FollowUp Personal CRM – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
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Version #: 1.2
Date Released: 2009-03-13
Developer: FollowUp - Personal CRM
Price: 4.99
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A friend once quoted someone who was quoting someone else who say that the best organizational system is is the one you actually use and stick with. Dimitri fell for Highrise when I show i to him a few months back and he is sticking with it. It is the "best organizational system for him". I’m still looking for mine.
That’s why FollowUp intrigued me. A huge number of my daily tasks include following up with people. Too often, however,those tasks get buried beneath an avalanche of other tasks. The result is never good. FollowUp is, at its most basic level, a task management app that focusses ONLY on tasks that involved interacting with others. "Maybe that would be a good approach", I thought to myself. After checking it out it is clear It definitely has huge potential as a super useful app. It is, at least for me, not quite there.
When you start the app it offers a clean, simple, interface.
The first step is to add a "conversation". You can import all your contacts (I didn’t since my 2200 slow even a quick app down),a single existing contact or create new contact.
That done, you tap the + symbol to add note on a conversation and a followup date.
That’s it. When you return to the home screen it now shows you those contacts within whom you have been.. um, IN CONTACT and when you need to follow up with a call, email etc.
The app has some nice features hidden away with the most significant being that it integrates with the native address book. This means that when you see the need to follow up with someone you can simply tap their name to get direct access to their email address or phone numbers. It is simple, it is quick and it lets you immediately review prior interactions before making the call or sending the email. You can also email the conversation to yourself. And it does all of this for a one time fee of $4.99. Compare that to any CRM service and you see that that is a fraction of their monthly recurring cost.
There are, unfortunately, some downsides. The biggest is the fact that the only option for backing-up and safeguarding information is to email each individual conversation.
You CAN do it but if you are really using the app it will quickly become rather cumbersome. In addition, there is no way to share the information with two devices. I would love to be ale to use the same set of data on both my iPhone and Touch (yes, I know I am in the minority in that I use both) and, more importantly, input information on my Mac and have it shared with the iPhone app. These are, however, small, potentially complicating, gripes in an app whose appeal, to a large extent, is its simplicity.
Quick Take
Value: Medium. There are apps that integrate with Toodledo for the same price and offer much more funcitonaliy and flexibility.
Would I Buy Again: Perhaps. I’m going to try it for a bit longer but I think I might just use the same system with one of my Todledo apps.
Learning Curve: Low. That is one of the app’s attractions
Who Is It For: Someone who needs to be on top of following up with numbers people or companies but doesn’t want to shell out HUNDREDS for a CRM service
What I Like: Simple to use, straightforward, integrates with Address Book
What I Don’t: No backup or sync functionality
Final Statement: A good system if it is what you need and you will actually use it.
O U R T A K E . . .
