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What CRM system(s) would you recommend for the micro business owner (<5 users)?
This question was asked during the Focus Webcast: CRM Smackdown: What You Need to Know Before You Buy.
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2 Answers
This is a difficult question to address with this limited information. The big question is "What are you trying to achieve?" or "What problem are you trying to solve?".
People often ask about CRM when merely interested in Contact Management or Sales Force Automation. Many of the CRM systems available address much more than just those areas. For example: Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows you to manage Marketing processes, Sales Force Automation, Customer Service and Product Support or even Field Service.
Consider this "What "relationship" am I trying to manage?". If youre managing the relationship with the client through the sale, then transitioning to a Customer Service team, the needs are different than if you need to manage the process through delivery and recurring sales.
Solve360, by Norada (http://norada.com/) allows you to manage the sales cycle all the way through Project Management. This product is SaaS and very inexpensive for
I am a Zoho Alliance partner and have found ZohoCRM to be a great solution, especially for small businesses. Having said that...
The key to a good CRM impelementation is how it solves the needs of the business, expecially the users! Get everyone involved early in the decision making process so all departments' needs are on the table(even if serveral departments are represented by the same person).
CRM is more than a contact manager, and allows the business to track all touchpoints with the contact, from marketing through sales to customer service.
The ability for everyone to access the same centralized database, view all communications with each contact, track the sales process and how the customer was handled when a problem arose are all vital pieces to CRM.
For a 5-user installtion, the cloud may be your best bet. There will be not extra stress on your infrastructure, and the data is accessable from anywhere there is an Internet connection. Online options include ZohoCRM, Sagecrm.com, and Microsoft CRM.
Good luck,
Ellen
(P.S. Full disclosure - I am certified in SageCRM too.)
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