A wise man once asked me if I could identify the single requirement for business success. Capital? No. A Big Idea? No. A monopoly? No.  Customers? Yes! If you have customers you can always get the capital, come up with products to sell them and build a successful business. There’s never been a successful company without customers!

CRM Software

How much should you spend on CRM? Here are three surprising answers.

So it is no wonder that customer relationship management (CRM) remains one of the most popular applications in the range of ERP solutions companies deploy. In fact, CRM is often purchased as a standalone system, long before a total integrated ERP system seems like a necessity. One reason is obvious: CRM is the one application of its type with the emphasis on increasing sales, not just reducing costs. No wonder Fortune 1000-class companies have willingly spent tens of millions of dollars implementing large-scale, traditional on-premise CRM systems.

But what about CRM for the rest of us?  Small and mod-size companies cherish their customers, too, and know the path to growth starts with keeping the customers you have and getting more of them, too. Here’s a look at three very popular CRM solutions that definitely won’t break the bank or push ROI way into the future. All three are cloud solutions, with no significant hardware or software to purchase. Instead, all three charge an all-inclusive fee per user, per month. Perhaps best of all, the three are names you know, companies likely to be around well into the future: SAP, Microsoft and the pioneers in SaaS (software as a service) solutions, Salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com has close to 100,000 customers and over 2 million users, ranging from tiny sales organizations to companies as large as Qualcomm and Dell. Their lowest costs products are really just contact managers, but start as low as $15 per month per user for up to five users. But $65 a month per user buys you true CRM for any size team, including sales and marketing support, contract management, customizable forecasts, management dashboards and built-in analytics. Major corporations might opt for the $125 a month Enterprise edition that includes management tools for sales teams and territories and substantial customization tools. A related product manages customer service requirements.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers solutions for sales, marketing and customer service, all starting at just $44 per month per user, directly addressing Salesforce.com’s $65 offering. Microsoft also has Professional and Enterprise versions at higher cost. One advantage Microsoft claims is that the software is friendly and familiar to users of Microsoft Office applications and, especially, Microsoft Outlook. Search for “How much does mid-market CRM really cost?” on ERP.com for a more detailed exploration of the total cost of ownership of Microsoft’s on-demand CRM solution.

Even  ERP’s 600-pound gorilla, SAP, has jumped into the cloud CRM fray with their SaaS suite SAP Business ByDesign.  Business ByDesign, at the highest end, is a 13-module complete ERP solution for $199 per month per user. But a standalone CRM starter package, including support for sales and marketing activities is available for $89 per user per month.

Users seeking strictly a low-cost, high –function CRM solution will want to compare Salesforce.com and Microsoft. For those leaning towards a complete cloud ERP system, with some employee’s access limited to sales and marketing tools, the SAP solution is worth a serious look.

Written by :

tracey boxer