Common Solutions

While Apptivo is made up of individual applications, which are covered below, a user will adopt the system in order to solve or supplement specific business processes. To do this, a customer will enable several applications that work together to form a solution.

Types of Solutions

The type of solution will depend on the customer’s business model, as well as the current needs & resources available in their company. Apptivo can support everything from a basic point solution (an application that solves a single group of problems ex. accounting solution), up to a comprehensive ERP solution (an application that solves problems across the entire business). The App Store allows a user to choose exactly which applications they need, and form their own solution. At any time, a user can add or remove applications from their solution.

Example Solutions

Here are the most popular basic solutions a user might start with. Each of the below items could be considered a “point solution”. In the next section, we’ll provide examples of more comprehensive solutions.

  1. Simple CRM (most commonly recommended)

      1. A company that is adopting their first piece of business software, and currently manages everything through spreadsheets. A basic CRM system is the first priority for any company who stores their customer list in a spreadsheet, or doesn’t have a customer list at all.
      2. A larger company who is planning to deploy a complete end-to-end solution, and has data residing in other systems. The migration process will be longer and more difficult, and it needs to be carefully planned alongside the other systems. Start off by migrating the existing customer/contact database, and moving all sales activities into Apptivo. Then build on the apps later in the flow post-sale.
  2. Simple Invoicing
      1. A company that is brand new, and does not have a current method to invoice customers. One of the first things they need to be able to perform is collect payment from their customers, which naturally leads into using Apptivo CRM as their customer database.
      2. A company who has multiple systems currently in place, but wants to move to an integrated platform. The company either has certain pain points in their accounting side, or they are simply happier with their other systems.
  3. Work Order Management
      1. A company who needs to dispatch their employees off to the customer’s location in order to deliver professional services/products. A business who currently has existing systems in place for sales/billing might want to start here. But this should not be completed first unless some CRM system is already in place.
  4. Project Management

      1. A professional service company who needs to manage various activities & tasks for their customers. This is a fairly common entry point, as the project management is relatively isolated from the CRM activities. Very common for companies to have existing systems for crm/billing, and only want project management to start.
      2. A professional service company who needs to track the hours and resources spent on their projects, and invoice the customer based on this time. The solution usually calls for simultaneous setup of the invoice system.
  5. Order & Warehouse Management
      1. A company who sells physical goods, and needs to manage the status of incoming orders, shipping the orders to the customer, and managing inventory. A company should not start here unless they already have a CRM & Billing systems in place. But it’s common for a company to have other systems for CRM/Billing, and start with Apptivo just for order management.

    6. Complete End-to-End Solutions

    Even if a business only wants to implement a basic solution to start, usually you want to have the end goal in mind, as far as how your complete Apptivo solution might look in the future.

    We have three primary “Lead to Invoice” solutions, which cover the entire process from managing their sales, closing deals, delivering the product/service, and billing the customer at the end. While the approach for which apps to use first might differ, in the end 90% of companies will fit into one of these three solutions:

    1. Product Sales Solution
        1. Company who sells physical goods
    2. Project Services Solution
        1. Company who sells professional services
    3. Service Delivery Solution
        1. Company who goes off-site and delivers labor and products together