Going Shopping
Submitted Jun. 9, 2017
We are using Protech, which is built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0. I have personally used this software at previous employer. The implementation at my previous employer was well thought out and through great project management on our side, we were able to the keep the project moving. I was not at my current employer for the implementation, but I will assume that Protech was heavily relied upon to manage this project for the organization. It was successfully implemented, but was not successfully adopted by staff. Here are the reasons why: Training: the staff did not take full advantage of the training provided by Protech. Adverse to change: If it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality. CRM is not intuitive to none technical staff. Reporting is only available via "Advanced Finds" , custom reporting requires $$$ and time from Protech. Technical staff with report writing capabilities are not able to access the tables to write custom reports. The reason for this is native to Microsoft CRM. Protech is protecting the tables so as to not only prevent the clients AMS from crashing, but all clients, as they are all on the same hosted environment. Another issue is we have had is the "MX parts" for the website. They are not pretty and do not necessarily write back to the fields within the record without some workflows. and the final issue with Protech is that the API is not an open API. There is a layer of security in place that does not allow for easy integration with third parties, not that it doesn't integrate at all, but that the integrations have to be custom coded and Protech and the third party need to work together to make that connection. Again additional $$. I think this system is not a good fit for my organization because we have some complex meeting and event requirements, use a lot of third parties and need more flexibility. I would recommend Protech, for a more simplified organization that does not have complicated event management or membership requirements. I would also recommend them for organizations that do not have a dedicated IT staff.
