CRM Opinions

Committing to a CRM system is big long-term investment.

You will end up spending much more in terms of time etc than initial licence costs so don't be swayed by that alone.

Do you have a preference for a cloud based system or one that you install on your own servers.

It is difficult to recommend a specific system without understanding your immediate and future requirements in detail.

I would consider posting a list of the features that you need (essential and desirable) and asking folks whether a system meets the need out of the box or can be achieved with an add-on or customization.

I can answer for Dynamics CRM - that is my area of expertise.

Hi Feridun,

Thanks for your reply.

I'm wanting a cloud based solution as I'd like to avoid too much investment into our internal infrastructure. The CRM package will also be used by remote retail sites.

Requirements - well this would be a nice thing to have. The business is growing extremely quickly and the Executive group like the idea of a single view of the customer. Upon further pressing of what 'a single view of the customer' actually means - it's apparent that they aren't sure and don't have the time to look. My approach (for want of a better one) is to go out and find out what is possible, put this into a matrix and get them to pick the features that they want. From that I'm hoping that there's an obvious winner which I'll then implement.

Here's the only requirements I've been able to gather (3rd day on the job):
> integrates with the call centre solution (Kayako.com)- phone number recognised and the customer team get a popup on screen with customer details, previous purchases etc
> Able to take a sale on the system or integrate with our current ordering system
> Can run targeted marketing based on customer history
> Knowledge base
> Multichannel experience weather customer contacts us via: social media, email, phone, web, catalogue, mobile etc

There is obviously so much more that will fall into scope day by day

Thanks,
Craig