Intelestream (News - Alert) recently issued a good white paper on ten considerations when purchasing a CRM system. Naturally there are more than that, but these ten, some of which are summarized here, give you a good head start on the process.

Call them the Ten CRM Commandments, if you will.

Before you buy your CRM, make sure that your company's decision makers, top executives, and stakeholders understand and embrace CRM as a business strategy.

Just as important as embracing your CRM application as a business strategy, is calculating your CRM's return-on-investment. Make no mistake: CRM is costly. Calculating exactly how much you need upfront, for maintenance and for growth are key factors.

An extension of ROI is Total Cost of Ownership. Companies need to spend a significant amount of time calculating upfront costs, such as hardware and personnel. However, there is much more to be accounted for. It is critical to realistically calculate ALL costs associated with a CRM application.

Once you've embraced the idea that a CRM application is a business strategy and you've calculated your company's ROI, it's time to focus on what you want your CRM to do for your company, clients, and business endeavors.

Once the decision to purchase a CRM application is made, a next important decision is the application delivery method -- On-Premise or On-Demand. Relatively speaking, both options offer the same functionality, yet are delivered in two distinct ways.

Migration means exactly what it sounds like: the need to move or migrate your company's data from its existing location to its new home -- your new CRM application. Understandably, migration can cause a lot of fear.

Seamless integration can save a lot of data migration pains (i.e. your valuable time and money). It can also speed up the deployment process. As you filter through optional CRM service providers, you'll want to evaluate the efficiency in which each vendor can integrate your existing business applications with the CRM.