Sales Force Marketing - Salesforce.com CRM:
Choosing a CRM Solution

The internet has thousands of sites with guides and tips on what to consider when choosing a CRM solution. This article attempts to be unbiased towards the different areas that you need to consider before making the right decision.

Every business is different and when considering a CRM or customer database solution I recommend evaluating the following in order to make your decision.
Below is a list of questions with their pros and cons giving the newbie a better idea about choosing a CRM solution successfully?

The first and the most important aspect would be what type of business is your business?

What type of business is your business?

This is the first question any CRM consultant should ask.

Does your business sell products or services?

Does your business sell via a shop front, telesales, sales reps or a combination?

Where does your business leads come from; phone, fax, email, web or walk in?

What is the length of your sales cycle?

The above is just a short list of questions that need to be considered when looking at a CRM or customer database solution. There are too many systems out there that focus on sales reporting meaning that the poor sales person spends numerous hours feeding data into a system purely for sales reports. Sales people should be selling not data entering!

Once you understand the type of business that requires the CRM solution then you need to look at the main characteristics of the available CRM Solutions. The following is a brief list of the main high level characteristics that you need to consider.

Web based or On-site?

Web based CRM is also known as hosted CRM and is a new form of cost effective CRM delivery. These systems usually have poor user interface and are proprietary systems. It is very difficult and expensive to have custom development on web based CRM. On-site CRM is also known as windows based CRM, which through the introduction of .net it has become easier and less expensive to provide a much richer user interface with numerous features slowly doing away with numerous disparate systems. (1 system for all front-end which is the future of CRM i.e. 3rd Generation CRM)

The following are the Pros and cons to Web based CRM.

Pros:
Easy to set-up
No server required
Usually cheaper
Low in-house maintenance
Easier to deploy updates and fix's

Cons:
Data is off site (Need Security Guarantees, Redundancy etc.)
Competitors can have same capabilities
Limited business automation tools
Totally dependent on service provider and internet connectivity
Expensive to interface into existing or new systems, Messaging, Product and Accounts ( 1 system for all)

You don't own the database you lease it

Biggest problem - you house your most important asset under someone else's responsibility making it impossible to simplify all companies IT systems.

To summaries web based CRM is easier for the CRM vendor not the CRM user. Find the correct
CRM vendor make them understand your issues, concerns and requirements and make sure they deliver a solution specific for your business.

The main reason to buy CRM?
A lot of people buy a CRM solution because they know another business that successfully uses one or they just simply need a customer database. It is important to note that all CRM solutions are different especially when we consider interoperability with your existing and future systems.

The main reasons to buy a CRM solution should be to save you thousands on staff resources, hardware, software, integration and maintenance.

Having worked with numerous CRM application providers such as SAP, Siebel and Teradata my advice is to tread carefully:

Don't be lured by the endless list of features. Most business only use a small percentage of these features.

Make sure the CRM or customer data base provider focuses on your business not their software.

Keep in mind that sales people want systems that simplify their job not make it harder. Hence focus on business automation not sales reporting. (The system should give back more time to the sales person so he or she can focus on sales not data entry)

Identify upfront the Total cost of Purchasing, Integration, Maintenance and Ownership. Be careful to ensure that you can have all your main sales systems integrated into 1 system and find out that cost. (Eliminate the need for costly integration and multiple silos of data)

Make sure the system can be customized by non IT literate people and the provider has the ability of providing simple cost effective customization. Every business is different thus some require basic customization.

Make sure the system is simple to use has a great and familiar user interface and built upon robust future proof platforms.

CRM mistakes can be costly. Make sure the CRM provider it's all about your business and the CRM Solution is all about your customers.

Source: Emanuel Sousa link


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