As an Insightly consultant business, it is no secret that we love our CRM. One of the things that gives me great confidence in recommending Insightly is their proactive system upgrades. The Insightly forum gives users a voice to recommend the upgrades they would like to see in the CRM. Insightly takes the recommendations with the most votes seriously.
Most upgrades to Insightly are available at every plan level without forcing you to purchase an upgraded version at a higher cost. In addition to the consistent flow of smaller upgrades, they occasionally release large feature updates. Insightly has recently released two HUGE feature adds (Workflow Automation and Advanced Permissions) available only on the Professional Plan starting at $49 /month and higher. Wondering if the features are worth the cost? Let’s break each feature down.
Workflow Automation
This is the start of a beautiful thing. Workflow automation has the capability to automate virtually everything within insightly. Here are a few examples of actions that the new workflow automation feature can do :
- Automatically send a templated email when a new lead is added.
- Remind your team to reach out to a new lead if they have not updated the lead status in 3 days.
- Automatically create a project with prepopulated fields when an opportunity meeting specific criteria is won.
In the past, Insightly automations have only been possible through third party software like Zapier. The built in workflow automation has many more options and filters available than 3rd party software. If you are looking to reduce the amount of time that you spend in the Insightly software, this could be the answer for you.
There are limitations to the workflow feature that I hope will be improved in future releases. Here are the things I have on my wish list for the new feature release:
- Making tasks in an activity set dependant upon prior task completion without having to do the workflow setup on the back end.
- Automating the next phase of a pipeline based on task completion in the prior set.
- Workflows that incorporate outside software such as Mailchimp, Quickbooks, and Xero. Currently, Zapier would be required to complete any workflows outside of Insightly.
Advanced Permissions
Insightly has released security updates to protect your data from threats inside and outside your organization. You can read about Insightly’s protection from outside threats here. The key to protecting your data from threats within your organization is to limit the amount of data each person has access to. Limited access is now addressed through advanced permissions. Here are some examples of things that you can control with Advanced Permissions:
- Determine access to create, view, edit, and delete records by record type.
- Custom settings for hierarchy of to view records of direct reports or within teams.
- Create standard permission settings for different roles to streamline onboarding new hires.
Worth the upgrade?
If you are currently on a paid plan for Insightly and are ready to take your business systems to the next level or grow your team, the new features are worth the upgrade. You will be able to create an unlimited number and more diverse workflows within Insightly than are possible with Zapier. The upgrade will pay for itself by reducing other software cost. Insightly’s advanced permissions are essential for businesses with sensitive data.