We all know that the CRM solutions have been available for quite some time now. The first of the kind CRM tools were first unveiled more than two decades back and varied features are commoditized. More of the new vendors have been consistently pushing the boundaries of the CRM capabilities and also reviewing the different capabilities that are not mainly core to CRM alone.
Old companies are consistently working on the varied capabilities that help them appear different from others such as verticalised offering, mobile offering, product meant to fit into a particular size or the complexity of a firm.
Most of the CRM purchasers should remember that more capabilities are not always better as more can cause lot of confusion. In fact, when you do not require or in no position to use additional functionality, it is better to avoid. Hence, it is important to properly carry out evaluation to choose the best solution that is sized in accordance of requirements.
Some of the relevant categories and criteria that needs to be evaluated comprise of-
- Easy to use
Research displays that 58% of the employees interface with the clients directly or indirectly. Some of the client facing teams does not enjoy the luxury of involving in configuring or even customizing the CRM user experiences. The user experience has to be ‘out of the box’ as the CRM vendors are intuitive as they work on varied devices or platforms that are being used by the team and it does not hamper productivity in any possible manner.
- Process management
Smaller client facing teams enjoy simpler processes and also less organizational hierarchies. Difficult varied step scripted processes is likely to be less relevance in such cases, hence it is important to realize the difference between ‘process-centric’ CRM solutions and ‘interaction-centric’ CRM tools.
- Cloud solutions
Research shows that most of the CRM implementations are being carried out in cloud due to the client preference. The cloud deployment helps in unveiling innovation in a speedy way to the clients and employees and at the same time, require less IT overhead costs, which is an essential criteria for small companies.
Cloud CRM tool always lighter in weight and not always offer support to the industry processes that are present in on-premise CRM tools.
- Functionality requires created by scale
Smaller firms are developing marketing initiatives for the smaller product portfolio are able to generate leads for a singularly focused sales team and also have simpler client service processes in comparison to the big companies. It is important to ensure that the breadths of CRM capabilities are able to match to the right size of businesses.
- Integration
It is believed that the smaller firms require ‘out of the box’ integration for a range of apps meant for marketing automation solutions and telephony providers. The vendors who have been able to impress the big MNCs have not been able to successfully create complete integration solutions due to the reason that enterprise CRM tools are often customized in a manner that any vendor-delivered interface do not engage in tricking.
The smaller teams are required to completely define the CRM solution ecosystem and also engage in integration requirements as they won’t enjoy access to technical support when the system stops functioning.
- Capabilities able to offer support to international operations
It comprises of capabilities to support teams in varied geographies, languages and is also able to accommodate the local currency and time zones.
- Pricing
The smaller client facing teams have budget constraints despite competing against the giant MNCs. In such a case, these price conscious purchasers require a price points, operating costs as they did not aim to hamper their budget in no way.
- History of vendor
Either many CRM vendors have been bought or have engaged in acquisition in the past 5 years.
It is relevant that when you are opting for a CRM, understanding the history of the product is essential as quite a few company resources are dedicated to the product innovation section.
Old companies are consistently working on the varied capabilities that help them appear different from others such as verticalised offering, mobile offering, product meant to fit into a particular size or the complexity of a firm.
Most of the CRM purchasers should remember that more capabilities are not always better as more can cause lot of confusion. In fact, when you do not require or in no position to use additional functionality, it is better to avoid. Hence, it is important to properly carry out evaluation to choose the best solution that is sized in accordance of requirements.
Some of the relevant categories and criteria that needs to be evaluated comprise of-
- Easy to use
Research displays that 58% of the employees interface with the clients directly or indirectly. Some of the client facing teams does not enjoy the luxury of involving in configuring or even customizing the CRM user experiences. The user experience has to be ‘out of the box’ as the CRM vendors are intuitive as they work on varied devices or platforms that are being used by the team and it does not hamper productivity in any possible manner.
- Process management
Smaller client facing teams enjoy simpler processes and also less organizational hierarchies. Difficult varied step scripted processes is likely to be less relevance in such cases, hence it is important to realize the difference between ‘process-centric’ CRM solutions and ‘interaction-centric’ CRM tools.
- Cloud solutions
Research shows that most of the CRM implementations are being carried out in cloud due to the client preference. The cloud deployment helps in unveiling innovation in a speedy way to the clients and employees and at the same time, require less IT overhead costs, which is an essential criteria for small companies.
Cloud CRM tool always lighter in weight and not always offer support to the industry processes that are present in on-premise CRM tools.
- Functionality requires created by scale
Smaller firms are developing marketing initiatives for the smaller product portfolio are able to generate leads for a singularly focused sales team and also have simpler client service processes in comparison to the big companies. It is important to ensure that the breadths of CRM capabilities are able to match to the right size of businesses.
- Integration
It is believed that the smaller firms require ‘out of the box’ integration for a range of apps meant for marketing automation solutions and telephony providers. The vendors who have been able to impress the big MNCs have not been able to successfully create complete integration solutions due to the reason that enterprise CRM tools are often customized in a manner that any vendor-delivered interface do not engage in tricking.
The smaller teams are required to completely define the CRM solution ecosystem and also engage in integration requirements as they won’t enjoy access to technical support when the system stops functioning.
- Capabilities able to offer support to international operations
It comprises of capabilities to support teams in varied geographies, languages and is also able to accommodate the local currency and time zones.
- Pricing
The smaller client facing teams have budget constraints despite competing against the giant MNCs. In such a case, these price conscious purchasers require a price points, operating costs as they did not aim to hamper their budget in no way.
- History of vendor
Either many CRM vendors have been bought or have engaged in acquisition in the past 5 years.
It is relevant that when you are opting for a CRM, understanding the history of the product is essential as quite a few company resources are dedicated to the product innovation section.