Entry

What Are The Benefits of Hosted CRM?

Aug 3rd, 2006 19:15
David Cowgill, http://www.sales-force-software.com/CRM-on-Demand-Benefits.html

If you want an affordable way to improve online customer service
immediately, then consider an outsourced solution. Easy maintenance,
implementation, and low cost and high value are driving the growth of
hosting in the marketplace. CRM Buyer quoted Denis Pombriant who said
that setup costs for hosted CRM solutions approach zero.
"It's one of the big selling points," he said. "You can be up and
running today for peanuts."
For example, costs of setting up CRM solution in-house ranges from
$50,000 to $500,000, to be conservative. There's also the cost of
maintaining a full-time customer service staff. In-house solutions also
can take months to deploy.
However, deploying a serviced application is much quicker and far less
expensive no more than a few days or weeks to start up, costing an
average of $1,000 to $5,000 for setup plus a monthly service fee.
With "on-demand," as hosting is also known, you not only eliminate
infrastructure cost but also most IT hassles.
You also do not need to install a dedicated server, a server operating
system, routers, or experience the usual problems that come with
deploying such an infrastructure. Service-level agreements also protect
you from downtime and outages.
Hosting offers excellent lead tracking and routing, information access,
and "tight integration" with existing applications. User training is
often touted as another benefit of subscription-based CRM.
Businesses struggling to keep up with customer e-mail should also
consider outsourcing a Web-based CRM solution.
Interest in hosted solutions is not limited to small- and medium-size
businesses either. Pombriant said that the functionality of on-demand
systems has begun to rival that of on-premise solutions, including the
ability to customize applications.
There are three types of hosted solution providers:
   1. Application Service Providers (ASPs):
          * Host and support software, but do not develop it.
   2. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs):
          * Develop and license their own software
          * Offer it as a hosted service using third-party hosting
infrastructure
          * Hosting-only ISVs
          * Hybrid ISVs that provide in-house implementations as well as
hosted offerings.
Some hybrid ISVs produce best-of-breed software that address
functionality, customization, and integration requirements of demanding
enterprises.
Found on the Web
Here's a checklist to see if a hosting solution is right for you:
    * Your company is a conservative adopter of technology and uses
technology for operational improvement and not necessarily for strategic
competitive advantage.
    * You want to minimize the risk of an up-front investment, while
reducing implementation time.
    * You do not have adequate IT resources or do not want to invest
heavily in building and training in-house IT resources, and would rather
focus all your resources on your core business.
    * You do not have stringent industry-specific security requirements
that restrict access to your business data from outside your firewall.