Commence
Review of Commence Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs.
Overview
About Commence
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Commence Features
Customer Reviews
See why people love Commence
Steve B.
Verified UserLegal Services · 11-50 employees
Amazing Software for a Customized Calendar
I wanted the ability to customize a calendar to handle a very complex schedule. Commence offers a degree of customization which isn't found on other software. And it integrates with Outlook. And it synchronizes across my desktops and laptops and my assistant can seamlessly help.
- Commence is one of the only items of software on my computers which has worked consistently, correctly and flexibly
- The ability to customize the calendar, in so many important ways, using such great tools, makes Commence one of my favorite pieces of software ever
- After 15 years, I still don't have any complaints
- And that isn't true about any other software I use
Ozair E.
Verified UserMarketing and Advertising · Self-Employed
Very intuitive. Easy to mold to your specific needs. Powerful CRM for multiple needs
Multiple. It has become my primarty Database and CRM software. For a small business with multiple needs, at an extremely reasonable cost per year.
- Commence user for 15 yrs
- As a marketing consultant and service provider to multiple non-profit clients, Commence is the primary Database/CRM software I use for all my needs
- I have created multiple Commence Databases for multiple applications on my own to suit my specific and particular needs
- I have created Commence Applications for Client Management, Inventory management and GTD (Getting Things Done) for my day to day handling of projects and tasks
- ALong with many applications for Personal use as well
- Once you get a hang of it, it is really very easy to set-up for your specific needs, and more importantly, to change things on a fly when you need to implement a change
- I do that constantly
- You can change the look and feel to what works for you
- The Agents creation function (which is like a Macro function is quite strong and powerful, and so is the filtering and sorting capabilities
- Have to mention the connectivity function of one category to the other, which is very powerful as well
- Bottom line
- I am not a programmer, I am a marketer and administrator, and I can create, modify and change Commence to suit my needs
- I am sure you can too
- I would like Commence to address in their future version of non web based standalone Commence: 1
- Allow creation of some sort of Simple Spreadsheet into the DB
- Spreadsheet format is something that we are all fond of and comfortable with, and it would be a great boost to have that functionality built in
- If this exists already, and I am not aware of it, please let me know
- 2
- While adding text in notes, it would be great to have some flexibility to change fonts and sizes within the single note itself, that will allow some emphasis to draw attention to it
- Right now only one singe font and size is allowed, which is OK, but in a long note, the change in font or the ability to increase/decrease its size or make it italic or underlining it, would make the notes much easier to read and follow
Jenny R.
Verified UserComputer Software · 11-50 employees
We have had employee complaints about redundancy and not as user friendly to navigate through
online document storing
- Easy searchable fields are super helpful in looking up accounts and clients
- Other than not, not much else
- There does not seem to be duplicate check feature
- Meaning before we can create an account, if we type in the name, it should check to make sure there is not one already created
- We have to do it manually our selves
Dave M.
Verified UserSemiconductors · 11-50 employees
Product flexibility and customizability are 2nd to none.
Cost effective, configurable, maintainable CRM.
- As a Manufacturers Representative, we have created an implementation of Commence on which we run almost all of our business operations (Opportunity Management, Sales History, Quotations, Forecasts, Tracking overseas, Leads, Target customer, as well as the usual CRM contact info)
- We developed this in-house from the ground up to meet our specific needs
- and so can you
- Why shoe horn your data needs into a non-optimal architecture
- Commence RM Desktop is very easily configurable which is a top priority for us as the configuration of incoming and outgoing data requirements seems to change at least quarterly by at least a couple of the Manufacturers we represent
- This demands updates to the architecture which would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming if we could not do them in-house
- Commence RM Desktop strikes the right balance with flexibility that can be implemented by non-computer scientists (or expert developers)
- Their top notch support has been invaluable in the 1-2 instances where we ran into some unforeseen glitches (mostly the result of user error)
- While spreadsheets are the best tool to analyze data, CRMs were never designed to do that
- But, the ability to compile reports with totals/summaries is a challenge to implement in Commence RM Desktop (lots of scripting required which we choose not to do due to maintainability concerns)
- Manually filtering data within Commence (and using the summary button for totals and averages) works great for the most rudimentary tasks, and exporting as tab-delimited TXT takes a few easy steps to get into Excel
Brett S.
Verified UserInformation Services · 2-10 employees
Commence - Powerful, Customizable and Reliable
Commence's capability, flexibility and support has made working with Commence a great experience for us.
- Commence allows us to customize our critical CRM applications to automate our business processes for efficiency, ease of use and quality control
- Also, the ability to deploy custom improvements to our system as needed seamlessly without user interruption is a key feature
- Commence offers good balance of features and capability that we rely on to grow our business
- It does take determined effort implement a customized solution (with Commence or any other application) but it is worth the investment and critical to our success
Switched From
Commence upgraded/replaced some applications integrates with others we still use.
Why they chose it
"Commence has the flexibility, capability, support, price and speed of customization that we require."
Verified Professional
Utilities · 2-10 employees
Excellant Value for the Investment!
We would not have stayed with Commence for so many years if they did not stand behind their product! Their support team are prompt, polite and willling to help, always! MPS tracks just about everything in our Products and Services business with Commence and we are looking to add new capabilites soon, as well!
- Commence is by far the best and most flexible CRM I have used over the years
- We have been a user of the desktop version of Commence since the mid-90's and still find it a relevant and speedy solution
- (The search capability is SO FAST
- ) Being a bit of a techy type Commence allows me to customize where and when I need to in order to manage my company's unique data requirements
- As we've grown over the years, so hasn't Commence with expanding features and easy solutions
In the original product, the synchronization of the desktop database could sometimes hiccup, although with the web version, this is no longer a problem
John M.
Verified UserMining & Metals · 2-10 employees
Cornerstone business product - Since 1994
I never loose a contact - backup automation to the cloud I never loose a document - access to all documents generated since 1994 I can generate document and letters rapidly It integrates our data right across all platforms It integrates all business activities seamlessly.
- Excellent and readily customizable GUI
- Enormous flexibility and ability to use "agents" to undertake otherwise complex tasks - no coding required
- Agents can integrate with everything from Google Earth to Skype and automate backups to the cloud
- MS Office integration allows document generation from within the product, seamlessly merging address data and word templates
- Integration with Outlook is excellent
- Android integration allows contacts, tasks and calendars to be actively synced to you devices
- The server application is also robust with numerous syncing options from network to FTP and email
- Cloud integration for documents
- Commence manages >10,000 contacts >7,000 companies >100 projects and >30,000 documents in a relational database that has >130 Categories (sub-databases) for us
- We can near instantly locate any document generated since 1994 and that is from contacts, companies projects etc
- Value for money - hard to beat
Tim M.
Verified UserAutomotive · 2-10 employees
Long time satisfied customer
Personally I have been using this product since 1991. Over that time period I have not found a product in the CRM space that offers anywhere near the features and functionality that Commence offers. In my humble opinion, not a better more flexible CRM in the marketplace today.
- The product provides the user with an easy to interpret interface which makes customization and automating tasks very straightforward
- The ability to add categories with customizable fields, create interconnections between the categories and then create any number of letter templates that create a quote or cover letter with a single click are invaluable
initially struggled a bit with Mobile Link -- but once we got up and running has worked great
Why they chose it
"Customization, Automated capability (Agents) -- true outlook integration"
Robert P.
Verified UserLaw Practice
Recently I upgraded my Jurassic age version of Commence (standalone version) to RM 6.1
I use Commence for calendaring, contact management, task management and timekeeping. When it comes to personal and professional information management, I essentially "live" in Commence. I cannot imagine working life without it.
- The upgrade process was efficient, professionally handled and seamless
- Commence is extremely customizable
- On startup, it loads almost instantly
- I have a very small firm, and I use it constantly for calendaring, contact management, task managment and timekeeping
- I've used Commence since the early 2000's, and Commence Corp
- has consistently supported and improved its products
- I rated it tops in Ease of Use, although for a solo user like me there is a learning curve
- The User Manual is very good (occasionally a bit technical)
Scott G.
Verified UserRetail
Great Software
We looked at many CRM programs and we felt that Commence gave us the best bang for the buck for what we needed it to go. Happy with what the program allows us to do and the reports it allows us to create.
- The customer service that we receive is tremendous
- When we started using the program, we did not go through any formal training so we have questions on a regular basis
- The service we get is courteous, prompt and always helpful
- Especially when we have Flo helping us, she always helps to simply, explain and resolve the issue
- If you do not pay for training, you can only get support online
- You do not have the ability to speak with someone
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