Small Business CRM Software

Before 10 years or so, the last thing a small business owner may opt for his business will be a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. At that time, the CRM industry was ruled by licensed (we now call them ‘on-premise’) software providers. The purchasing price and installation costs were too high. Worst thing is that companies may require a technical team to configure the software and maintain the system. The scenario has changed drastically, small businesses now implement cutting-edge CRM systems at very low costs; an advantage which small businesses receive by ‘being small’. CRM software has become a basic requirement for all businesses. Introduction of web based CRM (we call them ‘on-demand’) solutions has founded a new era in small business management. They eliminated the need of spreadsheets and costly communication and data sharing tools. Web based CRM software offered more advantages to small businesses including no cost of purchase, low cost of implementation, no cost for maintenance and updates, minimum technical knowledge, any-time any-where accessibility, increased business collaboration, better customer contacts and lead management, in-depth analysis and reports, and lots more.There are several factors which contributed to today’s on-demand CRM boom. The first is the improvement in internet speed and availability of internet in a variety of devices. Second is the invention of powerful database driven web-based systems, and development of modern scripting languages like AJAX and ASP. Third is the easiness to construct or hire a centralized database at lowest ever costs. Other factors include advancement in mobile technology, websites turning out to be a major business place, increased availability of open-source products, and also the limitations of licensed CRM systems.Now a small business can implement effective Customer Relationship Management software with no money in hand. The only cost involved is the monthly fee, which is usually calculated on per user basis. The lesser the number of employees (software users), the lesser you pay monthly. The web based interface (dashboard) is also simple to interact, just like your dashboard in a social site. All data are stored, sorted and updated in a remote database; so businesses never have to worry about that. But still there are many things to be consider before going for small business CRM solutions. These include data security, data integration, data ownership and pricing plans. Going through the data security and data ownership declaration is very important when choosing a CRM vendor. Data integration, once was a big problem, can be effectively analyzed by using the CRM free trails. Many vendors have complex multi-tier pricing plans, which may complicate your business growth and monthly software costs.