Scoro Makes Profitability Your High Score

Scoro

The App for All You MBAs out There

There's nothing like free food to attract people to your events. Free food is the main reason why I ended up attending random MBA cocktails. Here's the thing. I'm a geek. I love computers, Dungeon & Dragons, and horror films. This is not my crowd.

The craziest thing was the guys in suits chatting with me over a piece of sushi and doing their self-promotion bit as if I was networking-worthy. In French, we call this "selling your salad".

That dog wants salad

All of this to say when I get into an app like Scoro, I feel like I'm in an MBA cocktail with a glass of sparkling wine.

Exploring the app

I wouldn't do justice to Scoro by classifying it as a pure "project management app". Scoro can automate a whole business. Yes, Scoro supports task management, timesheets, and project tracking. This is the basics. Scoro showcases so much more!  As shown in the image below, the thorough invoice and quotes feature allows for easy management of both estimates and billing. The Bills section supports expenses, with seamless integration with quotes to estimate profitability.

If there is one thing Scoro does well, it is following the money! The Dashboard landing page (first image on the left) enhances margins, profitability and revenue projections. The Planner (first row, on the right) is Scoro's "Why didn't anybody think of this?" feature: simple drag and drop of tasks to the appropriate employees based on their availability.

I was skeptical of Scoro's marketing around being a CRM. Playing around with the app gave me the epiphany I needed to get over the hump and embrace Scoro's CRM potential. See, most project management software feel tailored for "software consulting and professional services" or "marketing agencies". With bills, invoices, quotes, customer contacts and suppliers, Scoro can actually be used to manage a plumber's business. It's not sexy to say you solved plumber's administration issues, but there's a large market with unmet needs in that area!

Task 1: Get a High Scoro

The mobile experience proves my point. I imagine the desktop version being used mainly by administrative staff, while the mobile is for the actual plumbers on the field who need to fill those timesheets, invoices, and quotes. In that area, mobile does a great job giving intuitive tools:

I particularly enjoyed the "Contacts" sub-menu. Sometimes the toilet is leaking and you're out of bolts, you need somebody in there ASAP. "What's their phone number? I changed my phone, jeez! Oh it's in the app, nevermind!"

Recommended Use Cases

As illustrated above, any business outside of the usual consulting, software, marketing, IT could benefit from Scoro. It's driven by money optimization and any COO will droll over the app's potential.

Limitations

Scoro has been the hardest app for me to pinpoint limitations. For what it intends to do, it is perfect! That said, this is the app of MBAs. I'm a geek. Honestly, looking at how the app allows treating employees like a revenue optimization problem deflates my enthusiasm:

It's not about the positive customer outcomes, the customer service experience, the employee engagement. Just plug those resources so you can sell them as much as possible.

In the same vein, Scoro is all work and no play. There are no areas for collaboration. Forget about banter and emojis! It's money, money, money.

That's a unique type of facepalm

Pricing

Scoro has a huge price tag. The website advertises $26/user/month for essential, $37 for standard and $63 for pro. When you explore plans from within the trial, the ultimate is advertised at a whopping $110/user/month, which makes the SSO tax a ludicrous 400%.

With Scoro's versatility and incredible revenue optimization capacity, I am sure they can demonstrate ROI. However, for that price to make sense, a business must trust Scoro for its CRM and procurement needs, that's a BIG ask in today's ecosystems. Most businesses have some type of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and there's no telling whether Scoro can integrate well with other monetary transaction aspects.

Verdict

Scoro supports business from end-to-end to optimize profitability with a high-end app that is priced like a luxury item.

Just don't buy it if you are a geek like me.