Category: Hosted CRM

Having just written about why Richard thinks on-premise CRM is better than on demand CRM, it’s time to talk about the opposite from Eric’s point of view. Eric favors on-demand CRM and goes on to explain the key benefits.

A common belief is that on the man systems are unable to integrate with companies existing systems. That’s not necessarily true since most on-demand applications come with open APIs which allows you to integrate easily.

An API is basically tech talk for any system. APIs allow one system to talk to another system in a very open way. When you tell developers within your company that a system as an API, they are usually thrilled because it means a lot less custom work and hacks to allow the systems to communicate.

Another common belief that Eric talks about is that on-demand applications lack functionality and aren’t very flexible. It’s funny though because a study done by Gartner estimates that 50% or more of software functionality never gets used. What does that mean? Functionality can sometimes be overrated and never used within an organization. Continue reading “Why On-Demand CRM is Better Than On-Premise CRM”

On Demand CRM has become a household phrase and is the choice of many companies who are looking for a low-cost and rapid deployment CRM solution. There are many benefits to outsourcing your CRM system to companies like salesforce.com or Netsuite which Alexandra Scoulas, Senior Manager from BearingPoint talks about over at CRM Today.

From her article, she covers the following advantages of going with an On Demand CRM solution:

• Rapid time-to-value (being able to sidestep your IT organization)
• On Demand CRM challenges companies to simplify their processes
• Focus on process improvement vs spending money on automating inefficient processes

There are some trade-offs however, for these On Demand CRM benefits which most project managers don’t realize until after the fact. Here are the high-level points she mentions: Continue reading “Is On Demand CRM Really Important?”

Lucent Technologies, the telecommunications equipment giant, outsources
upward of 85 percent of its manufacturing to its contract manufacturers’ 20-plus locations worldwide, along with its own integration centers. Needless to say, it’s not easy to coordinate across different time zones and different vendors.

So Lucent has contracted with Kinaxis, a software provider offering specialized coordination services for electronics manufacturing services (EMS), to integrate data from the manufacturing resource planning systems of those various contract manufacturers. Using Kinaxis’ RapidResponse, “Everyone can see what needs to happen and who needs to act,” says Arvind Ballakur, senior manager, supply chain networks at Lucent. “The only way we can effectively manage our supply
chain is through global visibility and close coordination with our partners.”

Continue reading “SaaS: Taking the Worry out of Service”

There is no denying the increasing business trend to harness the
power of the Internet to not only get their message out, but to manage
their customer responses.

For millions of companies the Internet provides a medium to service
their customer interests, and facilitate greater communication.

However, managing, tracking and reporting on this information
was, until recently, accomplished by either enormously expensive custom
solutions such as Siebel, SAP or Oracle, or by using out of the box
software that offered limited capabilities, required heavy
customization, integration and constant maintenance.

Continue reading “Why Software-As-A-Service CRM Is Here To Stay”

Hosted or on-demand solutions now offer a serious alternative to the complexities and risks associated with traditional CRM solutions. Consequently, more and more companies are discovering that hosted CRM solutions simplify the management of complex business processes resulting in low risk, low cost, rapid ROI and high value.

Here are four main reasons why more and more companies are considering hosted CRM:

Continue reading “What Do Hosted CRM Solutions Get You, Anyway?”

In the wake of announcements last week that Microsoft is delaying the consumer version of the next-generation Vista operating system, the company issued a statement on Sunday to highlight a few of its software initiatives on the business front.
Most notably, Microsoft announced it has created a hosted version of its customer-relationship management (CRM) application and has developed prepackaged "connectors" with the aim of giving users more flexibility in deploying CRM applications in multiple divisions in a company.

Continue reading “MS CRM Software – Microsoft Unveils Their Hosted Model”

In a now legendary 1995 memo, bill Gates raised the alarm that Microsoft was woefully unprepared for what he termed the “Internet Tidal Wave.” Fast forward 10 years to last October, and Gates blasts out another high-priority e-mail, this time warning of a coming “services wave” of applications available instantly over the Internet. “The next sea change is upon us,” he writes.

Continue reading “Software as A Service: The Next Big Thing”

CRM may be the largest Software as a Service (SaaS) market, but it is by no means the only one. If current trends continue, it may well lag behind the new software sectors moving to adopt the SaaS model.

One hot sector is compliance management, which is now the second largest SaaS market segment, according to a research note by Gartner.

Continue reading “SaaS Spreading Beyond CRM”

"We are not surprised to see Microsoft looking to target enterprise customers given the scalability of the platform as compared to earlier releases of the product," Benjamin Holtz, CEO of Green Beacon Solutions, told CRM Buyer. The customization capabilities in Version 3.0 allow partners and systems integrators to build vertical or industry specific functionality, he noted.

Continue reading “Microsoft CRM Gains Traction Among Enterprises”