Hosted CRM Blog

Headline news this week from the world of hosted CRM is the coming together of Google and Salesforce.com to potentially dominate the hosted-applications market space. It will now be possible to purchase Google Applications via Salesforce.com. The partnership between the search giant and the dominant hosted CRM provider will surely have a far reaching impact on the market. Integrating products from the two companies one can now acquire a more complete database covering several aspects of customer information. Read the rest of this entry »

Headline news from the world of hosted CRM includes Sage coming under attack from WiredContact; a few CRM predictions revisited; review of SAP’s Business ByDesign; Fixed-fee services from IBIS for Microsoft CRM; Salesforce.com and SaaS BI; and a partnership between Open Systems and SPS Commerce.

WiredContact, a Philadelphia-based company, is a vendor of a browser-based CRM solution. The company positions its CRM solution as a very cheap, easy-to-deploy solution that is a great purchase for SMBs; particularly those who have tried ACT! and feel let down by it. The company site lists a host of issues that ACT! users face and is openly trying to acquire Sage resellers in the UK, who the company feels are disillusioned by Sage.

Over at TMC.net, David Sims takes a trip down memory lane and compares the present state of the CRM industry with predictions that he gathered from industry experts, such as Liz Shahnam and Dick Lee, at the turn of the century. Interestingly, none of the luminaries mentioned hosted CRM, which is by far the hottest selling cake in the bakery. Quite strange!!

A review at InsideCRM, on the offerings of SAP’s Business ByDemand ERP and CRM package that is stalled for now. SAP’s venture started amidst much fanfare and good intentions in 2007 but since then has lost a bit of steam and even invited potshots from Salesforce.com over delays in the final version of Business ByDemand. SAP is banking on Business ByDemand to help increase its customer base from 40,000 to 100,000 by 2010. Business ByDemand beats all other SaaS CRM players in terms of functionality as it aims to offer ERP via the SaaS route as well. The business areas covered by the software include finances, HR, supply chain, goals, customer relationships, projects, supplier relationships and compliance. Business ByDesign offers excellent CRM integration at the model and process levels. It is priced at $150 per user per month.

I.B.I.S Inc, a Georgia-based Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner, will deliver a fixed-fee, packaged service for Microsoft CRM. The idea behind this venture is to tap a market that works within a fixed scope and a fixed price engagement. The fixed-fee implementation service is delivered on the basis of the business requirements of the client. There are four offerings –

§ Better CRM – For clients looking for “out-of-the-box” functionalities.

§ CRM in a Box – For clients looking for a pre-configured, best of breed CRM solution.

§ CRM My Way – For clients looking to deploy customized sales, marketing, service or a combination of all three.

§ XRM – For businesses using Microsoft CRM as a platform.

A useful whitepaper detailing how to best make use of BI to extract maximum performance from your Salesforce.com CRM software. Pertinent for businesses affected by the recessive US market and looking to get the best returns for their time and money.

Finally, Open Systems Inc. and SPS Commerce have come together to provide an integrated supply chain solution for mid-market companies. Open Systems develops TRAVERSE e-business solutions; SPS is a provider of SaaS EDI services. The partnership will allow companies to communicate more effectively with their customers, suppliers, third party logistics providers, and sourcing agents by making use of the SPS B2B integration software which will link TRAVERSE customers with their trading partners.

Yeah… another sensationalist title to grab eyeballs but you know what? I think there is enough reason for companies, especially the SMBs to seriously consider the pros and cons of going for a hosted CRM or else the consequences can be disastrous for them.. including as the title mentions - a shutdown of your business.

1. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of their hosted CRM solution after 3-4 years. If you are running an SMB operation and you are set to soar after finding your feet three years from inception, you may find that your budget constraints (SMBs are budget constrained) do not allow you to keep up with the hosted offering’s upgrades and monthly subscription costs.
2. Hosted CRM vendors are not known to offer prior notice before shutting shop or hiking prices. In these situations, what happens to your data and what if you are unable to fork out what the price hike demands.
3. Similarly, at the end of a contract, what happens to your data? Hosted CRM vendors are not known for offering good migration support or migration tools
4. Every hot new technology has eager businesspeople rushing to make a quick buck. If you get caught with a half-baked vendor whose marketing spiel is better than his service, then you are in trouble. A fly-by-night operator can mean serious damage for your business and reputation.
5. The carrot of low-cost dangled by hosted vendors can often lead to SMBs following a vendor-defined path instead of adapting the CRM to their business processes.
6. SMBs grow and when they do, they need customization, hosted services are not exactly known to offer great customization, its a cost and these vendors play on the cost not on the service. A growing company can suffer serious customer service setbacks if it cannot get the customization needed to align its processes in one direction.
7. A hosted CRM is workable only when there is connectivity, what happens to your company’s mobile workforce when there is no connectivity; their output suffers and this affects business.
8. Data security!! - Yes, can a third party really offer the kind of data security that you desire. Its your call, maybe they do for the kind of business that you run. But remember that customer data is the lifeblood of a CRM operation and data with a third party can be more vulnerable to hacking and theft from competition.