There Is No Excuse Not To Be Deploying CRM
Martin Schneider, 02/12/2009, posted in "Analysis"
Martin Schneider is Director of Product Marketing at SugarCRM. In his role, Martin handles competitive intelligence, marketing positioning and analyst relations. Prior to joining SugarCRM, Martin held the position ...more info
Martin Schneider is Director of Product Marketing at SugarCRM. In his role, Martin handles competitive intelligence, marketing positioning and analyst relations. Prior to joining SugarCRM, Martin held the position of senior analyst with technology industry research firm the 451 Group, headquartered in NYC. Martin covered the CRM landscape for the 451, analysing and consulting on such topics as Software-as-a-Service, business intelligence and open source applications. Martin also covered the CRM space as news editor with CRM Magazine in New York. ...less info
I had an interesting IM conversation with Sugar associate Mitch Lieberman based on a blog post he wrote the other day. The post was around CRM complexity – but what sparked my imagination was a point in somewhat the opposing direction.
Yes, technology can be complex and at times frustrating. And in years past, technology was a limiting factor when it came to deploying systems like CRM. But today, a lot has changed. Now, I would argue that technology – while still complex at times – is not a barrier to CRM deployments but actually the chief enabler.
Think about it. Ten or 15 years ago you needed hardware and other infrastructure (as well as administration smarts) to get a full-fledged CRM system in place. (This is partly the reason why outdated products like Act! survived.) But now, all you need is a few laptops and an internet connection, and you’re ready to go with CRM. And not just traditional CRM – you can get into social CRM, sales 2.0, whatever you want to call it…
The costs involved are even far lower. There are open source solutions, small monthly fee SaaS and cloud options, and much of the social CRM tools like LinkedIn and Twitter are free for the most part.
So, if cost and technology are not an issue anymore – and you are not deploying a full service CRM initiative, what’s your excuse?
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