Outlook Customer Manager is to retire, what replaces it?

I used to use OCM at work. We have grown from a small startup into a medium enterprise. We had to look for OCM replacement. Fortunately, there are plenty of CRM systems that you can test for free. Unfortunately, all the free CRM systems provide only some functions or modules. You actually cannot try all the version and see the way it wors in real life. Therefore we hade to look for a CRM embedded in Outlook that provides all the functions in a free trial already. One of our colleagues who used to have his own small company before he joined us used to work with eWay-CRM. It is a perfect tool for SME, embedded in Outlook and has its mobile app. We are very happy. And we tried it for free for the first month. Compared to other CRMs the subscription is really affordale. https://www.eway-crm.com/crm-integrated-with-outlook/https://www.eway-crm.com/crm-integrated-with-outlook/

Thank you Camilla, your response really pleased us. Honestly I work as a consultant for eWay-CRM. Once you have a business and need to manage your contacts, customers, projects, marketing etc. you definitelly DO need a CRM. Some CRM systems may suit your needs better. You have to test them!

We have just launched a new eWay-CRM 6.0 version thaa has all the necessary apps such as app for Outlook, mobile and web app. We are always improving our system and trying to make our customers as happy as possible. Our system is very flexible since you can use all the modules or just those that you need. At any time you can adjust the processes as you need.

We have several modules (Contact Management, Customer Management, Sales Management, Project Management, and Marketing Management that cover all the arfeas that OCM used to and add value to CRM services). You can use all of them or just those that you need at the moment.

As I have mentioned the basic version of eWay-CRM is for free.

Outlook CRM Software that will Help Boost your Sales | eWay-CRM (Outlook CRM Software that will Help Boost your Sales | eWay-CRM)

Best,

Jenny, eWay-CRM

OCM will not be replaced but Microsoft will recommend customers to use Nimble, https://www.nimble.com/ocm-migration/.  

I've just spent two full weeks evaluating Nimble, HubSpot, Apptivo, and ACT! None of them is very good, all are going to require extensive time to bring up to speed, and all cost quite a bit of money on a monthly basis. And, frankly, none of them are as good as Outlook 2010, with the Activities Tab and linked Contact field on tasks. They have been dumbing down Outlook since 2010 and it's maddening.

Nimble will not import active or legacy deals. Unless you are starting only with new deals from scratch, you will bang your head against the wall repeatedly over this point. HubSpot will import everything, but it will take multiple rounds of importing, after cleaning up in Excel, and you may still be unhappy with the results. I spent the most time on HubSpot but realized it doesn't let you do the ONE thing I really want out of any CRM, which is send an email to every prospect considering a project AT ONCE. At least, not without upgrading to a much higher service level that makes no sense for a company my size.

But the reason I wanted to respond to this thread is that at one point I actually got someone from Microsoft on the phone and he shared an interesting piece of information: He said they were dumbing down Outlook because they realized features like Activities and linking had value to customers and they wanted to move those customers to Microsoft's CRM. And he didn't with "Why are you so stupid?" tone of voice.

So, there you go. The reason they removed the Activities tab and other elements from Outlook so that they could sell you those features in Dynamics CRM.

I agree 100% with JoieH comment. Please advise....