EQMS Lite 2013 (Free Edition)

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on January 17, 2012

Customer relationship management is so important in business that it's usually just called "CRM." EQMS 2012 Lite is a free sales CRM solution optimized for sales executives, especially for individuals and small and microbusinesses. It's a simplified free version of a CRM system that is also available in a range of premium applications. EQMS 2012 Lite helps sales managers track leads, follow-ups, and closures. It keeps contacts current, captures a wide range of information, measures sales performance, analyzes data, and generates reports. Centralized data management makes it easy to find all the information you need.

The EQMS Startup Wizard's Product Details page lets users enter information about their product line, if any, or click Skip to move on to Follow-up Type Details. Clicking Finish opened the main interface, which is plain but efficient and businesslike. The program's file menu entries are a bit different from other programs, but they do a great job of intuitively instructing the user. For instance, the first menu, My, has submenus titled Enquiry/Lead, Follow-up, Closure, and Report, each of which calls up a clearly labeled data entry sheet capturing a wide variety of details. Under the next menu, Master, we found the global settings for Parameter (Walk-in, Seminar, Existing Customer, etc.) and Product Details for editing. Under the Admin menu, we could back up and restore data, including configuring a backup device and path. The Help menu accessed not only the Quick Start guide but also online help, documentation, and more.

We found it very easy to enter, save, and recall a variety of contact and sales data in EQMS 2012 Lite, and it's easy to see how it could make a sales executive's busy life easier, though of course, as with any such software, you have to enter the data, and keep entering it as you do business. The freeware Lite edition has everything most users will need, but EQMS is available in a range of versions that add features and capabilities to suit a wide range of users' needs. This easy-to-use free tool is a great introduction to EQMS that doesn't require a big commitment in time or money.