Nowadays the globalization of trade and commerce is moving apace. Many small and medium business owners are learning how to improve their current business, sales, and marketing processes to expand the business and improve control function from remote locations worldwide. Some companies already use customer relationship management, which is gaining more and more popularity in recent days. Now there are many ready-made CRM systems on the market and a second problem arises, that businessman faces, is how to choose the right CRM system. Surely, every Entrepreneur wants to reduce costs and looking for the free CRM software, but if such software meets specific business requirements is the new tricky question for a business owner. At first glance, it seems that the CRM system implementation is a simple solution, but it is not so easy to choose the right software. You should be good at your business sphere but you should not see into everything so assign to professionals to choose the right CRM for you. It may seem that it’s easy to choose the CRM but when you start searching for the best CRM for your business, you can also come across information about ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and it may make you completely confusing. These researches will take your time, which you can more effectively spend on your business.
Based on our 4 years’ experience in CRM software development, we want to share some points and hope that will be useful for you. Let’s start with identifying the issues which CRM software should decide for you and distinguish such types of CRM:
- Operational CRM is based on customer-centric processes such as sales, marketing, and customer service and gives a complete view of each customer’s journey.
- Analytical CRM helps Top Management, Marketing, Sales and Support teams analyze customer data and identifies patterns to help them make better business decisions.
- Collaborative CRM. Organizes and shares customer information among different business departments like Sales Team, Marketing Team, Technical and Support Team and so on.
Understanding the benefits of each type of CRM will help you to choose the right one for your business. When the future goals and strategy of your business has been determined, you are ready to choose the best CRM for you. Usually, it is difficult to distinguish a specific type of CRM system that meets your goals and you need a mixed one. Some of our clients shared their experience about a long and expensive way of finding the right CRM solution. They started using CRM on saas basis but faced the following issues:
- Usually, saas CRM has a monthly subscription, i.e. you have access to your account as long as you pay for this subscription. The price of a subscription package usually depends on the access levels to a multi-level access system or the number of users that may have access to CRM, or functionality, and so on. You should be ready that some changes on your side (like number users and so no) may cause the additional fees on subscription package changing.
- All the saas CRMs have cloud storage solution, it means that the client has access to the database (customer database, catalog, waybills, reports, etc.) that could be lost when client stops using this CRM system. Also, it is very important to check the testimonials regarding data security because you will be storing all user data and reports on the CRM side.
- There is no such option like to change or extend the functionality.
- There is no option to adjust control panel settings as you wish.
- Before choosing the exact ready-made CRM, you need to spend some time by checking the testimonials about this CRM and decide if it meet your needs, has clear guidance on implementation, customization, and usability.
Using a boxed CRM solution does not cover all the business needs but caused expenses and as a result the decision to develop your own CRM solution. Let’s review which benefits you can get if decide to order a custom CRM development:
- CRM system is designed according to your business unique obstacles, goals, and needs.
- All reports are generated according to your templates (including those that are sent to special organizations like Tax Office and so on).
- Easy to use control panel. Functional, interface and ergonomics are designed according to your request and convenience.
- You get all the databases under your control (as opposed to the cloud storage solutions).
- You pay for the CRM development only, without any monthly payments.
- In the process of using the CRM system, you can add or adjust any functions of your system.
- You can unite CRM and ERM systems into one.
When you order custom CRM development especially for your business goals and needs, you can unite it with ERP that will help you manage HR, finance, manufacturing, and more.
Depending on the period of CRM using, whether it is short-term or long-term, your expenses could also vary. If you are going to use the CRM system for a long-term period then it is better to consider the possibility of custom CRM development. We hope this information was useful for you, if you have any questions please use the live chat and we will help you.
