Selecting the ideal CRM

03 May, 2017 | Salesforce

There are hundreds of CRM systems on the market. Although it's true that some are outright terrible, it's usually horses for courses. It's more about how the CRM you're considering fits your business. After it's all said and done, CRMs typically fall into four categories.

Bolt-on

CRM is tacked onto another system as an additional "feature"

Plus	Minus
No cost
They store contact information	All they do is store contact information

Price guide: Included
Examples: any ERP or Account system claiming to have a built-in CRM.

Out-of-the-box

A basic "plug and play" solution.

Plus	Minus
Economical pricing	They “work how they work” with limited customisation
Cloud-based & Mobile	Usually don’t integrate with other business systems
Good for basic lead, opportunity and account management	They’re usually a short-term “bandaid” solution and don’t scale up well as business requirements evolve

Examples: PipeDrive, CapsuleCRM
Price Guide: $10 - $50 per user, per month

Industry-designed

Some Industries have “all-in-one” CRM tools that can run many functions within a business. They leverage industry knowledge and best-practices to design what they see as the best way of operating in that vertical.

Plus	Minus
They can be well thought through and align with industry norms	You have to change the way you operate to align with the way the system works
	They can remain isolated from other business systems or can cost a lot to integrate with less-robust APIs
	They’re typically smaller niche players meaning they’re potentially vulnerable to lack of investment in development and support

Examples: Fergus Trade Software, Infinitylaw
Price Guide: $20 - $60 per user, per month

Full-platform

Leading cloud technology platforms empowering businesses to build processes across almost any function from marketing and sales, through to service and project management.

Plus	Minus
Heavily customisable - with an underlying platform that can be developed on with clicks or code	They’re not cheap
Trustworthy - with multiple data centers, robust security, strong customer support and local sales representatives and consulting partners	They can be a challenge to evaluate feature-for-feature - often it’s only when you try to implement them that you realise their unique strengths, quirks and limitations
Constantly evolving - with multiple releases each year keeping their customers at the forefront	They act as a set of tools to build with. Customisation is required to drive value from the investment
One platform - that either integrates with or natively handles virtually all business functions

Examples: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365
Price guide: $50 - $250 per user, per month

Decide from the outset which CRM camp you fall into, and then evaluate competing solutions. Compare a Ferrari against a Maserati, not a Ford.

Continue to the next post in this series: Documenting your CRM requirements