So You Think You Know CRM Software?

When talking about the CRM Software Industry it is almost impossible to actually say that you know it inside out since there are so many CRM vendors around the world, all developing their technologies at such a rapid pace. You can learn the basics of Web-based CRM Software fairly easily with a quick search on Google, however I would like to mention a few points that are more difficult to uncover; the hidden costs associated with purchasing CRM Software, what to avoid, how your CRM can go beyond simply contact management and where the industry is going.

When a company decides it's time to make the move to Web-based CRM Software they should first develop a plan on how they expect this new implementation to boost their companies productivity and revenue. The largest roadblock in achieving a fast ROI is all the hidden costs that are not clearly listed on vendor's web sites. In researching to develop a comparison of some of the major players in the CRM world including Salesforce, Netsuite and Salesboom.com, the majority of my time was spent researching pricing for different platforms, upgrades, implementation, customization and customer support. This leads me into what to avoid when seeking your future CRM Software. What you need to look into and ask questions about is; storage limits and the cost of additional storage, maximum number of custom tabs & fields, maximum number of applications you can add, this being particularly relevant for Salesforce, and any other limitation which could later force you to upgrade.

If you have implemented a CRM Software Solution and reached any of these mentioned limitations I'm sure you can vouch for my statement that it comes at a great cost. When you implement your new Web-based CRM you have just knocked down all the walls separating your departments or office's, no matter their location and you did it in real-time. Once up and running your CRM goes far beyond contact management software with vendor's now integrating front and back office functionality. Salesforce and Salesboom.com both offer a well rounded CRM solution for companies of all sizes, between these two it really comes down to price.

With more than just contact management capabilities CRM Software is a great tool for your; marketing department with in depth campaign and lead management tools, your customer service department since a complete history of all clients and cases are a mouse click away, your back office including inventory, billing & invoicing by taking advantage of real time workflow processes and of course your sales force with features like escalation rules or in more recent times offline and mobile editions.

Today CRM Software vendors are coming out with Offline and Mobile Editions giving new ways to never lose contact with the office. This brings us to the future of Web-based CRM Software, where is it going? This code underneath your CRM Software eliminates the need for you to refresh your web browser whenever you make a change. Here AJAX is used to allow for drag and drop customizations to appearance and the arrangement of applications. I predict that the gap between Web-based and On-premise CRM Software will be much smaller by the end of 2008 and we will see the same trend with businesses leaving their On-premise for Web-based CRM, like was seen in 2007.