Bitrix24 CRM. Overview

I would like to start this article with some unexpected recognition. In fact, I almost never work with the Bitrix 24 CRM system. I usually offer my clients other CRM options, which, it seems to me, are more suitable in a particular case.

On the other hand, they find me, including in the articles where I write about CRM in principle, they also find me by the word “Bitrix”, which I often use, since talking about 1C and not talking about Bitrix is ​​almost unrealistic. As a result, from time to time I receive requests from customers to help them with the implementation and configuration of Bitrix 24 CRM.

Of course, I became interested in this system, studied it, and also implemented it with those customers who wanted to get this particular system. And now I would like to share my opinion and knowledge about Bitrix 24 CRM, consider its features, advantages, disadvantages, as well as the possibility of using such an automation system for small and medium-sized businesses, i.e. for those segments that I meet constantly in practice as a business consultant.

One of the reasons for the appearance of this article is the lack of information about Bitrix 24 CRM. When I tried to understand this system myself, I was faced with an information vacuum. There is a lot of information about Bitrix 24 on the Internet, but all of it is divided into advertising articles from the Bitrix company itself and similar advertising information from the company's partners, i.e. I have not found a single objective article, not a single review, which would include not only praise, but also criticism.

Then I went to the site and tried to practice studying the Bitrix 24 system, after which I helped several of my clients with its implementation. As a result, I gained knowledge about the features of the system, the experience of practical work with it, as well as the prevailing opinion about this system. Those. Everything you need to write a complete Bitrix 24 CRM review.

To all readers, among whom, I think, there will be Bitrix 24 fans and active critics of this system, I propose to consider the following when reading:

The information that I share is my personal practical experience, I talk about how I managed to test myself, what I encountered in practice. The opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of this system is also my personal and subjective, although it is also based on practical experience in implementing and further working with clients, business representatives, and directly with users of this system.

So, Bitrix 24 CRM is part of the Bitrix 24 system. And in order to understand what Bitrix CRM is, it is very important to understand what Bitrix 24 software is.

What is Bitrix 24?

Bitrix 24 is a huge corporate portal that tries to cover almost everything. It announced the functionality of social networks, projects, tasks, personnel management, and much more, including CRM.

You can independently study the Bitrix 24 website, where a huge number of different concepts are combined in one common system. I will not consider all of them here, as this is beyond the scope of the article. On the other hand, since Bitrix 24 CRM is part of a common software product, during the review I will from time to time touch on some other parts of the Bitrix 24 common system that are not related to CRM, but are necessary to understand its capabilities and features.

If you pay for CRM Bitrix 24, you buy almost all the features of Bitrix 24.

Those. you cannot buy a separate CRM system, it is part of the more global Bitrix 24 software product, which you are invited to use in the “clouds” on the basis of Saas payment or as a boxed solution.

Important: if you want to implement only a CRM-system, Bitrix 24 is not suitable for you. Because in this software product CRM is an integral part of the overall software product. And you will have to install (pay) not only CRM, but also other features, even if you are not going to use them.

If you do not know what CRM systems are, you can read about it, for example, in my article What are CRM systems and how to choose them correctly ? There I described in detail and in detail what capabilities these products have, what they are (from my point of view), who needs them and why. Therefore, I will not return to this topic here.

CRM Bitrix 24: Rates

Tariffs are the first thing that every user encounters when choosing a CRM system. And the first thing you need to decide is which of the Bitrix 24 options is right for you:

• work in the cloud;
• boxed solution.

Work in the cloud is the purchase of a Saas solution, while you pay for access to the system, and all work is done on the Bitrix 24 servers.

A boxed solution is an option to purchase a Stand-Alone software product, i.e. You are buying software to install on your own server.

You can see the rates on the official website of Bitrix 24.

As you can see, you can choose any of the rates, even free. It also includes CRM. Of course, we all understand that this is just a marketing ploy, and free CRM is such simply because it is an integral part of the system.

Therefore, it is important to remember that in fact you get not just CRM, but many other features, i.e. under the guise of CRM they sell you a giant corporate system.

Important: if you are interested in a free tariff, you need to remember that it is, say, shareware. You will have to pay for certain services even as part of a free package, for example, outgoing calls. And, most likely, in the end you will be forced to switch to a paid tariff. Where and what payments, and the "pitfalls" of Bitrix 24 hides from future customers, I will tell below.

And yet, you can register at any time, choose a free tariff and start using the system both for educational purposes and for real business.

CRM Bitrix: general information

To begin with, it’s important to understand, as I already said, CRM is installed as one of the components of the Bitrix 24 corporate system. Therefore, when you go to the user's workspace (in the “clouds” or on your server after installation), you don’t immediately get in a CRM environment, and you see the general portal tools. This is confusing and causes a lot of difficulties.

The environment that appears on the start page consists of the following components:

• My drive
• Сообщения
• The calendar
• Tasks
• Tape etc.

Thus, after entering the system, the user sees a list of functions that are not directly related to CRM. Yes, they are also needed under certain conditions, but for the user CRM are not the main tools.
As I already wrote, CRM is part of the Bitrix 24 global corporate system, and after installation the main system with all the features starts, and only then you can go directly to working with CRM. This approach has its pros and cons.

How is that good?

• You get a lot more than you planned.

In principle, all the marketing efforts of Bitrix 24 are aimed at this. The buyer understands that he received a lot more various tools than when buying separately CRM. And at first it is admirable.

Why is this bad?

• The presence of unnecessary tools complicate the navigation and user experience in the system.
• Additional features require certain resources, but they are not used.

For example, in due time very quickly unnecessary tools began to annoy me, which I cannot get rid of and which constantly catch my eye. I needed only CRM, i.e. sales. And I didn’t need a disk for storing files in Bitrix 24, nor the time control of employees, nor the control of my own time, nor many other functions.

I needed sales and customer service. In general, this is what CRM is usually installed for. And Bitrix offers a lot of everything, plus CRM. Those. software, interface, capabilities are aimed not only and not so much at sales, but at other functions that may be needed somewhere and very useful, but have nothing to do with CRM. The same inconvenience was also noted by my business clients, whom I introduced at their request Bitrix 24.

Such a wide range of features is good for those who sell the Bitrix 24 solution, since almost all functions require configuration, and this is an additional payment to the specialist. And for users, I think this list of features is not just not needed, but even interferes. Practice shows that the client (user) begins to scatter efforts, trying to master various opportunities. He begins to write messages, store files in the system, establish options for controlling the working time of employees. As a result, what the system was bought for (CRM) for, fades into the background, efforts are directed to anything but the main thing - sales.

And if the head of the company to explain why these or other functions are not needed is simple, then with employees it is much more difficult. All the same, they will stumble upon some opportunities, be distracted from work for the sake of messaging, and try to experiment with different functions. Those. during working hours in the CRM-system, they will be engaged in auxiliary processes, communicate, learn some system capabilities instead of concentrating on effective work.

Of course, an experienced specialist will be able to remove all unnecessary, but as a result, the customer pays for additional work. As a result, instead of buying a system with the necessary capabilities and using it, you buy a product with a huge number of obviously unnecessary features, and then pay the programmer to remove them.

This is the first thing to understand when you start working with Bitrix 24: there are a lot of things in it, but the interface is simply overloaded with features that are not directly related to CRM.

A few words about Bitrix 24 software

In this article, I have no goal to review the entire Bitrix 24 software package, for me the most important thing is CRM Bitrix 24. But, since you can only buy the whole product, CRM Bitrix 24 is not offered separately, I think it’s right to consider Bitrix 24 in whole.

While most CRM systems are small and easy-to-configure SAAS solutions, then Bitrix 24 is a whole portal. And for both the user and the administrator, there are a large number of functions that are not needed for working with CRM. For example, in Bitrix 24, an administrator gets access and configures things such as workflow, photo gallery, proactive defense, etc. As a result, the implementation process is also significantly complicated.

On the one hand, wide opportunities are powerful, interesting. On the other hand, it is difficult for both the user and the administrator.

It would seem that you can simply not use what is not needed. But at the time of implementation, it is very difficult to say what will be necessary and what is not. And if a person who is not an experienced specialist on the entire Bitrix 24 portal is engaged in implementation, then it becomes even more difficult to choose the right one.

For example, the proactive defense I mentioned above. If some kind of protection is offered, then is there any danger? Should I turn it on or not? Or workflow: customize or not? Will users work with him? It seems like it is not needed for the CRM-system, but the opportunity will be in sight, customers can start using it and as a result there will be a negative that “the program is not working”. And there are a lot of such issues during the setup process.

Bitrix 24 CRM Structure

Finally, let's get to work directly with Bitrix CRM. How does work in this system work?

The sequence of actions in sales usually looks as follows:

• Lead is registered. Those. a request is sent to the system about the desire to make a purchase. This request, as well as the contact details of a potential client are registered, and a notification is sent to the manager (in the system and / or by mail).
• A potential transaction is formed, on the basis of which you can create an account, you can send a commercial offer.
• After obtaining the consent of the client at the time of the sale or conclusion of the contract, a contact is created on the basis of the lead.
• For this contact, a sale is made out, shipping and payment are carried out.
• The deal is closing.

How is this implemented in Bitrix CRM?

Here is the so-called CRM workspace. And it has the following features:

• Lida In this case, the lead is a potential customer, i.e. the leader reflects the contacts of a person who is not yet your buyer, but has already shown a certain interest in your company and left you his contact information. Leads collect from landing page, from advertisements, from online stores, by phone.
• Contacts and Companies. The formed lead, which was accepted into the work, can be automatically converted to contact and / or to the Company.
• Potential deal. It is also created in the lead-based system or manually using a specific contact or company.

To create any of these forms - lead, contact, company - is not difficult. But there are also peculiarities here - these are additional fields that you can create for fixing the address, additional phone, any other data.

When creating an additional field besides the data type (string, number, date, etc.), you also need to choose qualities that have nothing to do with CRM:

• Binding to sections inf. blocks.
• Snap to infoblock elements.

What this is, users usually do not understand, and to work in CRM, these bindings, in fact, are not needed. But you need to choose these parameters, since you are using not just a CRM system, but a large Bitrix 24 portal.

It’s important to remember (and I already wrote about this above): everything about Bitrix 24, but it’s not required for Bitrix CRM, remains prominent. Those. the interface refers not only to CRM, but to a large portal, and therefore it is always overloaded.

The lead creation form itself, as well as its subsequent conversion, is simple and intuitive, but the place is not used sparingly, and the interface looks unbalanced.

Externally, the forms of Lead, Contact and Company are very simple and intuitive. Moreover, they look identical. The difference is in the name and in essence:

• Lead is the contacts of a person (organization) who has shown interest in your products.
• A contact is a person with whom a sales department is already working. Negotiates, resolves some organizational issues, etc.
• The company is, in fact, the same contact, but at the level of the organization (legal entity). Those. Contacts are company representatives. And if a contact is always a person, then a company is an organization that this contact (or even several contacts) represents.

Thus, negotiations, communication, discussion of all issues will be held with one or another contact, and the conclusion of the contract, invoicing, registration of sales and shipment - is carried out with the company. This difference needs to be known and understood.

Potential deal: design features

The deal in this CRM system is convenient and understandable to users. When creating it, we can, in addition to some arbitrary fields, add goods directly to this document. This feature is not provided in every CRM system.
In Bitrix 24, you can create a Transaction in the process of communicating with the company and record in it what goods were offered and at what price. It is important not to confuse the Transaction and the Account. Accounts are issued separately, moreover, they can be generated on the basis of the Transaction, and not just created manually. And in the transaction all agreements are preliminarily fixed: goods, volumes, prices.

Note. I consider the presence in the system of both Transactions and Accounts as duplication in the chain. Transaction is enough to fix the agreements, this is a logical and understandable approach to the employees of any company. And accounts, which still have to be created manually, are best arranged in 1C or another accounting system that you use. Perhaps my opinion is controversial, but practice shows that very many work according to the scheme I have described, and therefore such an approach would be relevant for business.

Suggestion: what is it?

In addition to transactions, accounts, leads, contacts and companies, there is another interesting document in Bitrix CRM - this is the Offer. This document is a form of commercial offer, where you can also list all goods and prices. In principle, the offer largely duplicates Accounts and Transactions. There are some differences (mainly in the “header” and printed form of the document), but otherwise the document looks exactly the same as the Transaction and the Account.

Note. From my point of view, the appearance of yet another document for offering goods and services to a client is more likely to interfere and add confusion than helps the company’s employees. Moreover, it seems that the number of documents was increased artificially, simply because the creators thought that there were too few of them. At the same time, there is no systematic approach and thoughtful interaction between these documents.

Let me remind you that my opinion is based on practice. And in the process of implementation, I noticed that almost all customers refuse Proposals, draw up all actions in Transactions, and further financial and other types of documents are executed in 1C. People try to simplify their work, and therefore use the minimum necessary set of documents in CRM.

Reports

Reports are an important part in any CRM system. Successful sales largely depend on the timely monitoring of the work of managers, which is usually based on reports.

In CRM, Bitrix reports, in my opinion, turned out to be one of the weakest points. The list of ready-made reports is very small, most of them are uninformative. There is also a report designer that is designed to create your own reporting options, but it is also very limited in terms of capabilities. Due to the limited list of settings, the new reports will largely duplicate the standard ones, and the possibility of introducing serious analytics into Bitrix CRM is not provided.

Sales funnel

A sales funnel is a report that is even delivered separately in the system menu, since it is most in demand in the current work of any sales department.

A sales funnel is a certain diagram that shows the dynamics and percentage of transactions by status: from those that are in the final stage (sale) to those that are still in the very first initial stage (lead, first calls received).

The report was also designed neatly, informatively, although the flexibility of the settings for this report is also lacking, and the tinctures here are poorly implemented. However, this report is standard, and it’s difficult to come up with something special in it.

Commodity base

Bitrix CRM has its own database of goods and services that can subsequently be used in Transactions, Accounts and Offers. The implementation of the product base is convenient, in many ways similar to the implementation of Leads, Contacts and Clients, i.e. There are also required and custom fields, which is convenient for working with different types of goods and services.

I consider such a base a good solution. Nevertheless, filling out the list of goods once and then using it is really fast and familiar for most companies.

Important! Remember that when working with goods it is important to see not just the standard list of items, but the goods on stocks, reserved goods ordered by the supplier, missing. This data is not available in Bitrix CRM. And therefore, the commodity base of the CRM system makes sense to use for fixing customer requests (wishes). And write out invoices and other documents already in the accounting system that you use, where exactly there are all balances, reserves, current prices, etc.

For example, a customer’s invoice is usually issued on the basis of the 1C Order document, which necessarily reserves the goods in the warehouse for the customer. And if you write out the same account in CRM, the goods will not be reserved, and you will constantly have overlays with goods balances (you will receive payment for goods that are not in stock).

My affairs

In the My Affairs section is a history of all user interactions. Here are all incoming calls, tasks from the management, current tasks for working with clients, etc. At the same time, it is not clear how My affairs differ from the Tasks section, which exists in the Bitrix 24 common system.

Therefore, questions arise and confusion arises: why “My affairs”? How are they different from Tasks? Perhaps this section would most accurately be called the history of interactions, but such a long name would not fit on the menu. True, this is my opinion, and why the creators of Bitrix 24 made a choice in favor of such a name, only they know.

Tape and Desktop

These elements belong to the common Bitrix portal and also do not contribute to the simplicity and clarity of the perception of the system.
The desktop is an analogue of the desktop of a computer, where various desktop icons are also present.

A feed is a list of all events that are related to the actions and tasks of a client. It seems like the function is useful, but it is implemented somewhat strange. So, on my pretty big screen (24 inches) only 2 events fit.

Of course, all these things are customizable. But to configure the user will need to call an administrator, and, it is important that this administrator is well versed in Bitrix 24, and that’s all - additional costs.

In general, the workspace in Bitrix 24 is rather poorly organized: it is ill-conceived and largely uncomfortable. Few fields fit side by side, often you have to use scrolling. For example, a notification that a business day is not completed takes up unacceptably much space. This is especially important if you work on a small monitor.

Note. I consider the interface of the Bitrix 24 system to be incomplete, unbalanced, it often has to be configured separately after purchase.

I believe that in any interface, the basic functions should be configured by default so that the information is conveniently readable even on a small tablet monitor. After all, you are buying a finished product, and, logically, you should not pay extra for setting up such functions.

Why are interface settings so important? Because, the more information you receive at the same time (when looking at the screen), the faster you can make a decision. If you constantly have to rewind, scroll, then on the 2-3 screen you will begin to forget what was on the first, you will have to go back, check, etc.
Therefore, by default, any interface should be as informative as possible, but at the same time, all elements should be located conveniently, and fonts should be easy to read.

Creation of business processes

Creating and developing business processes in any CRM system is always a difficult task. It is important to think over a chain of actions and create a sequence of tasks. For example, after receiving a lead, the manager should receive the “call the customer” task, and after the call, fix the agreement in CRM, etc.

In CRM Bitrix, creating such a chain is very difficult, first of all, from a technical point of view. There is a constructor with which you can create this or that business process. But it is very complex, overloaded with various features and is configured, rather, to work in the common Bitrix 24 system, and not in Bitrix CRM. As a result, without a programmer, it is most likely impossible to create a business process in this constructor.

Telephony in CRM Bitrix 24

Telephony in Bitrix 24 is a separate concept, it is even indicated separately in the tariff network. But with the CRM component, Bitrix telephony works without problems.

It also has its own characteristics:

• All telephony works only through the browser. Those. in order to record an incoming or outgoing call, you will need to connect to the browser through the headset. Even if you have some kind of SIP-handsets or PBX, you can not use all the features at the same time. Either the benefits of your telephony option, or working with CRM.
• All outgoing calls, regardless of where they are made, even inside the office with a PBX, are paid to CRM-Bitrix. Thus, you will pay twice for an outgoing phone call: to your telephone operator and Bitrix CRM system.
• Integration with the PBX in Bitrix telephony is really present. But there is such a feature: for this integration to work fully, and you could use call forwarding and other technical advantages of PBXs along with Bitrix, you will need all the employees who work with the phone to connect Bitrix to the CRM system. Those. You will have to connect to Bitrix not only the sales department and manager, but also the secretary, accounting, warehouse, etc. etc. Let me remind you that when connecting to the system more than 12 people, you will need to pay for an extended package of services.
• Call forwarding outside the Bitrix system is not possible. Those. Switching the call to another specialist by conventional methods will not work. Firstly, you will not work with a telephone, but with a headset. Secondly, for such a redirection, it is necessary for the employee to also work in Bitrix CRM. An alternative is to make an outgoing call to the landline or mobile phone of the desired employee, but this option will be paid, as well as all outgoing calls.

How is this inconvenient? Firstly, you will not be able to take advantage of the Bitrix CRM and SIP handsets at the same time. So, in some other CRM systems, SIP telephony is first triggered, and only after the employee picks up the phone, the CRM system is connected, which records the number and the duration of the call. Further, it will be possible to add some information to the record of the held call, and it will be possible to consider the call as fixed. Here the call is intercepted immediately, and completely passes through the CRM system.

All telephony in Bitrix is ​​implemented through VoxImplant. Regardless of what services and types of telephony you use in the office, you will have to connect through this module. The developers believe that such an implementation option is most convenient both for the financial side of the issue and for fixing all calls.

Integration of Bitrix 24 CRM with other systems

Integration of Bitrix 24 CRM with other systems is a problematic process. For example, a module for automating the collection of leads from sites does not exist, i.e. you cannot quickly and simply organize the sending of information from a form on a site to the Bitrix 24 CRM system.

In this system, in order to receive 24 leads from sites in CRM Bitrix, it is necessary for your site to send information from the order form to the Bitrix 24 portal. Otherwise, the collection of information in this CRM does not work.

If your provider offers you a ready-made boxed solution from Bitrix, or if you yourself bought a boxed solution from this company, then the integration will be simple and quick. But if you use the site on any other CMS, you will have to write a special form for sending data to your Bitrix portal server, which is technically quite difficult and not always possible in principle.

Telephony, which integrates with Bitrix 24 CRM, is also very functionally overloaded. Even if you are viewing information about a missed call, you have an online chat window next to the number. In this system, you can’t limit yourself to just calls, everywhere you can chat between subscribers, between employees, exchange files, video calls, etc. etc. As practice shows, medium and small businesses prefer to use standard solutions, such as Skype, for all these functions. A CRM system is needed to capture calls and leads from customers and subsequent work with them.

The API in this system is good, but the description of the system, as well as the features of its integration is very modest, there is very little information on the API. There are not enough examples of how to use the API, there are not enough scripts, and there is little useful practical information. If you need to figure out how a particular script will work, how to integrate, you will have to look for answers to your questions on forums and websites of different programmers.

To summarize

The Bitrix 24 system is designed primarily for large businesses. This is a large multi-functional portal, closed on itself. When buying CRM Bitrix, you do not choose a CRM system, but a huge portal with a huge number of features, which, among others, includes a CRM system.

Personally, I do not recommend CRM Bitrix 24 for small and medium-sized businesses because of the combination of a large list of unnecessary features with the complexity of configuration and maintenance.

My experience shows that Bitrix CRM cannot be done without the help of a specialist, while many other CRM users can simply buy and start working “out of the box” or “clouds” without the help of a programmer (or with minimal help at the initial stage) .

Therefore, if you have an experienced programmer who is familiar with Bitrix 24 and is ready to engage in its configuration and maintenance, then it is entirely possible that this CRM option will suit you. If you do not have such a specialist, then buying a CRM Bitrix 24 will be a waste of money, because in the end the software product will be among the other “boxes” that settled on the shelf because of complexity and lack of demand.

Let me remind you again, since this is very important: Bitrix 24 is not a CRM system, it is a powerful portal designed for large businesses, which, among other things, includes a small and not the most convenient of all possible CRM systems.

Personally, I recommend choosing simpler options that can be quickly configured, but in which all functions are aimed at sales: actions, control, analysis. Those. I recommend to my clients to opt for CRM-systems that are not overloaded with unnecessary functionality.