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Should I Buy a Stand-alone or an Integrated CRM Solution?

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TMCnews Featured Article


May 20, 2011

Should I Buy a Stand-alone or an Integrated CRM Solution?

By TMCnet Special Guest
Rahul Asthana


You are responsible for IT strategy at your organization. You need to implement a CRM solution to streamline and automate your customer-facing business processes. You are at the cross-roads – you can either implement a standalone CRM solution from a popular SaaS (News - Alert) vendor or you can deploy a CRM solution that comes integrated with your (SaaS or on-premise) ERP system. How do you make such a strategic decision? In this short brief, I will provide you with a simple framework to help you choose the right path. 


Below is a simple 2X2 - with the complexity of product on one axis and the need for sales/support process to integrate into the operations such as inventory management or manufacturing on the other axis. Complex products such as machinery are made-to-order for customers and their sales process typically requires deep integration with manufacturing. Such products should be supported using an integrated CRM system. Similarly products such as laptops and computers are not as complex but are typically configured to order. The sales force also typically needs to look into manufacturing plan to commit a ship date to customers. Such environments are also better served by an integrated CRM system.

On the other hand, some organizations have well def
ined sales cycles or support processes that do not need any integration with manufacturing or inventory operations. Examples include software products that are sold by the telesales organization or call centers that provide technical support for simple products. Such organizations can easily deploy a stand-alone CRM system for customer-facing interactions. However, if they expect their sales/support processes to become more integrated in future with back office operations, they may choose to implement an integrated CRM system now. 

In the past SaaS CRM solutions were only available from standalone vendors, so if the customer wanted to deploy a SaaS CRM system, they had limited options. But now ERP vendors also deliver tightly integrated and fully functional CRM solutions in SaaS or OnDemand model. There is very little difference between the subscription prices of SaaS/OnDemand versions of stand-alone CRM systems and integrated CRM systems. As a result, the selection criterion comes down to a simple question - which solution will better support the customer-facing business processes. I believe that if the organization’s sales and support processes are tightly integrated with back-end operations, they will be better served by deploying a CRM system from their ERP vendor.

Rahul Asthana is Director of Solutions Marketing for SAP Business ByDesign, a SaaS based comprehensive business system consisting of CRM, Finance, Operations and HCM. Rahul has a Ph.D. in Management from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a BSEE from Princeton University


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Edited by Juliana Kenny







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