iComplete is a UK-based contact management system that mainly focuses on telephony. It features a variety of popular CRM tools including email marketing, task management, virtual answering machine, email/SMS routing etc. Essentially, it’s designed to suit the business needs of SMBs and SMEs that primarily rely on voice calling, but also want to give their field staff real-time access to the centralized database.

Runner up in the DELL Computers Small-Business Excellence & Innovation Awards, iComplete is different from other CRMs in the market. Being a simple, fast and reliable software suite with powerful multiuser access, iComplete belongs to the new genre of CRM systems that bridge the gap between Call Center Software, CRM and e-Marketing. Unlike some other CRMs (e.g. Free CRM, Salesforce etc.) which merely integrate with 3rd party VoIP systems, iComplete has a comprehensive, built-in business telephony system.

However, while iComplete might be an exciting option for some companies, the odd pricing structure and geographic limitations make it a bit sour for the taste of others.

Quick overview

• Overall Rating: 71/100   (OR   7.1/10 )
• Free Trial: Yes (for 4 weeks)
• Ideal for: SMBs & SMEs focusing on telemarketing
• Training required: Basic level
• Users Limit: No
• Mass import/export: Yes
• Email marketing: Yes
• Lead Capturing: No

Background

iComplete was first launched in May, 2007 by a couple: Stuart Hibbert and Claire Hibbert. Stuart has been developing web-based applications (mainly eCommerce systems) since 2000, while Claire has managed her own small business for seven years.

Nearly all the CRM software are developed by software engineers, coders, or product managers, who have never sold anything. Resultantly, such software fail to meet the needs of the primary user-sales, while Claire’s experience in sales is a huge plus for iComplete over its competitors.

Getting started (3/5)

Signup is fairly easy, you’ve to fill a simple form and they send you an email with your credentials. So you can start managing your business in just a few minutes.
You can import the data into your iComplete, in CSV as well as vcard format. However, your database must be in a specific format to be imported properly.

Workspace (16/20)

The first thing that really impressed us was the ability to link one task to multiple contacts, whereas most other CRM systems allow you to link just one contact to a particular to-do item. Suppose if you’ve to make 10 phone calls, you can add just one task and add the names of the ten related persons/companies.

The software features a few necessary modules and each module offers several powerful options to manage different activities. All the little useful features like tags, starring system, notes, maps etc. are there to help you manage the CRM according to your specific business needs. You can call your contacts from within the system (provided you have the Phone Plan or Complete Plan), however, you can’t send them an email directly.

On the flip side, we noticed some minor glitches. After updating one contact, you must go back to the entire contact list, find and open another contact to edit it. Moreover, if you’re using Internet Explorer, switching between the menus might take a while and occasionally, the whole application might stop responding.

User interface (7/10)

The user interface is pretty decent, and with a bit of practice you’ll start using the application rather competently. But some features, especially the telephony system, might require some basic training. You can get this training simply by watching the video tutorials or by paying a small fee to get personalized training.

Though you can easily navigate through the application using the large buttons at the top, the overall interface gives a hint of ‘overpopulation’. This is mainly because the designers gave little consideration to the ‘power of white space’. For a business application, the use of so many colors is rather flashy and superfluous.

Price (5/10)

Here’s the pricing structure of iComplete:

• From £12 per month (CRM, Calendars, Tasks…)
• From £5 VoIP UK phone-lines / fax-lines
• From £15 per month Mobile SIM
• From £99 – £349 Quick-Starts

Extras

• Extra Users £8 / £5 calendar
• Additional VoIP numbers £5
• Auto-receptionist (IVR) £15 + £30 set-up
• SMS text messages 10 pence per message
• E-Marketing 1 pence per message

iComplete is offered as a combination of piecemeal features, with each different feature having extra charges per month. This can be a cost-effective CRM if you want to use certain features and don’t need the others. But if you want all the bits for unified communication, it gets costly.

Likewise, the application is ideal if you have only a few users as each additional user costs only £8. For companies with a large employee base, the charges are likely to rack up pretty quickly.

Integration with other apps (5/10)

iComplete offers data synchronization with Microsoft Outlook. What’s more, you can synchronize your iComplete calendar with Google Calendar and Mac Calendar, and your iComplete contacts with your mobile contacts. The vendor divulged that integration with social media portals including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook will be released by the next month. Hopefully, API options will also be available around May 2013.

Some integration options are in the pipeline, plus the company has focused more on adding built-in modules, which is good, but we wished the application to integrate with some 3rd party apps, especially accounting software, analytic system, and document editing software.

Customization (6/10)

You can’t add/remove your favorite modules to the dashboard, but the application can be customized in several different ways. You can specify the events that should appear on your dashboard, change the view of your contacts, and tailor the personal settings e.g. time zone, start of week, email alerts etc.

Mobile support (5/5)

iComplete goes one step ahead of other CRMs when it comes to mobile support. In addition to accessing your account from most smartphones (without any setup), iComplete lets you send SMS messages from your account to mobiles and synchronize contacts as well as calendar entries with your mobile device so that they are available offline. This synchronized data on your mobile can also act as a backup.

Scalability (5/10)

iComplete is designed to cater the needs of small businesses but apparently, there is no limit on adding users. As you add more users, the price chalks up so it’s not a recommended solution for larger setups.

Customer support (9/10)

You can contact the vendor to get quick reply to your queries via email, phone and fax, or right from your iComplete dashboard.

Backup and security (10/10)

Your data is backed up continuously and is encrypted using the standard 256-SSL encryption.

iComplete vs. CallProCRM

Since both the systems target telemarketing companies, some people try to equate iComplete with CallProCRM. Comparing these two is kinda like comparing ACT! with MS Dynamics CRM. Both products have their place in the market, but if you want a more comprehensive system, you’d choose MS. Similarly, CallProCRM offers more options, especially its email marketing system is pretty wide-ranging. Also, CallProCRM offers telephony services to users in the UK as well as the US, while iComplete is available to users in the UK only. On the flips side of the coin, iComplete has a simpler interface and is comparatively cheaper.

FEATURE LIST

Dashboard

The home screen that appears when you log into your iComplete account, is known as the ‘Dashboard’. It features a quick overview of the services, recent events, video tutorials and a summary of account usage.

On the dashboard, summary is the most useful feature as it contains details about outstanding tasks (yours as well as other team members’), how many new contacts are added, how many contacts were updated etc.

Contacts

With iComplete, managing your contacts is easy and fun. It features a central multi-user contact database to store clients, suppliers, company records and history, all in one place. Accessing, sharing and updating the data, is a matter of a few mouse clicks.

We really liked the rating feature that allows you to rank clients depending on any criterion of your choice. You can also tag contacts or group them, add notes, change view to list or grid or map etc., and even sort them based on your rating. The software has an impressive scheme for printing, searching and sorting the contacts.

To view the basic details (e.g. phone number, email, address etc.), simply hover the mouse over the contact’s name. To view complete details, click on the name and you’ll be able to view/add/delete/edit the contacts’ profile, notes, history, tasks and a lot more. The only major issue we noticed here is that, currently, there is no option to update multiple contacts simultaneously.

Calendar

It’s a simple yet all-encompassing calendar that allows you to view single or multiple diaries related to you and your team’s availability, events and schedules.

You can switch between different views, create calendars/events, print calendars or subscribe to other workers’ calendars. Click on a date, and events for that particular day will popup. Double click anywhere on the diary’s page, and you can add new events or tasks. To reschedule a to-do, all you need to do is drag and drop it to new time slot, it’s as simple as that.

In short, we really appreciate the powerful calendar which can be synchronized with the calendars in your mobile device or Google Account.

Tasks

Calendar as well as the task list of iComplete can be compared to that found in Infusionsoft, Salesforce, Constant Contact or any other topnotch CRM system.

You can perform several actions, e.g. adding, assigning, and sharing tasks with the rest of the team, with just two clicks. What we loved even more is the ability to add folders, so you can group and manage linked task quickly and efficiently.

Something that’s lacking here is the option to manage time based tasks and automatic billing. It’s something that we can see in CRM’s like Bluecamroo, where you can add an update and record the time spent on a particular task, which is rolled up to the related customer and the system will bill them on your behalf.

e-Marketing

Although iComplete is a call-centric CRM, it has a decent email marketing system where you can create and send campaigns to your contacts. It’s not as powerful as the one found in lead-centric CRMs like Intouch CRM or InfusionSoft etc. but again, iComplete is one of the few CRM solutions that come with powerful call center features as well as email marketing.

Files

This menu lets you create folders, upload/create files, mark certain items as favorite, view the history of a document and so on. The vendor has kept it really simple so, instead of getting lost in the frills, you can quickly process important information. Ironically, you can’t edit the file content and the iComplete doesn’t integrate with any of the online document editing application.

Phone

This is the most powerful feature of iComplete, however, at present it’s only available to the companies in the United Kingdom. Using a special SIM card, your workers can port their conversations as well as the associated details right into the contacts database without requiring any manual input. You can also avail SMS and Fax services.

Phone menu has three sub menus:

1. Mobile
   Here, you can learn how to send text messages from your accounts directly to your client’s cell phone for real-time communication. There is also a section that guides you to access your iComplete account from a mobile device or sync your CRM data with it.
2. Telecoms
   If you’re using the Phone plan or Complete plan, this section features business apps and phone lines in one place so you can accomplish your call center activities as well as CRM tasks from a single tab
3. Auto-receptionist
   Why hire a receptionist when you can have a vigilant machine do the job for you 24/7, for only 12 quid per month?
   This auto answering system works with integrated phones, mobiles, and voicemail boxes. It makes sure you never miss a single call and your customers are automatically routed to the desired person/department. Alternately, they can just leave a voice message so you can call them back.

Settings

It’s a popup menu that lets you customize your CRM, define global settings, and control the backend services.

Account

This menu has the details of your storage space usage, available credit, and expenditure on the service in real time. If you want to upgrade your plan or buy more services, this is the menu to hit.

Help

Help menu contains user guides, FAQs, video tutorials, and hints & tips to help you get the best out of your software.

Benefits of iComplete

• Powerful combination of telemarketing and email marketing with several other handy features
• Remembers Who said What to Whom, so you can efficiently track your team’s performance
• All the useful tiny functionalities e.g. tagging, starring, adding notes, etc. are available to make the software work according to your needs
• Neat, simple and fast user interface
• Unlimited custom fields
• Very helpful level of setup support, import your data etc.
• iComplete allows you to quickly identify what needs to happen next
• The dashboard gives a clear idea of where everyone is going each day
• You can see Call History even when mobiles are used (SIM)
• Impeccable mobile support allows you not only to access your account via mobile, but also to sync the data so that your contacts and calendars are available even when you’re not connected to the central database
• Extremely simple, yet customizable and fluid to use

Shortcomings of iComplete

• No reporting system and customer care module
• Importing contacts is a bit of hassle – it must be in a certain format as specified by the vendor or the fields will be  missed
• Can’t update multiple contacts and doesn’t move to next contact after viewing/editing one
• The application might slow down if you’re using Internet Explorer
• Pricing is only available in Pound Sterling
• The telephony is currently only available in the UK (though the vendor claims they’re in the process of extending it into other countries)
• Lacks user interface customization
• Doesn’t integration with other apps
• Pricing structure makes it an expensive choice if you have a large team

Final thoughts

If you run a telemarketing oriented small business (ideally in the United Kingdom) iComplete might be the all-in-one solution for you. For a fee, your whole team can get a one-on-one training session with a personal trainer to get them up to speed quickly.

Despite the concerns about their pricing plans, iComplete can be a viable solution depending on your business needs. For example, if you only have a few users, or the Phone Plan suffices your business needs, it can be much cheaper than its competitors. The good thing is that you can test the system absolutely free for up to 28 days, and see how it benefits your business.  There are reasons to like iComplete and there are reasons to dislike it, but you will surely love carrying out all your business activities from a single tab!