Cosential Reviews & Product Details

Fairly easy to use and setup with decent reporting and proposal building capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The email marketing module is absolutely terrible. Email templates take forever to load and preview so editing them is so time-consuming as to be useless. The fact that we were sold this capability that didn't actually work caused us to ditch Cosential altogether. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that we can customize the program to fit the data we are gathering. I also like it does store the data we are looking for and needing to store. It is nice to have the data come out in customized templates although they have their quirks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike that it is a manual entry if you don't use the CRM component of Cosential. If you don't use the CRM side of Cosential, there are fields you can't hide. I don't like you can't reorder the tabs. Also, the templates are difficult to customize and still have to be tweaked even after you export the data. We also don't have the data integrated and just use monthly uploads to Cosential because of the effort it would take to integrate with SAP since we don't use the CRM side of the program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The amount of items that are in the program Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

For a small firm there is too much information and too many work arounds that are not yet developed Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The support from Cosential cannot be beat. I also like the fact that we can determine if we want to turn on/off modules to custom fit our organization and where we are in the implementation. The relationship with Cosential feels like a partnership and that we are listened to and provided follow-up for our needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Time between request (issue or bug with system/enhancement suggestion) to the sprint where the improvement may occur. At times you are waiting for the developers or the request sits in the queue between submitting the suggestion and update for quite some time. We have learned the process of a bug or enhancement but at times we wish we could influence more of the speed to updates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like that new features are always being developed and released. There's the Outlook add-in which is super simple to use. I also like that Knowledge Management and Publisher is available in the program as well which can lead to even greater collaboration across the business. Cosential always listens to client input and uses that input to improve the product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The administrative functionality for the various modules could be consolidated or located a little better. Sometimes it's difficult to remember where all the administrative functions are. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My favorite feature is the resume generation tool. The ability to produce multiple resumes tailored for specific pursuit types automatically updated each time they are created is beyond wonderful. Coupled with their availability to all team members 24/7 at the push of a button from any internet enabled device makes the resume generation tool peerless. Another great feature is the opportunity tracking – once again keeping all the pieces of a pursuit in one handy place and available 24/7 is brilliant!!!! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Although a minor issue I do wish that users other than administrators could upload templates for use in the publisher module as administrators may be busy/unavailable for periods of time making updating the templates a longer process then it should be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In my hectic life at work, it has been such a pleasant change of pace to have requests I do not have to track and questions I do not have to follow up on. The team at Cosential has proactively reach out to me and responded to needs and requests so quickly! They have a great range of services to assist and guide me. The webinars are highly beneficial - I strongly recommend all of them. Attending the webinars has helped me realize Cosential has so much more to offer than what we are currently using it for. Love the personalized emails - they reassure me that I am in good hands! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have not found anything to dislike at this point. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The program is easy to use and great customer service. I was able to book an appointment with someone right away to teach me how to integrate indesign into cosential. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The one thing I would like to see changed is the dollar figure automatically rounds to the millions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love being able to see the history of our opportunities and have an at-a-glance understanding of where we are on certain pursuits. It's empowering to have that kind of information just before walking in to a client meeting. Additionally, the publisher module has made a world of difference in increasing the quantity of our marketing qualifications output. Having a simple way to wrangle our data, tailor it to client needs, and then publish directly to our branded format has saved us hundreds of hours in production time. We have also really enjoyed working with Oscar and Amy-- they have been been wonderfully friendly, patient and positive with us as we clear the initial Cosential learning curve! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Tailoring our reports and finding the right field locations for tracking financial projections has been more challenging than expected. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cosential is an all in one platform that has addressed our business development and marketing challenges. We like having everything in one system. The implementation and training support has been outstanding. Lisa Pitts was amazing to work with during the process. She helped make the transition from our old CRM to Cosential virtually seamless. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We are struggling with the Card Reader Application, but the team is addressing the issues. Overall, we have found Cosential to be an outstanding tool. The support team has been able to address any challenges we have experienced. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1 year after purchase: This has easily been one of the wisest investments our firm has made. The ability to track customer information (CRM), their experience, past performance data, and leads/opportunities all from one simple application and dashboard makes my 1-man marketing team feel like 3. The capability to routinely pull data from our accounting software reduces duplication in both content and time. I no longer spend hours "looking for *stuff*" (put politely) during proposal preparation due to the full featured project and ‘knowledge’ database paired up with the advanced reporting functionality. I still have only scrapped the tip of the metaphorical iceberg of features that are included with the package including the ability to automatically survey clients, a built in email marketing tool, card scanner, countless plug-ins, a customizable RESTful API, Outlook and Exchange server plugins, and soon a full blown Zapier integration. Additionally, the support both during install and throughout my journey have been absolutely wonderful. They have made the ins and outs of using the software a simple, and surprisingly enjoyable, experience! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Improvements could be made to the 'knowledge base' section. The mobile app has been troublesome on my Android phone and tablets. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The industry specific knowledge of Lisa Pitts, our implementation specialist. Her background on construction business development and marketing made her extremely intuitive about our needs. It would have taken months or years to understand the nuances of simple administrative setup decisions. Hands down, Cosential's customer support is the absolute best in the industry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is nothing at this point that I dislike.. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have worked with other enterprise database systems and been "left in the cold" throughout the process. Cosential collaborates all the way thru. Our Implementation Specialist, Lisa Pitts, is knowledgeable about the system and our industry practices. We speak the same language! which makes everything even easier. Top notch!! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As we are still in implementation currently, nothing. Very happy to date. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that it exists the best. I like being able to make reports and save them in excel to send my newsletter out.i like the search feature, and lately the call log. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It happens that when I put a person in, it may not stick. never figured out why. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Web interface, lots of potential, but I don't harness it as well as I should. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kind of clunky UI. Slow to load results. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cosential team has gone above and beyond again and again to help us accomplish a successful launch. They have helped me develop a good understanding of the product and I feel ready to support my team and office users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We have not run into any problems to date. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really appreciate how well Cosential's structure and terminology relate to the construction industry. This is a huge plus for me since I implemented while being over sales and marketing for our electrical contracting firm. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are what I would call basic actions in the workflow module that are missing. For example I would like a workflow to trigger a calendar invite for management to review bids prior to submission. The mobile app needs work. When using mobile version I will login through safari's browser and the user experience is much better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cosential keeps all of the information we need to market our clients in one place, from clients and contacts, marketing opportunities, personnel and project information, and so much more. The customer service that we receive and the attention to our issues, particularly from Dianna and Christina, is unmatched by other software vendors. The company is committed to continuing to evolve the software to stay on point with industry trends. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Because it is web-based, it is sometimes slow, however the fact that it is web-based allows users to access it anywhere at anytime, not just on our network. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have used Cosential now for over 10 years, and I can't imagine doing my job without it! Not only does the program provide complete CRM tools, it is a powerful relational database specifically structured for the AEC world. I use it to consolidate all the information I need for responding to RFQ's and RFP's: information on our personnel, consultants, and projects. It's fast, intuitive, and has a powerful report writer that allows me to pull out necessary information in seconds. Better yet, the company continually improves the software and adds in new features at no additional cost to its clients. The system has saved me hours previously spent searching for information, and data is accessible more quickly than it can be found on our servers. Keep up the good work! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Anything I have disliked or found missing has been addressed through customer support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Web-based and is user friendly. Good support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Report writing is sort of hard. Mobile app could be better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Being industry specific has been helpful in many ways. Having Jan and Lisa, my support contacts, has been a critical piece to implementing a CRM into a company of 250 people and 7 offices across the country where no CRM existed before. I've been a user for less than a year and even in that short period of time I've seen a continuous effort on their part to improve the platform and the user experience. My confidence is there that things will continue to improve and develop over time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are many pieces to the system, not all of which are well developed. There is also a small consistency issue from screen to screen and module to module. You can tell the system has been in development over a long period of time because you have newer interfaces and older ones depending on where you are. I wish the live chat worked in the support center. That would help for those quick things that I need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In the ten + years I’ve used Cosential, I’ve been a reference often and I always remind clients and potential clients that Cosential isn't perfect, they have their flaws, they are human and can drop the ball but overall I have found them to be the BEST option for a marketing database for AEC firms.

I used Cosential for the first five years of my career as a marketing coordinator at a construction firm, then I transitioned into a CRM Manager role. This company used CMiC for accounting and I was involved with the FDC which connected data from accounting to Cosential.

I left and did CRM for a national engineering firm with 16 offices that used BST for their accounting system and was responsible for their FDC. After two years, I went back to construction and was the CRM Manager and implemented the FDC for them and they were on ViewPoint.

I started my own consulting business in May and use Cosential for my business development / marketing needs as well as workload management.

The best thing about Cosential, in my opinion, is it's diversity. I like that some use it extensively for the CRM component, others for the proposal automation and some for the opportunity/profit projection. To those clients that is what Cosential does well which to me says they do it all well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cosential is self explanatory and is an 'out-of-the-box' solution. However, if all modules are left turned on I do think it can be overwhelming. It has so many options and modules but you can narrow users focus to just what the user needs which makes it easier to navigate.

Implementing a new CRM is not easy. Cosential has tweaked the implementation process, and streamlined things well so the process and steps to follow are clear. However, know that your implementation specialist is busy, so as a client you need to own your part to drive things forward. It’s like working with a trainer - you have to do your part, the trainer can only instruct. Once you get going you’ll see results but you have to stay focused; if you fall behind or get off task it’s understandable, but know that you have to hold yourself accountable to get back on schedule.

Finally, in year's past I use to say that Customer Service was an issue but in the last year things have really turned around with the hiring of new staff. This has resulted in quicker ticket resolution and increased communication. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Great tool as a CRM and proposal writing tool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Somewhat difficult to customize reports. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love how easy it is to access and analyze our information. Cosential has a home for every data point you can imagine -- and the flexibility add new ones as needed -- so you can store and recall information about all of your pursuits and projects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Load time has been a factor, but it has improved significantly over the past 6 months and I know their developers are actively pursuing even greater speed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Reporting function and publisher module for creating resumes and project data sheets; ability to connect to other databases for data; customer service provided by Christina Leahy and Dianna Lovelace (superb!) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes the responsiveness of Cosential with our FDC is not ideal; we are working to make the reporting query fields more customized for how we use them. Cosential can have a lot of fields to sort through but can be scaled back by administrator; must be careful when switching between projects when more than one project is opened in different tabs so you don’t and end up editing the wrong project. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.