affordable web based crm SaaS with email delivery?

I am looking to get in touch with my contacts and previous clients. I used to use Gmail but there would be major problems like sometimes when I send email from [email protected] , they don't receive it and such. Also, myolddomain.com website was wiped out.

I have purchased new domain and I don't know what is the best way to communicate with my clients. Should I stick to the old gmail? I fear that I might have trouble getting my emails across.

I was considering using Aweber since they supposedly have good email delivery rates....

But I was thinking it would be great if anybody offered all in one CRM package like ticket response and sending emails to potential clients. One place to handle and communicate with client.

I'm not sure if I understand your request correctly,

• To solve email problem, get your new domain up and use Google Apps (free)
• If you want CRM then stay away from SalesForce and use http://www.bantamlive.com/

A solid open source solution that our company adopted was SugarCRM. We liked the open source nature and the vibrant community of developers. We also liked that there were hosted and professional licensed versions.

In fact we -- and our clients liked it so much that we added a business line and became a SugarCRM partner to resell it. So, for disclosure -- I am not a completely disinterested "expert" on the issue.

Virtual ERP It fits into our overall solution for clients because of it's ability to bridge to so many of the other solutions we use (Joomla for CMS, QuickBooks for Accounting, GoToMeeting for Presentations, Google Aps for email/calendaring, Outlook for the old school folks) In many ways it serves as a vurtual-ERP for our marketing-centric clients.

More than a Contact Database As a contact database it is a little over kill-- but if the goal is to develop, improve and polish an overall customer relationship management with outbound campaigns, and tracking, with forecasting and case management then I think a real CRM is the right choice.

Email Delivery Issues On the issue of emails -- we have some clients on hosted solutions which use SugarCRM's email servers. We have others on hosted solutions which use their own email servers. And we have still others that host their CRM locally and use their own local email servers. (SugarCRM does bridge with Google Docs-- we don't have experience with a client using Google's email servers within the CRM yet). What I have learned is that assuming good email management, good IP management, go monitoring of various "permissions walls" -- then the delivery rates are about the same. There is a statistically significant difference for our clients sending to business accounts versus personal accounts with better delivery on business accounts.

I would recommend using a web based CRM that is part of a suite of small business productivity apps. I work with InfoStreet whose StreetSmart apps include CRM, email, calendars, tasks etc. You can use as many apps as you wish and as you add them, your information is automatically integrated.

Be careful about using a free email service, even if it is Gmail's business version. One of our small business clients found their emails being routed to their customers spam folder. Read what happened- and what could happen to your company- read here. Good Luck!
Marcy Hoffman

What is your industry? You might consider using and industry specific tool.

Generically, you might look at Sales Force. I think they have a lot of power behind them.

Karma is a web-based CRM service that is presently in beta and is free for now.