If you’ve ever purchased CRM, ERP, HR or other software for your business – or hired a branding agency, solution consultant or other business service provider – you know that researching your options is a time-consuming process. You also know that no matter how thorough you are in that review, your success is not guaranteed – especially when you’re forced to rely on biased information provided by the software developers or service providers themselves.
G2 Crowd aims to change all that. Founded by Godard Abel (CEO), Tim Handorf (President), Mike Wheeler (CTO), Matt Gorniak (CRO) and Mark Myers – all formerly of BigMachines and SteelBrick – the company is focused on providing real-time, unbiased user reviews to help business owners better assess the best purchases for their companies.
Nearly 500,000 Independent User Reviews
“Millions of business people come to our website every month,” said Ryan Bonnici, G2 Crowd’s Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s a really broad mix of small- and medium-sized corporate businesses as well as large enterprises. All of these professionals are coming to our site because they’re in the process of buying software or services, and they want to hear from the customers of the companies out there because they trust salespeople less.”
G2 Crowd currently has nearly 500,000 independent and authenticated user reviews for CRM, analytics, CAD and collaboration software to development, HR, hosting and security software – plus everything in between. These reviews come direct from customers who purchased software or services though the G2 Crowd website as well as those who purchased directly from the software or service provider.
“We have a team that is reading every single one of those reviews,” Bonnici added.
Find the Best Software for Your Business
“Ten or 20 years ago, a company might have an employee in a role that was dedicated to the RSP process with vendors and choosing software to buy,” Bonnici told RewardExpert. “But today, I think smart companies are realizing that they can get better data from G2 Crowd. Now, they’re literally using G2 Crowd to work out the shortlist of software companies or service providers they might want to work with.”
Bonnici said using G2 Crowd is simple and flexible. “You just head over to www.g2crowd.com, choose a software category, and check out who is offering the best out there,” he explained. “Alternatively, if you bought email marketing software or financing software that isn’t working for you, you can look it up on the website and see what other products are higher rated.”
Because software is not one-size-fits-all, professionals can use the G2 Crowd Grid® to identify the highest-rated options that are best for them, whether they are a small business, mid-market or enterprise organization. They can also sort by highest rated or easiest to use.
“A lot of software companies market themselves as having a product that works for everyone,” Bonnici said. “But the reality is that there are different tools that are better for different types of businesses and different industries.”
He added that G2 Crowd power users often log in with LinkedIn and then search the software ratings made by other professionals in their LinkedIn network. “It’s really useful because you can search for someone you admire and then what software he or she thinks is good or bad.”
Learn more about G2 Crowd’s vision, philanthropic program, and the recently launched G2 Crowd Entrepreneurial Scholarship at www.g2crowd.com.