Some Candid Comments

I use CommitCRM every day. I live in it. So does everyone who works here. I love this product, and there are some great people who stand behind it. I want them to be successful, and I want this product to improve. In that spirit, I give the following very candid comments:

Sometimes I feel like that the people who develop this product don't actually have to use it every day to run and manage a business. I have no idea if that is true or not. However, it does seem like the product needs some closer alignment with a business owner/manager's objectives. It seems like features are added based on the value/ease to a developer/programmer, not a business manager.

From that perspective, here are the top feature requests I have that would help me run my business more efficiently:

MSP contracts
- profitability monitoring
- graphing of profitability over time (for a single or multiple contracts)
- contracts that reflect the way most of us do MSP work. If you write software to target this industry, then why not cater to way this industry does business?

Rounding issues corrected (I'm tired of Quotewerks quotes and CommitCRM invoices being off my a penny)

Either improve CommitCRM quoting or improve the integration between CommitCRM and QW:
CommitCRM quoting should have the following if I were to use it instead of QW:
- Support for full page cover page
- recurring billing calculations
- images available on the quote (for line items)
- a killer feature would be something for simpler online quote approval. Something that did not require customers to login. (kind-of like QuoteValet, but I don't really care about taking online CC payments)
Integration between CommitCRM and Quotewerks:
- I mainly want to be able to pull quote items into a CommitCRM ticket.
- being able to change the quote status to "won" would be nice - and maybe update a custom field with the ticket # that it is invoiced on

Rich text in ALL memo fields. come on, this IS 2014.

Dashboard.
- The dashboard that exists was a great first step. However, for it to really be functional, it needs to be click-able and "drill-able". So I have expiring assets? Ok, let me drill into that stat to get data. I've had to write a web based dashboard to get the data and charts that I want. But I don't want to have to write my own software just so I can use yours. I want to use your software.
- revenue this week? This month? some very customizable charts displaying this data would be fantastic
- ticket load by employee
- overdue/SLA exceeded

Real SLA. SLA module as it stands is just an automated way to set a due date. We need to automate ticket escalation and alerting to really call this a SLA (all driven by ticket priorities, types, clients, and possibly asset)

Employee time sheets. I huge gaping hole in this product is that I have no way of tracking profitability and employee utilization. How do I know if an employee is being over/under utilized. How can I gauge profitability based on employee hours worked. No, I'm not interested in hacking together a contract under my company and having everyone "log time" there. The only solution is a time clock built into CommitCRM.

Savable report filters. Screenshots of report filters so I can remember how to setup a filter is... crazy. there has to be a better way.

I love the report engine improvements. ...but why can't I write custom filters and queries? It seems like we could use a little more power unleashed in this thing.

Quickbooks batch invoicing
- allow filters on this screen. Let me filter out who I don't want - or what I do.
- Don't show me revenue from un-completed tickets in the total field. You don't invoice those tickets anyway. Why include their revenue in the displayed total?
- Allow keyboard integration with this window (down arrow moves cursor, space checks the box). Minor issue, but I hate using a mouse.

Inventory would be nice. But I'm not expecting you guys to EVER address this one. Most people probably don't care about it.

Could we honestly have separate fields for first and last names? Is there value in having one big name field. I do lastname, firstname, and that breaks so many things when that is altogether in the same field.

Web interface. Wow, do I need to elaborate? Honestly, I'm embarrassed for anyone to see it. Javascript driven and a UI that lacks anything in the name of graphic appeal.

Last, but not least, raise your prices ...and bring some talent on board to help implement this stuff.

So many of the above things have been started, but never finished (dashboard, SLA module, QW integration). I'm tired of half developed "modules" that border on useless.

I fully understand software development is an evolution. I just want to make sure that CommitCRM is going to continue to evolve into a product that I can continue to use. Hopefully, this gives you guys some insight into my daily frustrations.

Support, thanks for listening - you always do. I know you get tired of me, just admit it. I know what software can do, and I know you guys can get this right.

Thanks for reading!

...and add to that list... The ability to run reports and use the program at the same time. When you have to run a report and verify data frequently, it would be very helpful to be able to easily switch back and forth between the application and the report view.

Elaborating on my comments above regarding the report viewer: I think the limiting factor here is that we can't do calculated fields in a report and we are unable to specify our own queries (or customize them at least). I would love to be able to write my own SQL query for a report.

I know ReportBuilderPro is cabable of doing WAY more than it is "allowed" to do as provided with CommitCRM. Maybe an advanced reporting license would work? I'll buy it today.

Thank you for posting this. We always appreciate feedback from users, and definitely from advanced users like yourself, so your post here is no exception! Like always, all will be reviewed and considered.

One note though: Your 'raise your prices' suggestion... Interesting, though we're not sure everyone will agree with you on that one... :-)

Thanks.

I agree with everything that Luke has said in his posts including raising the prices. I would be surprised if the majority of us wouldn't mind increased prices knowing that development of what we need in the product would increase.

For many of us we just deal with the shortcomings of the product knowing that what we need/want may never come or at least not in any reasonable amount of time. I have come to accept that at one point in the future I will need some of the items I have been asking about over the years and at that time I will need to leave CommitCRM.

I've quit asking for change because over the years I have not seen the items that I need addressed. My requests are usually met with suggestions that will not resolve what I need to accomplish or the typical we appreciate feedback response. I'm sure I am not alone in this feeling.

Development appears (to me at least) to have dramatically slowed since I first signed on with CommitCRM 6 years ago. There needs to be change and if that change costs me more money I am ready to pay. It would be cheaper to have price increases from Commit then to start over again with another product.

@ascendnet thanks for your feedback. For what it worth, we've never spent that many resources on product development as we are these days.... (we're way more successfully these days than many years ago), I think that our lastest major version, released only a few months ago, shows that.

Thanks for your personal feedback regarding @lpopejoy's price raise, suggestion.

I am curious... What would you be willing to pay to get some of the features you asked for?

I submitted a change request and offered to pay for the cost of development. That was 4 months ago and I am still waiting for the quote.

I do agree with your summary by the way. I am just curious how much additonal people would be willing to pay and how much you would get for your $$$.

I would like to see a proposal from Commit that says (for example) we can double our releases per year however in order to do that we would need to raise everyone's support fees by x dollars.

I would write a check for at least $5,000 today if all of the features I mentioned above were developed. They would probably need 10-20x that to fully fund development of the above.

If I switch to any of CommitCRM's competitors, I would have to pay that and more. I don't look at this software as an expense - it is an investment. It has measurable ROI - and that's what I want to maximize.

The EXPENSE, that I would like to avoid, is having to train 8 people on a new PSA platform and re-write our integrations with various vendor API's. That's a terrible waste of time, that could be avoided if Commit would raise their rates and scale their product accordingly.

I'm also aware that perhaps my long-term company objectives, and Commit's long term plans for their software may not mesh. ...and IF that is the case, I would like to be told that (or discover that for myself by reviewing their road-map) and move on sooner rather than later.

I'm not asking for a faster development cycle, necessarily. In fact, slower dev cylces and more fully developed features would suite me just fine.

Anyway, that's my .02 - again. :)

@rfbalmer, do you mind if I ask what the change request was?

@fbalmer - thanks for your feedback too. As we may have discussed by email, we do not do custom developments (whether for a fee or not) but rather only product related ones that everyone can use and benefit from, taking money for custom developments, even product related. Anyways, if there's anything open in regards to this please drop us an email so we can discuss this further. Thanks.

@lpopejoy - thank for your additional .02.

@lpopejoy - I requested Commit to add the ability to create a quote from the assets directly and offered to pay for it.

We sell software that is renewed on an annual basis. - About 650 licenses which translates into 650 quotes per year. I was looking for a way to stream line that process.

We would also be willing to contribute $5,000+ for a defined set of changes, plus entertain an increase in our annual maintenance fee to support more ongoing changes.

The CommitCRM product has a lot of good features. The support is great and really when you look at the release cycle it is relatively bug free.

That said, would the Commit folks be willing to entertain a discussion like this with CommitCRM users?

I feel there is genuine interest from some customers in helping and funding the growth of the product.

If the Commit team wants to continue on the same path I respect that decision however it would be beneficial for everyone to know what they are thinking on these issues.

@lpopejoy
@rfbalmer

I'm on the same page with you guys - we are always looking at streamlining workflow and have similar needs. Often times we get frustrated to the point of looking at other systems, but with ~3000 clients, its a hard switch to make.

@rfbalmer thanks. We appreciate your feedback and kind words.

RangerMSP is moving fast forward with plenty of enhancements with each release.

We get a lot of feedback and the number of ideas suggested by our users is very large (mmm, that's probably one of the benefits of having IT pros. as our users).

We tend to prioritize on features that will have the maximum effect, meaning, will help most users. Though, each release also includes stuff that may help a narrowed audience (like some suggestions suggested offered by forum members).

Many times different customers prioritize their requirements totally different. While @rfbalmer may really benefit from batch quoting idea implemented, it is possible that @lpopejoy will find it as a 'nice-to-have' feature, wanting other stuff implemented first.

From the posts above and some additional feedback we've received in other channels, it is clear that some of you require a specific feature sooner rather then later and are willing to pay for it.

Following this thread we plan consider opening the door to only a few (at least initially), carefully selected, offers to speed up the development on specific feature/s for a fee. Our selection process means that we will only accept a limited number of such offers, ones that we would have considered to include in the product at a later time anyhow (e.g. ones that may help many other users too). We will also verify that allocating the required resources will not have any effect on our plans for the following release at that time. Implemented correctly this may help in growing up the product even faster on some fronts.

Thanks!

@CommitCRM, sounds like a move in the right direction. I'm all ears!

Gentlemen (and ladies!), like you, I have a business to run and efficiencies are what make things profitable or not. I have also thought about asking Commit what it would cost to develop a feature but have not done much beyond the thinking phase.

I can’t imagine how many feature requests Commit gets on a monthly/yearly basis but I’m sure it’s a lot! The thing about this is that we have to be careful how we prioritize and “pay for” these features. While a lot of what lpopejoy has listed is in my list of “things we need”, e.g. custom contracts, rounding issues (really can’t believe this hasn’t been fixed yet), rich text, dashboard and reporting improvements, timesheets (we finally moved this out to toggl.com) etc., there are a number of items that are not important to us, such as improved quoting (our quotes are complicated and are done in a custom app). Others have requested tighter integration with google... I’m about as far from that feature request as you can get (I wouldn’t trust our company data or our client data in that cloud system to save my life). Ant this list goes on!

On my hopper of “things we need”; more fields and multi-select boxes for contacts (let’s actually make this a CRM product!), linking multiple assets to a ticket, better exchange integration, create another layer of management at the account/ticket level (duplicate the “account manager” field/functionality and call it “lead tech”), and a projects module, etc. Interspersed in all this are dozens and dozens of technical “tweaks”...

The issue with opening the door to having folks pay to fast track certain projects is that someone with a lot of $’s could simply railroad the product and make it less useful for the rest of us (meaning not a product that current or future purchasers would want, thereby causing the commit user base to implode) OR indefinitely push out features that are important to the majority. Imagine if I went to Commit and said “I’ll give you $100K to develop an inventory module that works with the Accpac accounting system” (...not that we use accpac). I’m guessing all development on other features would come to a screeching halt. What’s that? You don’t want a module to plug into accpac? So sorry... (!)

On the flip side of this, commit could slip into the model of “pay for feature”. How would you feel if every time you wanted something fixed, the vendor would come back to you and say “well that feature is going to cost you X, do you want to pay for it?”... that is not a good way to go.

What I’m suggesting is twofold:

1) Commit needs to create a better way to submit feature request. These feature requests need to show up in a list and commit users then need/get to vote on them. This would naturally bring the most requested (important) features to the top. In this voting system, it would be best if it was weighted on number of licenses in use/purchased.

2) Increase the cost of the product and add more developers to help accelerate product development. Yes, we see a lot of product advancements but the faster we get these features integrated, the more profitable we can be...

Thanks!

//ray

I'll toss in my few cents as well,
Better Timesheets, Currently I am using a hacked together report to generate payroll having my techs work on only one ticket at a time

send ics files when creating an appointment, then it can easily go into your calendar w/o syncing with Outlook/Exchange/Whatever

and...
Checklists in Tickets
New Computer Setup
1) open box - Done X
2) Plug in, does it Turn on Yes X No
3) Setup Windows

etc.

I can do it with Pre-defined text, but I would like to create an actual Checklist that hopefully would track when items are clicked. (back to accurate time reporting)

I'm with Raymond. It has to be handled very carefully. We are a software development company , not a normal IT company. I sell and support an ERP package that is written by a company that basically works for whoever pays the most. If a big sale comes in and they need x, it gets done. They are always chasing the buck. It's great if I need something done for one of my customers but the lead time on new generic features just blows out .
At the moment I would pay 500 bucks to get a tick box added to the new Quick Charge thing in tickets so I can tick it as unbillable . At the moment I have to reopen the ticket after using the quick charge. i would also donate a couple of K to make it so I can send a ticket to the tickets@mybusiness address and be able to do something like [AssignThisTech] and override the default. I would quite happily donate 3-5k to get the ability to have proper projects where I can do a ERP System install and have a heap of tickets under one big ticket and even tickets under tickets Contracts are pretty mush useless for me. (I can use them for software renewals but thats it) So as you can see, here is another guy will to toss 5k at things that save me time and my stuff is probably the least appealing. I don't have issues with reporting as we have or own PHP based reporting module for the ERP we wrote years aso and they both use ADS so we just write our own queries and do any charts etc in that.

+1

No make that +100!!!

I have mentioned in another post where a new CommitCRM user/customer was talking about being undecided about purchasing one of the CommitCRM modules and I told them chuck the money in the pot and help Commit finance the development and have also offered to pay for specific development but it has been turned down along the same lines of 'not everyone wants the same thing blah blah'

Really? 98% of everything I see on these forums we would very much want too/I would really like to 'see what you're seeing' from your customers that makes you respond/think this way

Some of them are just too obvious to even state yet I can see in these forums there are some VERY loyal customers who battle on regardless knowing this system could be and should be (way way) better

Yes as you (Commit) now know I too thought the Drone thing was 'real' but now feel a fool (haha) that it was an April fools joke!

But I was actually somewhat 'livid' when I saw it and was going to write a 'Moan About The Drone' post that how could Commit think this was at all important considering how many other things your customers are asking to get done and who's utter fantasy this was/no wonder they weren't fixing the small things if they were devoting dev time to this (for us) total waste of time - but thought better not to put Commit in a negative light for other customers that might see my post and not be so 'totally commited and on board' with Commit

(how loyal can your customers be!)

Commit - I wish my customers were telling me to raise my prices - I am in total and utter agreement with EVERYTHING that has been written above and we too are prepared to chuck money in the pot to get specific dev work done

We want Commit to succeed so WE can succeed - it is a no brainer WIN WIN situation

and yes.. the web portal - also a total embarrassment for us to send any customers there - I know Commit thinks it's 'great' but that is what worries me...!

(and yes as I have already said I am that desperate I am willing to try and learn the necessary to develop our own portal that is more inline with today's web portal offerings - fat chance of that ever happening I know but I am desperate and still willing to try!)

As stated - raise your prices (not mentally just realistically) and allow those that are willing to pay for specific improvements to discuss, agree and fund the development

(again how loyal and committed can your customers be!)

I am very much interested in the ummm 'super/elite ;) group of CommitCRM' users and I am sure that something could be setup to allow for those in the group interested in specific development to vote (ok ok I know that could just seem like it will become a mission to get to agreement etc.) on which they want doing/prioritise and agree on financial input etc. to get the job done

I hope this gets to the 'top dogs' at Commit and they see what their customers are literally on their knees begging for (OK I speak for ourselves here not necessarily others but am not ashamed to admit it!)

If only my customers were doing that - who knows perhaps they would be if I had a helpdesk system that rocked!

Thanks and please don't let this stall - your customers are being very open, honest and frank with you - you simply cannot ignore this please!

The biggest issue is we have no way of knowing or deciding where development dollars are spent.

We cant even vote for things and see how many other people want them. If i wanted something that nobody else did, and it didnt get developed, i wouldnt be upset. As it stands now I only have commit saying "thanks for your feedback"

Hello,

I am more of a silent reader on these forums - time often gets away from me so participating isn't something I'm able to do much. However, I just wanted to add some weight to this posting as well. Whilst we are very happy CommitCRM users, there is so much more this product could offer us in terms of efficiency drives. I agree with all of the OP's comments and suggestions - I have some more of my own - but most importantly, I just wanted to add to the list that I would be more than happy to pay more for Commit to get an improved development cycle. I feel we have plateaued with CommitCRM to a certain extent so would be keen to move it on.

Thanks - Lee

@lpopejoy hit the nail on the head with this post. I'd add a few things to their list:

1. Real Google Apps integration, schedule-able on the server side with tokens for each user so all users don't need their Commit open to sync calendars/contacts.

2. Mileage tracking - I can't keep track of mileage for customers easily now. Using a field that isn't automatically updated is a nightmare. There should be a special charge for mileage and travel time (customer preference on one way/round trip and whether mileage is billable). The distance should populate automatically based on account address with distance from Google Maps or something similar to the Employee entering the charge. There should be a global preference with the option to override on a per-account basis whether one-way, two-way travel time is billed and whether mileage is billed.

3. A GFI IdeaFactory style site for verified customers to submit feature requests for the Commit team to work on. GFI has realized their best ideas come from their paying customers. Commit likes to pretend they've learned that with some secret tally internally of features but when it comes to features they aren't comfortable with they just don't implement them or state they're not feasible or on a list. It's not to say I don't see improvement in other areas of the product, but that improvement should be drive by us, their customers. Making our votes for features private is nothing more than an attempt to curtain the development in the direction Commit wants to push it without having to really answer to us. See here for what I'm talking about: http://ideas.gfi.com/

4. Microsoft SQL Server for a back engine - the free SQL Server engine would cover 2/3 of the installs for Commit and allow us to have much faster speed while cutting out a large potential cost.

I agree with @lpopejoy that if development efforts were stepped up and a chunk of these items addressed (especially ones that get swept frequently under the rug like Google Apps), I would be willing to pay more for our subscription. Think about it this way - we could be paying $50 to $100/month for some of the cloud based alternatives. And while I'd like to see a balance between cost/price, I feel like the Commit price point may be low enough it ties one hand behind the development team's back. Even a 50% bump in costs and charging for these new features as additional add-ons would be entirely palatable for me.

I'd pay more. Just look at what other products charge. CommitCRM is crazy cheap.

Few hundred dollars a year vs a few thousand for other products. Big gap there. If it helped development, increase the price.

Agree with everything else that's been posted.

We would also be happy to pay more if it meant more improvements that were relevant to us (and the majority of those mentioned in the original post would be). A higher annual maintenance fee would make sense rather than increasing the initial purchase price.

An obvious way to prioritise development would be to expose feature requests publically in a more organised format than forum posts and have your customers vote for them. Would certainly make it easier for everyone to decide the features most important to them.

Has anyone recieved any feedback from Commit on this? Just curious. They said they may be interested in possibly doing somehting like this and wondered if they had reached out to anyone to get the process started.

Dont hold your breath.

I know they do hard work (look at the nice features they add) but they tend to do what they want.

The most I expect is the standard "We'll take XYZ into consideration."

yes to all of the above especially:
linking multiple assets to a ticket, better exchange integration, create another layer of management at the account/ticket level (duplicate the “account manager” field/functionality and call it “lead tech”), and a projects module, etc.

I concur with a lot of the above comments on usability and web-based "features".
Perhaps have an instant feedback button/link in the software, that as people are using it and find annoying things or think of suggestions, they can easily submit them within the software. Your team can capture these requests via database and filter the top 20 or whatever every quarter or year to develop and improve.
Going truly web-based would make it much easier in the field, etc and on phones, BUT the client-based version does have a lot lacking as well.

I'm not sure how much I am willing to spend, but instead of a few offering $5000 (which I am not willing to pay), perhaps 1000 or 2000 users getting something useful would each be willing to pay $500/year for a few extra few features.

It looks like Commit is raising costs and fees (they now seem to only offer monthly recurring software, instead of an outright buyout) and the support fee has increased as well. I love Commit, which is why I have stayed with it for so many years despite the shiny features in competing products (it has been hard to not move sometimes). We would really like to see some of the high-end features such as exchange/office365 integration, multiple technician & asset support in tickets, advanced contract management (automatic renewals) and monthly recurring tickets. Project management is also on the list, and advanced quoting (something more along the lines of quotewerks functionality within CommitCRM).

We would be willing to increase our yearly spend for support if it meant more features, and faster development.

Just my $0.02

I agree 100% with this. And exactly the same comments were made 5 years ago.

All the MSP stuff needs to be implemented, and quickly.

I'd also like to add a feature that has a register for items that need checking periodically with a simple report you can pass to staff each week to action. I'm thinking specifically about things like UPS battery replacements, every 2 years we replace the batteries in managed clients UPSs. I want to fire off a weekly report/checklist so these are actioned efficiently.

Web portal:
++ customizable dashboard with portlets based on raw SQL queries
++ reports based on raw SQL queries