Since every company is different, the requirements you may have to choose a CRM will be different. From the experience generated through countless conversations with customers, implementations and market analysis, we see that there are common denominators to be taken into account when successfully selecting the most appropriate CRM.
This article describes different important areas to consider when selecting a CRM.
Functional Evolution
There are many portals that contain information about business applications, a comparison of functions, prices and sometimes also customer ratings.
The list of functions is a current picture of the functions offered by the applications, however of equal importance as the current list of functions is the evolution of these functions and the impact they may have on the customer.
The best CRMs are those that have demonstrated to grow functionally responding to the needs of the Digital Economy generating financial, technological or usability impact for the customers.
Architecture
All those who are familiar with construction know that the most important thing is to build a good foundation that will serve as a basis for the rest of the building.
As for business applications, such as a CRM, the architecture of the system determines its flexibility and above all its ability to evolve.
A robust and flexible architecture has from the outset considered "responsive" screens, easy profiling as well as implementation of languages, currencies and functions. With the current regulatory pressure, a CRM that meets the necessary data protection requirements is important in order to avoid costly processes or even major penalties in the future.
Contribution to Competitiveness
We live in a Digital Economy that requires companies to be very flexible, fast, increasingly efficient and effective.
The best CRMs are those that contribute to achieve performance indicators such as:
Flexibility - easy adaptation to the data and process model
Speed - Creation, adaptation and launch of new products, in days instead of months
Efficiency - Reduction of operational costs in customer management (through specialized tools and digital interactions) and in internal management (through digital collaboration)
Effectiveness - Manage and reuse the knowledge of the company's experts to constantly improve business process results.
Total cost of ownership (TCO)
Price comparisons can not always give an exact picture of what is really important for the company: "real cost of using the product/service". These costs depend on the type of license (perpetual + maintenance or annual), the type of installation (shared cloud, own cloud or local company servers) and the additional (own) programs created to integrate with the CRM.
Here are some of the additional cost areas to consider when calculating the actual cost of a CRM
Functional Evolution The cost of CRM evolution applies whenever the company has to pay for new versions. Additionally, it applies the cost of the functional evolution of the software created specifically to extend the functionality of the CRM.
Reduced Productivity The cost of productivity applies when Users lose efficiency in their work due to the use of the new CRM, if the CRM environment is unstable or service stops are necessary to upgrade to new versions
Conclusión
CRMs are complex systems like companies are complex organizations. The focus of value must be on the needs and flexibility of the organization today and in the future. These are important areas to analyze when contracting a customer relationship management system.
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