charts, and executive dashboards.

Scale Easily into the Future

You want a CRM that can grow along with your business. Most out-of-the-box CRM systems are rigidly designed, making it difficult and costly to add on new features or address the complexities that often accompany business growth. Because of the lack of flexibility, businesses often end up abandoning their old CRMs to start again with a new, more fully-featured one. With a FileMaker-based CRM, updating your system to add new functionality is quick and cost-efficient.

Looking for a FileMaker-based solution that’s easily customizable? Jarvis CRM is a full-featured and fully-customizable business solution that can be used on desktops, mobile devices, and the web. Contact us for a free, no-pressure demo.