Sales Force Marketing - Salesforce.com CRM:
Is On-Demand CRM Right For Your Company?

In today's CRM market, a variety of on-demand CRM solutions are available, some extremely popular. Companies are attracted to on-demand CRM by convenience and price. On-demand CRM systems can be quick to set up and are unlikely to need much, if any, investment in new hardware. The monthly contract costs can also seem very appealing.

Though many businesses have taken up on-demand CRM however, many are also moving away from it. On-demand CRM solutions may seem a good fit to start with, but businesses can soon outgrow them, find they are limited in what they are capable of, or that the business needs a more comprehensive CRM solution.

On-demand CRM solutions have their place in the CRM market. However, the benefits they seem to offer at first glance need careful investigation. While on-demand CRM solutions may be faster to get up and running than on-site CRM software, they can often cost more in the long term. In some companies, their investment in on-demand CRM solutions has added up to a higher total cost of ownership - especially when users get tied into contracts. On-demand solutions frequently have limited functionality, and are notoriously difficult (which usually means expensive!) to integrate with other applications. So, although on-demand CRM solutions may seem cheap to start with, the price may not always turn out to be as attractive as it first appeared. Paul Petersen, Senior Director of the GoldMine Business Unit for FrontRange Solutions recently stated "We talk with many companies that learn too late of the limitations of on-demand CRM". He goes on to say "On the surface, on-demand CRM is compelling and seems to offer incredible benefits. Yet, an increasing number of organizations that tried on-demand applications have returned to an on-premise solution, and we want customers and partners to be as informed as possible about the options for cost-effective and mission-critical CRM."

In the right circumstances, on-demand CRM can certainly be the right solution for some businesses. For example, SageCRM.com can be an ideal CRM starting point for some small and mid-sized companies, enabling them to share and manage customer information across all departments. It's often a quick and easy fit, and can go a long way in installing a "CRM culture" within a growing business. What's more, as these businesses expand, it's straightforward to transfer the SageCRM.com database to an in-house CRM system (and migration to on-site Sage CRM is seamless). Similarly Microsoft CRM is an on-demand (hosted) CRM solution built with the same code base as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Professional Edition. It has a variety of options to fit business needs, with the ability to easily migrate data as businesses evolve.

So how do you tell if on-demand CRM software is right for your company? Like any other major project, specify what your company needs from a CRM system, what your requirements are, and how you would like them to be achieved. Don't get distracted by the perceived benefits that some on-demand CRM systems initially seem to offer: they may not be as good as they first appear. And watch the costs. CRM is a long-term business strategy and cultural shift, and needs to be though through thoroughly.

Source: Peter Elgar link


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