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FreeCRM Adds Predictive-Dialing Feature by Elizabeth Millard

FreeCRM.com has unveiled a predictive-dialer feature, which allows salespeople to automate outbound calls using an existing phone setup and the company's CRM system.

The dialer lets sales agents increase calling efficiency by 200 percent, the company claims, because it works with phone lines that are already in place. In launching the feature, the company also noted that it has passed a significant milestone in garnering over 21,000 customers.

The company noted that, by comparison, Salesforce.com has 16,900 customers, making FreeCRM.com the world's largest on-demand CRM application services provider.

Free and Easy
Founded in 2003, FreeCRM.com had 9,000 customers in its first year. Since then, the company has been focused on wooing users of competing systems to FreeCRM through the use of extensive data-migration services.

Especially targeted for migration have been customers of SalesForce.com, Siebel OnDemand, SalesNet, and GoldMine.

The company also has been eager to tout its guaranteed uptime and availability stats, noting that it has a 99.9 percent uptime record.

Small Wonder
The free version of FreeCRM's product only allows 10 MB of space, and users must upgrade to the paid version after that point. But even with that limitation, the system still is very effective for small businesses that want to try out CRM without taking a hit to the budget, said FreeCRM chief executive Eric Stone.

"Small and midsize businesses have been eager for this kind of technology, but cost has always been a sticking point," said Stone. "We felt that if the barrier to access is low, it would really spur adoption."

The recent milestone is an indication that the company's strategy is working, he added. Also, because of the way the system is designed, there are no plans to yank the "free" from its CRM offering anytime soon.

"Our infrastructure and approach to scalability allows for extremely low per-user costs," said Stone. "That puts us ahead of the competition and we think it will continue to give us a lead in the market."