If you’re just getting ready to make a move to the cloud in your contact center or sales organizations, you may be a bit overwhelmed by the number of vendors and choices available in both arenas. Given how critical customer relationship management (CRM) is to a sales organization today, choosing the right solution means understanding not only the features of the solutions available, but your own contact center’s needs.

The best choice in cloud CRM allows companies to keep track of potential customers or existing customers, access all relevant data, and know their preferences, blogged Pravin Anchan recently on Cloud Computing Path. It allows sales personnel to keep in touch with customers and prospect and via a variety of channels, according to customer preference: e-mail, voice calls, faxes, Web and face-to-face visits. The solution should be built in a way that it can be accessed by all personnel who require it regardless of where those individuals are located, allowing them to access data and provide quick responses to customers and prospects.

Different cloud-based CRM solutions will have different features, and it’s a good idea to understand in advance which features you need and which ones you don’t. This way, when you go shopping for a solution, you will be less overwhelmed.

“Look for features such as calendar alerts, remote sync facility, to-do list, dialing capabilities, on premise as well as mobile access,” wrote Anchan. “It is also important that the solution you pick integrates smoothly with Outlook or other mail clients. Ease of use is another important feature. Design interface, navigation and accessing features should be simple and easy and work well on desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.”

Also consider whether you require features like automated e-mail campaign features, tracking, reporting and real-time alerts.

Another important consideration is the size of your business. Many solutions providers have a one-size-fits-all approach, and smaller companies are simply offered chopped up versions of enterprise solutions. Many cloud CRM providers such as Soffront offer two distinct solutions: small business CRM and enterprise CRM.

Enterprises requiring full-featured solutions that enable sales and marketing automation, customer support, project management, help desk solutions and mobile CRM. Smaller companies can purchase only what they require (and pay month-to-month with no long-term contracts) and get started in minutes with integrated apps to automate sales, marketing and customer service.

While buying the wrong cloud-based CRM solution is not at catastrophic as purchasing the wrong premises-based solution, it will still waste time and money, not to mention your organization’s productivity. By understanding what you need in advance, you can cut right to the chase in picking a solution ensure you get what you want and avoid paying for what you don’t.