Podio now exclusive Globiflow Reseller…Is that a Good Thing?

Scott Costello All, Blog, Featured 27 Comments

If you haven’t signed up for Globiflow yet, then I’ve got some bad news for you…the price of entry just increased 12x!! That is because Podio has entered into agreement with Globi Corp, to be the exclusive reseller of Globiflow. My first reaction was one of excitement until I read what exactly this meant.

Podio wasn’t going to sell Globiflow subscriptions, but rather make it a part of their Podio Premium (& Business) 5+ user plans. There would be no other way to get Globiflow unless you purchased those Podio plans. If you take a look at the pricing sheet, it says Podio Premium is $24/mo per employee. This means you’ll have to shell out for 5 employees at $24/mo…or….$120/mo.

Here is the complete Podio blog post announcing this agreement with GlobiFlow…

http://blog.podio.com/2016/02/12/globiflow/

What about current GlobiFlow Users?

If there is any good news out of this announcement this is it. All current users of GlobiFlow will be able to continue to use GlobiFlow as a separate service from Podio. You’ll be able to continue with the pricing plans that are currently available to you.

From what I’ve heard, there are no plans to force people to switch over to the new pricing model, which is good. However I can’t guarantee that they won’t do this at some point.

This is a big relief for me and all other current GF users. Our businesses are hugely dependent on GF Automations.

Future GlobiFlow Users

Gone are the cheap $9, $14 and $24
Like I said in the introduction, if you haven’t signed up for a GlobiFlow account already, you simply can’t. Gone are the cheap $9, $14 and $24 per month plans that made GlobiFlow such an INCREDIBLE DEAL. You will now have to pay a minimum of $120/mo through Podio to get GlobiFlow.

Even if you are a single person business who doesn’t have 5 employees you will have to purchase the premium 5+ employee package. Podio’s response when asked about this is that the price it costs them to purchase the reseller rights doesn’t allow them to offer it for any fewer employees.

Is there a Silver Lining?

If you are already using one of the higher tiered GlobiFlow Plans, this is actually good news for you. I believe you will save money. In addition Podio is taking off the Action Limits, so you’ll never have to worry about hitting your hourly, daily or monthly Actions.

GlobiFlow Alternatives

After reading this news, one of my first thoughts was…Is there an alternative to GlobiFlow? Unfortunately the answer is no

Unfortunately the answer is…No.
Fusion Mint – The closest thing that I could find was a product called Fusion Mint.

I haven’t used their product and every place I’ve seen it compared to GlobiFlow, the response was that it didn’t come close. BUT perhaps Fusion Mint can do what you need so it might work for you. Take a look at it.

Podio API – GlobiFlow uses the Podio API along with Webhooks to do everything that it does.  In reality we can leverage the API and Webhooks to create all the flows we need…for FREE.

However this is not realistic because 99% of you aren’t developers and would need to higher an expensive developer to do this for you.

My Own Solution – Over the past couple of months I’ve actually began development on a product that uses the Podio API and Webhooks to create a Podio CRM that has automations built right in.

I have to say that I LOVE the possibilities! I can do things that GlobiFlow could not like Zillow Integration. 

Take a look at a preview of what I’ve done so far…

My Thoughts

If you read the post up till this point, then you won’t be surprised to hear that I’m PISSED OFF about this news. It completely wipes out the solo real estate investor from using Podio/GlobiFlow. In my mind it is the solo businesses who need the GF Automations the most!

If you asked me is $120 worth the price to get Podio and GlobiFlow? I would still have to say YES!! Me
There is a possibility that Podio will work out an agreement with Globi to resale the lower level plans at some point, but I’m not sure if that will ever happen.

With all that I have said…If you asked me is $120 worth the price to get Podio and GlobiFlow? I would still have to say YES!!

It hurts me to say that but it goes to show you how valuable I think GlobiFlow is. It was just a STEAL before. At the end of the day you have to treat your business as a business and spending $120/mo is not really that much.

It just hurts because I used to only have to pay $9.

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Comments 27

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Dom,

      Just stay on the mailing list and when I’m ready I’ll be sending out an email. Just an FYI though, I will be asking people to purchase into the inaugural members group. It will be HEAVILY discounted though. I have tried doing free beta testing in the past and it did not work at all. People just wanted the free software and never gave me any input. The inaugural group will be limited to about 10 to 20 people.

      Just being honest with my intentions.

      Reply

  2. I agree exactly with your thoughts, as always you give more of yourself to us than expected but trust me it’s appreciated. If it wasn’t for your cool videos showing how to setup up globilflow I would still be struggling with my mailings. That being said is there anything in the works for automating Podio for the mailing campaign without globilflow? Based on the video you just showed it appears to be possible.

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

  3. Scott,
    Thanks for your article. I must say that after reading one of your blogs I signed up for a free trial of Globiflow for a month and didn’t pay the subscription. I just re-logged in to my Globiflow account and, although expired, I have the chance to still pay $9 for 25 flows. I have to thank you for that!
    Furthermore, I have come across InvestorFuse. Do you know its capabilities and how would this Podio solution for real estate investors compare with yours?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Lothar,

      As long as you have an account with GlobiFlow, paid or on free trial, you’ll be able to use GF as you would have normally…meaning you can upgrade and downgrade your account according to the old pricing structure. You found that out.

      I know InvestorFuse. It’s created by Dan Schwartz and is similar to what I’m putting together. It is just another person’s view on a Podio CRM. It also doesn’t use GlobiFlow and will use the Podio API and webhooks. It’s currently isn’t taking new customers until March 3rd when he is going to open up sales and take on another limited number of customers. From what I’ve seen it looks like a fantastic product.

      Reply
    1. Post
      Author

  6. Scott,
    Amazing work as always I’ve spend the last two months trying to set up my podio account exactly like yours. Or at least as close as I could to yours. You have already answered many questions I’ve had so far. I would love to partake in your set up as soon as possible. I’m also from NJ so alot of your state specific flows have really helped me out such as County zip app. Keep up the good work and I would love to be a tester.
    William

    Reply

  7. Scott I’ve been reading into the zillow api. I’m trying to figure out how to get the JSON from the api using globie flow just like the Google JSON flow you wrote up.
    Can you possibly help out. Screen shot of the code that splits the JSON into usable information

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Hey Will,

      Zillow, unfortunately, doesn’t return the information in JSON format. They only return an encoded XML which Globiflow nor Podio can parse. You’ll need to have a developer write a webservice/script that you can call from GF that does the Zillow call and converts the XML to a string. If you are a member of the GF Podio group you can view a conversation here about this..

      https://podio.com/podiomail/podioflow-users/apps/user-forum/items/663

      Reply

  8. Hi, I love your vids and those from Dan Schwartz but yours were more helpful to me. I was waiting on his relaunch but if your product is less expensive than his I’m going to go with yours. I’m just starting out and by myself. It’s all about price for me at this point I’m on your list and can’t wait till you launch.

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Hey Eric,

      Thanks for the kind words about my videos! My podio system will be cheaper then Dan’s for sure, but to be honest it won’t be as full featured right from the beginning. I want to make sure I have the core of the system perfected before I start adding in lots of integrations with 3rd party tools like phone systems. For many people I don’t think all those extra features are useful and would be just eye candy.

      Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      There will be mail merging with documents you setup in a Podio App. You’ll be able to create merge fields using a field marker like {#AppName$FieldName}. It works great. In the beginning though you’ll have to know some basic HTML if you want to format your documents.

      Reply

  10. I can’t wait till you launch this! I have closely followed Dan Swartz and was very interested in investor fuse although it seemed to be way more than what I needed. I have only been doing this for about 6 months and I’m a sytemizing junkie. I am trying to automate everything I can. I’m really looking forward with what is to come and what you will be doing. I wish I knew more about programming.

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      For the one person business, having as many systems in place will help you claim some of your time back. It will also allow you to delegate tasks later on when you can afford to hire someone.

      Programming this has been a challenge because I’ve had to learn PHP, the Podio API and how to create WebServices. Admittedly, it is much easier to learn when you have a background in programming no matter what language you new before. I’ve come a long way in the last 3 months and am excited about getting this Podio Software out to the public.

      Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Xavier,

      It will be less then the ~150/mo that InvestorFuse is asking. It will be less then $100/mo for sure, I just have to figure out what my costs will be once everything is setup.

      Reply
        1. Post
          Author

          Honestly I’m not sure because I have only seen InvestorFuse in a video or two. It’s tough to get a feel for exactly what InvestorFuse has in it from just what I’ve seen.

          My system is still evolving as I develop it. As I get input from people I make changes. Look for a new video/update early next week.

          Reply

  12. There is a problem with this new pricing. They advertise small monthly increments in their pricing tier however to upgrade from Plus to Premium a SMB goes from $14 a month for any amount of users to a minimum of 5 users at $24 a month and you have to pay annually up front. So it now cost a whopping $1,440 cash in advance to use Podio! Officially making them one of the most expensive CRM on the market, and it could be argued the MOST expensive. And without a doubt the most hostile to Small Business other than Sugar CRM. All of this is masked behind a pricing tier on their website that is not accurate or an honest reflection of the true cost to use Podio.

    The upgrade to Premium comes with 4 additional features and three of them require annual payment and 5 minimum users so that there is no reason to go premium and it is never actually $24 a month. It is highly dishonest of Podio to make it appear to be only $24 a month to disguise the mental math ones has to do to figure out how expensive they really are! #podiosaysnottoSMB

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

      Steve,

      You are correct that Podio’s pricing is a bit misleading when you get into the Premium plans. For those just reading the comments the 4 features are GlobiFlow, an Interactive Sales Dashboard, Contact Sync and Visual Reports.

      I only see that 2 of them require Annual Pricing (Dashboards & Contact Sync). Globiflow does not and neither does Visual Reports. Not that it makes it much better but at least they don’t include Globiflow for annual plans only. Though they have said you get a discount for doing annual.

      It SUCKS and I’m working on a solution.

      Reply

  13. since start of 2017 i think podio have reduced the pricing now so its better again for small struggling investors (like me – hahaha! )

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

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