Nanya Srivastava
December, 2014
Retirement is not for everyone, realized Peter Bowen soon after quitting the ad-agency he had owned and operated in Toronto. He got bored; and out of that boredom emerged a wish and a will to start a company. Thus, First One On was born in 2010. Here, Bowen and a group of contractors provide a broad range of search and website marketing strategies, and mobile application development.
Bowen had earlier used SugarCRM to keep his sales pipeline organized and thought it would suffice. But to his dismay, it just wouldn't let him do what he wanted, which was simply to log emails against clients.
"I used a computer-based system, and I suppose Sugar was okay. But it was way too clunky and wasn't mobile, so I simply couldn't stick with it. A friend of mine had Infusion Soft and he said that it was the greatest thing. But it was overpriced for a little company like mine," says Bowen.
“From my previous business experience, I knew that if you are to be successful as a small business, you need to manage lots and lots of data, contacts, names, leads, phone numbers, emails etc. in an efficient way. For me, it was vital that the CRM be web-based. I wanted to be able to access my client information anywhere, without having to download any software. It was also important that the CRM be easy-to-use and 'lite',” says Bowen, "Lastly, as a small business, price was very important.”
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