Tools
A CRM is truly no longer an insider tip, on the contrary, it probably belongs to the basic equipment of a large majority of companies. This is exactly why the market for CRMs is so huge; numerous applications and ever new software exist for precisely this need. There are CRMs with different focuses, but the all-rounders are usually the best known: Monday, Pipedrive, Hubspot, Zoho and many others vie for the favour of users. In order to create a little more clarity, we present Monday, which advantages the tool offers, how the Monday integration can be implemented and, last but not least, what there is to say about the Monday CRM costs.
A CRM can add real value to a variety of processes, as it is often used by numerous people and departments in the company. Monday CRM offers various solutions for precisely this purpose, whether pure CRM, project management, marketing or even construction. In our eyes, however, the user:inward friendliness and the integration of the tool are particularly important. Because your team will only reluctantly use an application that they do not understand or like and it should not be a big effort to integrate a new software into the existing selection of applications. This is exactly what we focus on in this blog post.
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Monday's CRM advertises and impresses with its intuitive and clear interface. Through a variety of bright colours, different views and visualisations, the CRM creates exactly what it is meant for: structure and overview. Different companies and teams have different requirements for a CRM and Monday also takes this into account: for example, sprints, product roadmaps or bug tracking are important for software teams, while detailed project management via project planning, construction schedule or details on subcontractors is of greater relevance in the construction industry.
In this way, Monday adapts to the individual requirements of different sectors and teams. There are a total of 10 of these "sub-tools": project management, marketing, CRM, task management, remote working, software development, creative, construction, IT and human resources. In addition, there are templates for other areas, such as start-up, design, freelance or office procedures. Exactly this diversity is a great strength of Monday CRM. Countless companies are addressed by the range of offers and still feel individually mapped enough.
We do not want to go into detail here about the basic functions of Monday that make up a CRM: Customer management, contact management, administration, collaboration, real-time updates, overview and structure. These are exactly the reasons why companies consider a CRM in the first place, and they should be covered by any software. Rather, we are talking about the highlights that stand out in our eyes on Monday:
Monday is cloud-based and we can't say it often enough: the cloud is the future. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, there is no way around a mature cloud infrastructure. The advantages for a single tool are that it does not need its own servers, no local installation or regular, elaborately prepared updates - everything happens in the browser. What's more, the application is ready to use and intuitive for every employee. Using a browser is almost a matter of course for all of us.(You can read more about the differences between server and cloud here).
But in the interaction of different applications, the (almost) even greater advantage of Monday as a cloud CRM arises: Automated data flows can be created via the interface of Monday and other applications, which save a lot of time. This leads us to the next point.
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Of course, different packages for different industries are very helpful in adapting to the business and its growth. But an even bigger lever that helps you to quickly and successfully adapt your business to change is automation and Monday Integration. And here Monday is a real all-rounder.
On its own website, Monday advertises countless integrations of well-known tools: Outlook, Teams, GDrive, GMail, Slack, Zoom, Linkedin, Shopify, Typeform and many more. As mentioned at the beginning, a new software and a CRM should especially fit into your existing infrastructure. This not only promotes acceptance in the team, but also the real added value of the application. Only if relevant data is available but also maintained can the Monday CRM meet its requirements.
The Monday integration does exactly that: data is made available in all relevant places and simultaneously maintained from various sources, such as emails or your online store. Through the Monday integrations offered, the CRM is already very well positioned here, but through the connection of the API interface, we can even go one step further:
Monday is supported by both Zapier and Make. Both are integration platforms that allow us to connect many more tools and apps to Monday. Different functions and triggers thus offer the possibility to create an automatic data exchange and let the apps talk to each other. This is all based on the previously mentioned programming interfaces provided by the cloud tools. This is exactly why cloud-based programmes are so important.
To make this easier to understand, here are three small examples for Monday Integration:
Emails are a constant companion in the communication with your customers. That's why their integration with Monday is so important. You can easily integrate new contacts from your emails into Monday. This way you no longer have to manually transfer all data into your CRM. If you connect other tools, such as accounting, you can save yourself the repetitive entry of data there as well.
Maybe you already use a tool like Asana or Trello for your internal task and project management, even if Monday also offers this. Even then, you can easily integrate Monday. New tasks, boards or projects are automatically created as soon as a new contact or deal is created in Monday or vice versa: the information from your PM is also displayed in Monday.
Applications for online appointment booking are no longer a novelty and most of these tools already offer integrated emails such as appointment confirmations or reminders. But if a new lead books an appointment with you via tools like Calendly or Harmonizely, their contact details can be easily integrated into Monday CRM. This way, no lead is lost and you can optimally prepare for the meeting.
Unlike some of its competitors, such as Hubspot, Monday does not have a free plan. Instead, however, there is (as usual) a 14-day free trial version. This could be interpreted as a disadvantage for the application, but quite the opposite: The paid plans start at a significantly lower price than, for example, Hubspot, Pipedrive or Zoho. In addition, the Monday CRM costs are based on the number of users, just like the competition. The basic package is available from €8 per user per month, the standard package for only €2 more and the pro package from €16 per user per month. For comparison: Pipedrive starts at 18€ per user:in and month and Hubspot Sales and CRM at 20.50€.
So the Monday CRM costs are highly competitive. So if you and your team consists of more than one or two people and you are thinking about getting a CRM or changing the existing one, the costs for Monday are really manageable.
This short excursion into the world of Monday should make it clear that it is now less the basic functions of a software that have to decide on the choice of tool. Most applications are far too similar anyway. Rather, it is important which technologies a CRM supports or already offers. Automation is one of them, based on a cloud foundation.
Most of the time, your business ecosystem consists of numerous applications into which Monday integrates. Therefore, no tool should simply stand on its own, but should always be able to interact with other applications. Monday fulfils exactly this requirement. The short examples of Monday integration should make this clear. But of course, even much more complex process automations are conceivable with the Cloud CRM: For example, a comprehensive report can be output at predefined times and designed in a visually appealing way to inform your team about the current project status. But also a comprehensive customer onboarding, from the first contact to the project order, can be automated.
In addition, Monday is supported by both Zapier and Make , which opens up many more possibilities and helps to ensure that working time is used for things that add value. Of course, this looks very different from company to company. We would be happy to find out together whether your processes and tools can also be integrated. We are happy to support you in the analysis and subsequent automation of business processes, explain the possibilities and individually address the company's processes.
Cloud Integration, iPaaS, SaaS, BPA… Ough, hard to keep track of all these terms. They are currently used frequently (and increasingly) in the context of automation, and it is sometimes difficult to make a clear distinction and distinction. We have already written blog posts on the terms iPaaS, SaaS and BPA, but we’ll take them up again here to make the difference.
But let’s start with cloud integration, because that’s the central umbrella term in which we embed all the other technologies in this blog post.
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
To illustrate these advantages, an example is suitable that we know well from our everyday work as an automation agency:
The central data to be used here is the data of a major customer. This can be the simplest information, such as the address. This address is required in numerous but completely different processes in the company: on the one hand, for correct invoicing in accounting. On the other hand, in the CRM system, where all the data of the large customer is also stored. But the address is also important in sales, for example, when employees go to the sales meeting on site.
Now the customer announces that the address of the company has changed after a move. This information will reach you by e-mail. There are now two options:
01. The e-mail is forwarded to all affected departments, accounting, sales, customer service, marketing… All persons open their corresponding program, CRM, accounting software, marketing tools (such as newsletter marketing) and change the data already stored there of the customer. This means that in multiple applications, different people do exactly the same thing: change one address.
02. But there is also an alternative: By connecting your applications, thus by integrizing them, the customer’s e-mail, or rather the information it contains about the address change, is automatically passed on to all affected applications: CRM, accounting, marketing, ERP. This does not require any clicks, because the cloud integration detects a trigger, i.e. address change, and thus automatically starts the process.
What sounds unimpressive in a single process becomes more effective when such a process occurs several times a day or weekly. Because there is a lot of data that is available in different applications and should always be correct. If these applications are cloud applications they are suitable for cloud integration.
But cloud integration doesn’t just happen. There are now a variety of applications that enable and implement this. Such tools usually allow us to link the relevant cloud applications on a central platform and define clear rules on when, how, where, how much data should be passed on and what happens to them.
To realize cloud integration, there are various applications and technologies that are sometimes used interchangeably.
We have made a first distinction between iPaaS and BPA here.
We explain the term SaaS in more detail here.
Cloud integration is rather an umbrella term that includes numerous technologies, such as SaaS, iPaaS and BPA, and this is also absolutely necessary. Cloud integration is a concept that is made possible by appropriate technologies.
However, all terms share the commonality that they are cloud-based and thus offer enormous potential for growth and scaling. In addition, they are often cheaper to implement and maintain because changed requirements are easy to implement.
As an independent automation agency, we implement cloud integration according to your requirements. We use a variety of SaaS tools and iPaas (strictly speaking BPA) software. Together we find individual solutions that are flexible and scalable.
