Most CRM Software offerings are designed for a specific market segments and fall into one of three categories; Small Business CRM, Midsize CRM and Enterprise CRM.  This paper highlights several areas that differentiate the market segments and where Commence CRM fits in the industry.  The differences traditionally lie in the following areas.

Scope of Functionality

Enterprise CRM solutions offer a comprehensive suite of applications that automate sales, marketing and customer service functions. Small business solutions are typically designed to address account and contact management with some offering basic sales functionality.

Commence CRM fits squarely between the two and offers functionality that rivals many enterprise level solutions at an affordable cost.  In addition to offering applications for lead management, sales management and marketing, Commence CRM also provides a fully integrated project management and help desk or customer service application with a knowledgebase and FAQ section.

Scalability

Enterprise CRM systems are built on complex architectures that are designed to support several hundred to a few thousand users while Small Business solutions are best served for home based or small businesses of 2 to 20 people.  Commence CRM uses a robust Java based architecture that has been proven to provide outstanding performance to companies of 20 to 200 plus users.

Customization

Enterprise CRM solutions are highly customizable, but traditionally require professional engineers for major changes.  Commence CRMoffers a high degree of end user customization allowing you to customize dashboards, and views, create saved searches, build drop down selection boxes, add custom fields and run custom reports.  Small Business CRM offers limited to no customization.

Cloud Hosting Service

One the key areas often overlooked by consumers, particularity smaller businesses, is the quality of the cloud data hosting services provided by the CRM vendor.   Enterprise CRM solution providers offer best in class cloud hosting services from organizations like Rackspace or the Amazon cloud.  Commence CRM has a strategic alliance with Rackspace for cloud hosting services.  Small Business CRM providers due to their low cost traditionally use second or third tier cloud hosting services.

Customer Support Services

CRM solutions require a serious investment in time and resources in order to improve how you market, sell and provide service to your customers and get a high return on your investment.  Companies that serve the enterprise market offer an array of services for implementation, training and customization of their products.  Commence CRM realizes that many smaller organizations may require assistance in several areas, and has created an “Onboarding program” to ensure that every customer gets the assistance they need to realize the maximum value from the solution.  Small Business CRM vendors traditionally offer only self-service and e-mail support.  This is because the limited functionality provided by these products require little more.

The selection of CRM software does not have to be as difficult as it appears. If you require more than basic account and contact management functionality, desire some scalability to support future growth, have unique business requirements that require customization, want to have your data protected by a world class cloud hosting service and expect a level of service that ensures you realize a rapid return on your investment, you need Commence CRM.   Visit us at commenceaug202.wpengine.com and talk with one of our experts or ask for a free trial.