Are you looking for a solution that allows you to simplify the management of your company and speed up communications with customers and collaborators? Tell me, have you ever thought about a CRM ? If you’ve never heard of them, CRMs (acronym for “Customer Relationship Management”) are software solutions that include a series of applications aimed at analyzing, managing and optimizing of work in the company. There are several solutions of this type, both free and paid, both distributed as classic software to be installed on the computer and based on the cloud: among these, one of the most valid is certainly Bitrix24 .
Bitrix24, which is currently used by over 10 million companies worldwide, is a cloud-based CRM (also available as an application for computers, smartphones and tablets) which includes everything that could be used to manage and optimize work in the company: not only the typical CRM tools, but also a project manager, an integrated communication platform with social media and chat, a website builder to build your own sites easily, a contact center to manage communications with customers and integration with many external platforms, for the automatic import of offers and information; all accessible via a convenient interface completely translated into Italian and at no cost.
Yes, you read right! Bitrix24 provides a free plan which includes support for 12 users, 5GB of cloud space for storing your data, tools for managing invoices and offers, detailed reports, integration with social networks, support for Messenger ( to quickly communicate with customers), over 30 tools for collaborating with your workgroup, advanced project management tools and much more. And for those who want more, paid plans are available to suit all budgets and needs. So, what do you think? Would you like to know more and find out, in detail, how Bitrix24 works ? Yup? Very good! Then read on: below you will find my review of the service with all the details of the case.
Index
- Bitrix24 plans
- Tools included in Bitrix24
- How Bitrix24 works
- How to register at Bitrix24
- How to use the Bitrix24 CRM
- How to use Bitrix24 on smartphones and tablets
- For more information
IMPORTANT: given the health situation in Italy due to COVID-19, the Bitrix24 team has decided to make the number of users in the free Cloud plan unlimited, in order to facilitate remote working.
Bitrix24 plans
Before getting to the heart of the guide and explaining how Bitrix24 works , I think it might be useful for you to know the various plans available for using the service.
- Free (gratis)– for start-up companies. It supports an unlimited number of users, includes 5GB of cloud storage and the basic version of CRM, Tasks and projects, Communications, Websites, Online store and Contact center tools.
- Basic (49 euros/month billed annually or 61 euros/month)– for small teams and growing companies. It supports 5 users, includes 24GB of cloud storage and the basic version of CRM tools, Tasks and projects, Websites, Online store and Contact center with lower limits than the Free plan. Provides access to billing system and telephony.
- Standard (99 euros/month with annual billing or 124 euros/month)– for companies that need complete software. It supports 50 users. Includes the same features as the Basic plan, but with 100GB of cloud storage and an advanced version of all tools. It also offers an online document management system.
- Professional (199 euros/month with annual billing or 249 euros/month)– for companies that need a complete and advanced CRM. It supports 100 users. It includes 1024GB of cloud storage space, the advanced version of all tools, administration tools, but above all sales intelligence and automation tools.
- Enterprise (starting from 399 euros/month with annual billing or from 499 euros/month)– for large companies that need a suite of advanced and innovative tools. In addition to all the tools and features found on the lower tier plans, it offers multi-branch management. Furthermore, it is available for between 250 and 10,000 users and the available storage space varies between 3TB and 100TB.
All the plans mentioned are available as a free trial for 15 days and also in a quarterly, half-yearly and biennial version. To find out the prices and all the features in detail, I invite you to consult the comparative table on the Bitrix24 website .
I also point out that Bitrix24 On-Premise plans are available, to install the CRM on your own space (self-hosted): Business , with support for 50, 100, 250 or 500 users, starting from 2,990 euros, and Enterprise , with support for 1,000 or 5,000, starting at €24,990. More info here .
Tools included in Bitrix24
As already mentioned, Bitrix24 includes many tools for managing customers, assignments and projects, assistance, internal communications and e-commerce. I would say, therefore, to analyze them in more detail and find out how they are composed.
- CRM– includes sales pipeline management with unlimited pipelines; lead generation, acquisition and qualification tools; unlimited quotes and invoices; sales automation; email marketing tools; Multi-channel Contact Center and Helpdesk at customer service; complete product catalog and support for online payments via PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, Skrill and other systems.
- Communications– includes chat and video functions for real-time team communication; private, shared, and group calendars with scheduling and invites; the Social Intranet (a sort of private social network for your team); email management (to plan jobs, appointments and assignments); document management (to store and share files easily); workgroups and HR system for human resource management and HR tools.
- Tasks and Projects– includes printable Gantt charts and visual project management; workload management; customizable Kanban board for tasks and projects; time management (both automatic and manual with attendance tracking) and assignment dependencies (with four types of assignments: FF, SS, FS and SF); automatic creation of recurring tasks and task templates; the Project Workgroup, to manage projects, and support for collaborations from members outside the team.
- Contact Center– includes contact tools via social networks, telephone, live chat, email, Messenger and contact forms.
- Websites– includes tools to create websites using a visual editor, with the possibility to choose from many predefined templates (no coding required). Free hosting, unlimited bandwidth and free third-level domain are provided (alternatively you can use your own domain). There is also mobile and e-commerce support.
Furthermore, I want to underline that Bitrix24 is the first proactive CRM , which allows sales representatives to drive the offer towards a positive outcome and, consequently, to sell. In fact, through a number of useful features ( daily activities , reminders for activities in offers , counters for incoming and urgent activities and counters for employees ) the system helps sales representatives to prioritize offers and remind them of activities planned and unfinished within the CRM to prompt them to take action.
Entrepreneurs/Sales Managers, on the other hand, have the ability to monitor sales rep activity and plans by simply looking at their sales meters, eliminating the need to request complex reports.
For more information, I invite you to consult the Bitrix24 official website , where you can find the complete list of tools and functions offered by the service.
How Bitrix24 works
At this point, I’d say get to the heart of the guide and find out, in detail, how the Bitrix24 CRM works : you’ll find everything explained below, from registering to using the various features offered by the service.
How to register at Bitrix24
The first step you need to take to use Bitrix24 is to register for the service for free. Connect, therefore, to the Bitrix24 main page and click on the Register for free button .
Subsequently, fill out the form that is proposed to you with your email address or your telephone number , choose whether to receive information on product updates and special offers and/or training materials , by ticking the appropriate boxes, and click on the Register for free button , to move forward. If you prefer, you can also log in through your Facebook , Google , Office , Microsoft Live or Twitter accounts by clicking on the appropriate icons above.
At this point, access your e-mail box, open the message received from Bitrix24 and click on the button to confirm your e-mail that you find inside, in order to return to the Bitrix24 site and set the password necessary to access to your account.
Once the password is set, adjust the privacy settings , choosing whether to be visible or invisible to other companies in the Bitrix24 chat search results; then press the Save button and indicate which tool you intend to use most frequently in Bitrix24, including CRM , Assignments and projects , Communications and Sites . You will then be offered a quick initial tutorial to learn the main features of the CRM.
Mission accomplished! You have now registered with Bitrix24 and are ready to manage your business using the many tools made available by the service. Now I’ll tell you about it in more detail.
How to use the Bitrix24 CRM
As previously pointed out, Bitrix24 has an extremely intuitive user interface that is completely translated into Italian.
At the top left there is the ☰ button which, if clicked, allows you to view the main menu of the service, where there are links to access CRM , Marketing CRM , CRM Analysis , Sales Intelligence , Assignments , Webmail , Sales Center Online stores , Sites , Contact Centers and much more. Furthermore, by clicking on Configure menu it is possible to customize the menu in question ( Configure menu items ) and change the primary instrument set in Bitrix24 during the initial configuration.
At the top center, on the other hand, there is the search bar , for finding people, documents and other information, while at the top right, there is the account management menu , through which you can manage your profile , themes , Bitrix24.Network page , notifications and upgrade your plan . On the right, then, there is a toolbar with various icons in columns: (?) , to access Bitrix24 support ; the bell , to view notifications; the magnifying glass , to search for employees and chats; (24), to open the general chat and, at the bottom right, the handset , to make calls.
That said, to access the Bitrix24 CRM , all you have to do is select the appropriate item from the side menu. You will thus find yourself in front of a screen with the display of all the offers in progress. The screen is composed as follows: in the center there are the offers and at the top the Filter and search bar , through which you can filter the offers to be displayed (e.g. those in progress, those belonging to a specific group or which have reached a specific stage ); continuing on the right there is the gear icon , which allows you to import/export the CRM presets, modify the display settings and change the CRM mode (choice between Simple, where incoming emails, calls, inquiries and chats immediately become offers and/or leads, and Classic , where incoming inquiries are transformed into leads and then the sales team attempts to convert the leads into offers and contacts), and the Add button , to add a new offer using a special form.
Once an offer has been created using the Add button , you can manage all the activities connected to it using the boxes on the right. For example, you can add a comment , schedule a call , send an email , manage tasks and meetings and much more.
Furthermore, you can add the related products , quotes , invoices and orders , using the appropriate tabs located at the top. Again through the tabs located at the top, you can also view dependencies and history and manage the applications available in the CRM.
By closing the offer through the appropriate item located at the top left, the Proactive CRM Reminders window will automatically appear on the screen , through which you can create a new activity that will help you stay in touch with the customer and possibly guide the offer towards a positive outcome.
Then enter the description of the activity in the appropriate field, specify the date and time in which to receive the reminder relating to the activity you are creating and press the Save button . I point out that you can also create new activities directly from the offer screen, by clicking on the item Add a new activity .
But let’s go back to the main CRM screen, where you can choose between three different visualization styles using the menu located at the top right: Kanban , ideal for moving the offers to the various stages of the funnel (i.e. the process that takes the consumer from product discovery upon purchase); List , ideal for estimating sales and offers, and Calendar , for having a chronological overview of offers.
The Kanban view is the most flexible, so I suggest you start with that, which allows you to set up various columns relating to the various stages of the funnel. To create a column, all you have to do is move the mouse pointer over the title of the column preceding the one you wish to generate and press the (+) button , which appears on the screen.
To change the title or delete a column, however, you must move the mouse pointer over its title and press the pencil icon that appears on the screen. In each column you can add a new quick offer , by clicking on the + button and filling out the form that is proposed to you with all the necessary information: name , amount and currency , contact , company and so on. To save everything, click on the Save button located at the bottom left.
I would also like to point out the possibility of creating offers automatically from the communication channels configured in the Contact Center (e.g. live chat, calls, email or Messenger). To configure the Contact Center channels, click on the appropriate box in the first column of the offers or on the Contact Center item located in the left sidebar.
A page will open with the list of available contact channels, such as Mail , Telephony , Website Widgets , Facebook Announcements , Live Chat , WhatsApp and Telegram . Click, therefore, on the channel of your interest and connect it to your accounts, so that you can use it in the CRM.
Going more specifically, it is possible to associate an email account , then having the opportunity to access your email box directly from Bitrix24 (by selecting the Webmail item from the left sidebar); a telephone number ; the widget of an Internet site ; the form of an Internet site ; a Facebook Lead Ads form (to receive the information entered by customers in the forms filled out on Facebook) and an open channel , i.e. an external channel, such as a Live chat , Viber , Telegram , Facebook , Instagram, Bitrix24.Network o Microsoft Bot Framework.
Another solution at your disposal is to import presets into your CRM starting from files , from other CRMs or from some solutions present in the Bitrix24 marketplace , which hosts many apps for integrating the CRM with a wide range of solutions (including Messenger , WhatsApp and other CRM systems).
To take advantage of this possibility, click on the gear icon (top right) and select the item Migrate from another CMS or the item Solution presets (to import from files or from partner solutions) from the menu that opens, depending of what your needs are.
Once your offers have been added to the CRM, you can use the relative boxes, in the Kanban view, to schedule calls, chats or emails (by clicking on the item Schedule ) and view the scheduled/performed activities (by clicking on the appropriate item). The activities that need attention are those marked with the red notification dot .
To move an offer from one stage of the funnel to another, therefore from one column to another in the Kanban view, all you have to do is click on it and, continuing to hold down, drag it with the mouse to the desired point.
If, on the other hand, you want to carry out mass operations, such as changing funnels , assigning a manager or eliminating activities , all you have to do is select them (by clicking on the relevant boxes) and click on one of the options that appear at the top.
Moving to the white menu at the top, you can also go to manage contacts , companies , products and orders . To add new ones, all you have to do is select the appropriate tabs and then click on the Add button at the top right (or, alternatively, you can use the (+) button that appears when you hover over the tabs in question).
Orders, which you can also access by selecting the Online store item from the left sidebar, can be managed via Kanban or List view , just like offers.
Furthermore, at the top you will find the options to create an online store directly in Bitrix24 ( Online store ), manage the commercial catalog , customers ( Customers ) and warehouse ( Warehouse management ). Then, in the More menu , you find options to set up pre-installed marketing offers , cart rules , coupons , and more. It’s all very intuitive indeed.
Another very useful section of the Bitrix24 CRM is the one called Marketing CRM (accessible from the left sidebar), which allows you to create email, SMS, Messenger or telephone campaigns , to configure the automatic import of information from Google Adwords and Facebook Ads and to increase sales through repeat offers .
The CRM Analysis section then allows you to access graphs, statistics and reports relating to the sales funnel , sales plan , sales trend , employee performance , customers and more. Just select one of the many items available in the box that opens (on the left) and that’s it.
Sales Intelligence , on the other hand, is a very useful tool for all those companies that generate the majority of leads and offers through online sources. It shows which traffic source converts into sales within the CRM, how much money is spent on marketing campaigns and how effective they are.
As amply underlined previously, Bitrix24, thanks to the many communication and project management tools integrated within it, allows you to build the work of the whole company quickly and efficiently. But how to invite other users to the service, communicate with them and manage the various tasks? It’s that simple.
To invite other people to your Bitrix24 (I remind you that the free version of the service supports up to 12 users), all you have to do is select the Invite users item from the left sidebar.
Once this is done, choose whether to send your invitation via quick registration link (option that I personally recommend), SMS or e-mail , by selecting one of the tabs in the box that appears on the screen. Alternatively, you can select the Register tab and manually register a new user or select the Invite Bitrix24 Partner tab , if you wish to invite a certified Bitrix24 partner (to set up or fine-tune your Bitrix24).
Once you’ve built your team, you can communicate with the people in it using Bitrix24’s built-in chat. To access it, click on the button with the speech bubble icon located in the right sidebar. You will thus be able to chat, make calls and video calls with team members using the general chat or a chat related to a specific project .
Instead, to organize the workgroups, use the Employees and Workgroups sections , accessible via the left sidebar (if you don’t see them, click on the Other item ): the first allows you to outline the company structure, while the second to set up real public , private , visible but private working groups or groups for external users .
The Time and Reports feature , on the other hand, allows you to track absences, working hours, meetings and briefings with ease.
Bitrix24 also includes a sort of online hard drive in which to keep and share work files (in the free plan it offers 5GB of cloud storage space) and a sort of internal social network, in which to communicate for the team.
To use the drive online, select the Bitrix24 Drive item from the left sidebar: you will thus access the list of files and folders already present on the cloud space, with the possibility of adding new ones, by clicking on the appropriate button located at the top right .
Instead, to access the Bitrix24 “social network”, select the Activity stream item from the left sidebar. You will thus be able to share messages and multimedia content with all team members (or just some of them), but also have a general overview of future events , assignments and much more.
Do you need to create a website for your company? No problem: Bitrix24 allows you to create sites in a very simple way and without having to know any programming language. Just make use of the excellent website builder accessible in the Sites section of the service.
Furthermore, I point out that by going to the Settings section of Bitrix24 (always accessible via the sidebar of the service), you can adjust the preferences relating to the date/time format, public holidays and all the CRM functions.
As just seen together, Bitrix24 is a cloud solution that works comfortably from a browser. However, if you wish, you can also install the Bitrix24 desktop client for Windows, macOS and Linux , which gives you even faster access to chat, online drive and other functions of the service.
You can get the program by connecting to the Bitrix24 official website , scroll down the page and click on the button for the operating system in use on your computer (eg For Windows , if you use Windows).
Therefore, install the software, start it and log in to your Bitrix24. This will take you to the chat panel . To view the files on Bitrix24 Drive , notifications or access the settings , use the appropriate icons in the left sidebar.
The last icon is the one that opens the browser and allows you to access the complete Bitrix24 management panel, which I told you about extensively in the previous steps of the tutorial.
How to use Bitrix24 on smartphones and tablets
Would you like to access your Bitrix24 at any time, even when you are not at the office or at home? No problem: thanks to the official Bitrix24 app for Android and iOS/iPadOS , you can achieve this in a very simple way.
The Bitrix24 mobile CRM has all the tools necessary to manage customers and sales directly from smartphones and tablets and for its use it is not necessary to first configure the web version of the service.
After downloading and launching the app in question and logging into your account (you can also create a new one directly from the application), by accessing the CRM section you can start creating sales pipelines, sales tunnels between pipelines and change its phases. Additionally, you can make and receive calls from the customer , with the option to enable phone call recording as well .
By accessing the screen of a specific offer and selecting the Timeline tab , in addition to being able to listen to a recorded call and change phases and details of the offer itself, you can monitor its history and activities.
By pressing on the item Assignments located in the menu at the bottom, however, you can create and assign new assignments and view the available ones, with also the possibility of communicating within an assignment with new comments that are highlighted for greater visibility. Also, thanks to the task focus mode , new comments added to a task are automatically moved to the top of the list.
From the Chat section you can view any messages received and start new conversations, both private and public, with other employees. Finally, I point out that by pressing the Menu / Other item , you can access all the other sections of the service, such as the one for managing the account, the workflow, the employees, the files on the Drive and much more.
For more information
Bitrix24 offers so many tools that analyzing them all in detail would require more than a review. I invite you, therefore, to deepen your knowledge of the service by making use of the excellent Helpdesk integrated in the latter.
To access the Bitrix24 Helpdesk, all you have to do is click on the icon (?) located at the top right of your Bitrix24 and select one of the topics you are interested in learning more from the menu that appears on the side. In the same menu you will also find demonstration videos that illustrate how the service works.
If you are not connected to your Bitrix24 account, you can access the support pages by visiting this page directly , which contains the FAQs relating to the service (ie answers to frequently asked questions), divided by subject, and demonstration videos .
I also recommend that you take a look at the Bitrix24 Italia YouTube channel , on which there are numerous videos that illustrate how the CRM works (and not only).
If you then need to get in touch with the Bitrix24 team, you can do it via chat , but only on condition that you have subscribed to one of the service’s commercial plans.
