Loading ...On Demand CRM has become a household phrase and is the choice of many companies who are looking for a low-cost and rapid deployment CRM solution. There are many benefits to outsourcing your CRM system to companies like salesforce.com or Netsuite which Alexandra Scoulas, Senior Manager from BearingPoint talks about over at CRM Today.
From her article, she covers the following advantages of going with an On Demand CRM solution:
- Rapid time-to-value (being able to sidestep your IT organization)
- On Demand CRM challenges companies to simplify their processes
- Focus on process improvement vs spending money on automating inefficient processes
There are some trade-offs however, for these On Demand CRM benefits which most project managers don’t realize until after the fact. Here are the high-level points she mentions:
- Out of the box, On Demand CRM works best for simple to moderately complex sales processes
- More complex opportunities require configuration or custom code, which takes time to develop and test
- Data integration with other systems can be tedious. Third-party middleware or special APIs may be needed
Overall, On Demand CRM solutions are a great fit for smaller to medium-sized companies with less sales or system complexities. It’s of course expected that as a company grows, it gets more complex and difficult to fit directly into an out-of-the-box CRM solution. Those require a more custom solution and usually entail many many months of on site consulting services before it can be launched. Compare that to a few weeks if you’re a smaller company. Regardless, in-house CRM is so 1990’s and the future of software is moving to open-source and online. Better jump on the train before it’s too late.
On Demand CRM’s is the future of the CRM industry. With such leaders in the industry such as Salesforce, Sugar CRM, and Entellium they are further progressing where the industry is going and doing. With a non hosted CRM you are having to deal with server maintenance, frequent backups, (Which should be mandatory for any business) and IT personal ( We all know how fun the IT department is to deal with.) With On Demand CRM’s it takes out all of those responsibilities. Mind you that you should still back up all of your information, but that is a different story. I personally feel that it is in most companies best interest to go to a Hosted CRM.