The great part about healthy teams is that a foundation of trust and respect makes it easier for conflict to lead to a better outcome than any individual could arrive at on their own.  In our case, Lee’s concern slowed down the conversation and made for a very healthy reality check with the partner .  After a quick conversation with his client, the partner modified the project scope to something more realistic and asked us to throw together an estimate for it.  Not only will we create an immediate benefit for the partner by finishing the project and creating cashflow, we will also built a solid relationship with this partner who likes us and will most likely choose to work with us on future Magento stores.

I am convinced that this type of interaction would not have happened even 2 months ago.  This is the sort of trust and mutual respect that is developed over time.  If you are looking for this type of team to interact with for your Magento store, theme, customization, or module then we would be happy to speak with you.  Just drop us a message on this form and we’ll be in touch.

1.    Not sure what we really need
2.    Too many vendor options and not clear on how to evaluate them
3.    Not sure how much it should cost or what is affordable for me.

Translation: the market is confusing.

Let me try to add clarity to expectations.  If you picked up the Internet Retailer Guide to Ecommerce Technology, then you would having the following cost considerations for your ecommerce platform (based on FitforCommerce survey):
•    On average, a new ecommerce platform costs $50,00-$100,000 minimum.
•    Mid-sized e-retailers need to spend $150,000-300,000 to re-platform, especially if the project calls for a lot of integrations.
•    The top 200 retailers ($50 million+) might spend over $500,000 if they want a total custom solution with maximum flexibility.

Given these expectations and more than 30 pages of ecommerce platform vendors, I can understand the frustration.  However, I want to propose that market confusion is due to more than just a quantity of selection.   You have to factor in the rapid speed of innovation at all levels of the cost spectrum…and open source.

Open source ecommerce software like Magento is game-changing.  Just reread the cost ranges above and contemplate what it would have cost even 2 years ago to compete with your own sophisticated online store: $50k buy-in, minimum.  Now the cost is 70-80% less using Magento and customizing it to your business.

Drop us a note today here at Elias if you are interested in learning more.

Braveheart was on this afternoon.  One of my favorite scenes is when Wallace and his men first meet the crazy Irishman.  Two guys show up in the woods to join a movement.  One is normal, well-spoken, and blends in initially.  He even presents a present to Wallace…how thoughtful.  The other guy is crazy.  He puts a knife to someone’s throat (immediately pointing out a lapse in security).  The next scene plays out with an unanticipated twist: the crazy guy saves Wallace’s life from the normal guy’s assassination attempt.

At Elias we could use a few developers to help us grow.  We are looking for the crazy loyal type, not the nice stab-you-in-the-back type.  Do you have an island?

Since we are small, every penny counts and every minute saved is valuable to us.  Our objective was to create a form on our website where new potential clients can submit a request for more information.  We have been slammed lately with currect clients (a good thing), but feel like we are not able to be as responsive as we would like to be with people who are trying to make a decision on who to use for their Magento ecommerce installation and Magento customization (a bad thing).  A CRM tool was desperately needed in order to collect the new contacts, file them in on-demand software, trigger an immediate email to let them know we will follow up soon, and send a notification email to me with the info that they filled out on the form.  Turns out this was harder to find than I expected.  Enter Zoho.

Other companies out there do this sort of thing, Zoho just does it for $25/month/user.  So far I have customized the lead fields, mapped them to a form, and pasted the HTML to our “Request a Quote” landing page.  Also, the software is set to automatically send me an email with the completed fields and create a follow up task due the next day (screenshot of admin below).  Next week I plan to set up the triggered email response to the interested client.

Hopefully this is helpful to you if you are looking for a CRM application.  It would be interesting to know what everyone else is using to manage their client relationships and why they selected it.  Anyone have a better find than Zoho?