Things to Consider When Going for a CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions are making definitely a big difference today in business management and customer retention process. Modern CRM systems are crafted for perfection and are powerful and also simple enough to handle all/most business processes in a company. Many different types and grades of CRM software are available today and many new CRM providers are emerging day by day. The emerging markets of Asia and Europe tempting CRM providers to offer quality solutions for lower costs than their competitors.

As you may know there are mainly two types of CRM systems as on-demand CRM and on-premise CRM. One company should consider various factors when selecting CRM software.

The foremost thing is to consider is the number of employees, or in the expected CRM users, can company have. If your company is a small one with only a limited number of employees, say less than 100, they on-demand CRM software are ideal for you. But if yours is a big company having hundreds or thousands of employees, then you must look for on-premise systems. This is because on-demand CRM software is priced as fixed monthly usage fee per user and on-premised software is priced wholly upfront.

The second thing is the capital a company has for upfront CRM investment. On-premise CRM software, being traditional software, require good amount of money for purchasing the software and installing it. Companies should also develop internal communication channels, local database(s) and data backup systems. On-demand CRM software require virtually no money as upfront investment. They are subscribed from a CRM vendor and require only monthly usage fee.

The third thing to consider is the availability of technical knowledge to your company. If your company has a functional technical department, you can consider implementing on-premise CRM software; other wise it is best to stick with on demand software. This is because implementing and customizing on-premise systems require good knowledge of software. On the other hand on-demand systems are very easy to implement and customize as they are already installed and some what customized for you.

One other important thing is to consider is sensitivity of enterprise data and data security. Many companies now have very sensitive customer and product details, which can’t be transformed outside the company firewall. On-premise systems suit this kind of companies, because the database is local. On-demand systems are web based and all enterprise data are stored in a remote database owned/hired by the CRM vendor; and also the day to day CRM activities require frequent accessing, transfer or modification of this data.

Other important things include the expected company growth rate and software/infrastructure maintenance costs. With on-demand CRM there can be increased costs with company growth as the number of CRM users are expected to increase; but they does not require any maintenance or updating costs. On-premise solutions are scale themselves with company growth by they require good amount of money for maintenance and upgrading.