CRM: between heaven and earth
Being engaged in the introduction of business software for several years, I could not pass by the hub of “CRM”, in the open spaces of which there was an unofficial discussion of desktop adherents (on-premise, classics) and clouds (SaaS, cloud). I myself have repeatedly encountered questions related to the confrontation between a good, reliable desktop and a trendy cloud. Some customers chose clouds, others categorically insisted on the classics. Surprisingly, units even changed one CRM to another, darted between “sky” and “earth,” business processes with different implementation models behaved differently, users reacted and gave feedback.
Under the cut - conclusions, lessons learned, which can help when choosing a CRM.
I will try to talk about the two sides of both medals, based on my experience and the user history of my clients. To begin with, I propose to choose the “haunting rabbits”, which will be examples in the argument. So, choose CRM from the cloud, which most closely correspond to this name, namely amoCRM , BPM Online and Client Base , and from the desktop I will choose those that my clients choose most: Terasoft CRM , RegionSoft CRM , Client Communicator (aka KliK) and FreshOffice .
All these systems are distinguished by great functionality, technical forethought and good potential for market leadership with a hundred players. At the same time, all of them are not without flaws, which will also be of interest to users who are faced with the decision to implement CRM in their company.
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So, let's talk about the desktop and the cloud - not enemies, but nearby, equally promising and powerful technologies.
If you buy CRM on-premise, you should understand that you are buying a license - the software belongs to your company and even if the developer decides to stop development and support, you will not incur critical risks and will continue to use the software installed on your terminals. In addition, desktop CRM is data security and independence of Internet connection speed . And this is not the last argument - in the regions there are very often companies with slow Internet and forced traffic restrictions.
However, when buying desktop software, you should understand that it is necessary to maintain the server, either on your own or on an outsource . In addition, different CRMs require different servers: if you choose CRM on a lightweight and fast Firebird DBMS (for example, RegionSoft CRM ), then almost any server that does not require investments can handle it, but MsSQL is heavy and slow Clicking CRM ) will make certain demands on the hardware, otherwise you will not avoid serious progress and offensive program failures. In this regard, before the start of the implementation of CRM is to calculate the additional costs of infrastructure.
If your company has IT infrastructure deployed in the slightest degree, then buying a CRM / ERP using a SaaS model is not economically viable, primarily because the price-functionality ratio in the cloud is unbalanced: with a fairly serious price, you get only a minimal set of basic functions. In addition, a lot depends on the scope of the business . For example, in health care or insurance, data leakage can cause incredible problems. Desktop CRM protects your data from external leaks, as well as from the human factor - if the client database cannot be opened from each gadget, you get additional confidence in data integrity.
However, the cloud (SaaS) has its advantages, the most important of which is accessibility from a browser from various devices and platforms . Such accessibility, in addition to risks, provides efficiency, speed of processing tasks and the usual browser-based interface. The cloud relieves you of responsibility for the server part, facilitates infrastructure management, it is formally easier to upgrade versions. But you carry many risks, one of which is a security risk . Take, for example, data backup - you will never be completely sure that it was completed successfully and on time. Moreover, the same Client Base has serious limitations on data backup: “a daily backup of your information is stored for 1 month, that is, you can restore data for any day from the last thirty”. And this is not the desire of a specific developer to disclaim responsibility - this is an objective limitation of cloud technology.
Turning to the cloud developer, you actually give your data to a third party, and use the license itself as a service (for example, like any service of a cellular operator). Cloud CRM is quite expensive, extremely difficult to configure for a specific business, difficult to integrate with desktop services (for example, 1C, Navision). Installing and configuring cloud-based CRM is often not free as an example; however, vendors compensate for this omission with further subscription payments.
It is known that cloud services are developing in the direction of universality: they embed accounting, editors, expand planning and project management, offer entire corporate portals (Bitrix24, for example). However, now we are talking about CRM as a serious business tool, and not about a separate module of the cloud system with a client card and transaction. In addition, cloud CRM has no integrity, the SaaS system also needs a lot of additional software to work.
Refinements of cloud services to the needs of a particular business are expensive and often simply impossible, with on-premise in this regard the possibilities are much wider: any of the listed desktop CRM is being finalized upon request. In addition, desktop vendors keep up with current requirements and are already actively creating mobile versions, using network technologies, expanding functionality (which costs one click interface), working on usability and web interfaces.
I myself used cloud services, admired their colorful interfaces and beautiful "fiche". But after several implementations, another concern emerged - the market is overflowing with cloud solutions . All vendors tend to have time to bite off their piece of cloud pie. Such staggering growth rates overheat the market, making hastily assembled applications of lower quality. As international financial experience shows, sooner or later, a market consisting of hundreds of small participants turns into a market with several major players. Now is the time when the risk is high to put on the wrong horse and choose CRM, from which the vendor can refuse to support, having made the decision to restructure its business. As a result of players leaving the market, there will inevitably increase the shaft of issues related to disconnections, hosting, security, backup and transfer to the user of all his data for migration to another service.
Buying CRM is a wise investment in the development of sales and management, rather than a tribute to fashion. And I will explain why. The introduction of CRM makes it possible, first of all, to save staff time and “lead” customers, manage them, and with the automation system it is much easier than collecting data from separate tables, notes, notebooks. However, in addition to a number of important factors of an internal nature, it is important to understand the price characteristics of the acquisition of a product.
For example, take our "experimental" CRM and compare their prices, as well as pricing policies. At first glance, the cloud, for the most part, is cheaper, but you should not forget that this is the price per year, besides, the functionality of the systems is incomparably poorer than desktop competitors. Also, when buying it is necessary to take into account the competitive license for software or not. These words have already been mentioned in one of the reviews, but a detailed explanation was not followed. A competitive license (by connection) is a license that allows one and the same number of different users to be in CRM (for example, while three salespeople are in the fields, three other employees can log in under their own accounts and work in the program). Competitive license for CRM seems to me the most fair price decision because of the very essence of CRM, intended for employees who often have to leave the workplace.
Another interesting model of purchase - rent . Recently, some vendors are going to offer their software for rent (for example, RegionSoft or Clic ) - you can refuse to use the system at any time and spend less money. Rent gives you the opportunity to decide whether you need this particular software and "feel" it within your company's business model.
In the comments to the post about desktop CRM, a powerful campaign was launched to promote open source solutions as a panacea and the best way to build your IT infrastructure in sales and marketing. At first glance, the way it is - you take the source software and “finish” everything you like with a file.
However, not everything is so simple: it takes time, intelligent programmers, managers who are aware of their needs ... and money. Money to pay those very intelligent programmers. For example, in a large (non-metropolitan) city of Central Russia, the work of a high-quality programmer costs about 35-40,000 rubles, the freelancer’s work on the task of “finishing” is about the same. Work on an open source solution with adaptation to the needs of the business takes, by experience, at least six months. That is, the project will ultimately rise to at least 210,000 rubles, which is the cost of 20-25 licenses of a good desktop CRM, which will be administered by your full-time admin or a sensible administrator among the managers. In addition, you will have to constantly contact programmers and correct bugs, add new functions, deal with crashes, solve problems with databases.
Here is the opinion of Kevin Dobbs, managing consulting company (in the SaaS sphere) Montclair Advances: “Open source solutions are part of their paid competitors. In fact, some of them are free. <...> But even though bugs can be fixed quickly, open source solutions are rough around the edges. ” Indeed, custom solutions built on open source are often not so thin and developed as desktop CRM, the developers of which have absorbed the best user experience, fixed numerous bugs, implemented and implemented as refinement functions and customer requirements for improvement.
To get a working version of the open source solution, sometimes it takes a huge amount of time (and often money) to set up the service, adjust it to the needs of all internal customers. In such solutions, there is often no depth of functionality, there is always a lack of fields, forms, and integration with third-party services. A business going for the implementation of open source CRM must understand all the risks, otherwise the problems of implementation and the time for rework instead of the expected effect can lead to a minimizing of the project, or, even worse, to losses.
The choice of CRM is a serious stage in the development of any company. This process is associated with the business model of the organization, the position of management and employees, vendor policy. The decision to introduce software that automates many processes is a step towards a new round of development. Approaching this step carefully and deliberately, you will receive a qualitatively new level of relationship with your customers.
Under the cut - conclusions, lessons learned, which can help when choosing a CRM.
I will try to talk about the two sides of both medals, based on my experience and the user history of my clients. To begin with, I propose to choose the “haunting rabbits”, which will be examples in the argument. So, choose CRM from the cloud, which most closely correspond to this name, namely amoCRM , BPM Online and Client Base , and from the desktop I will choose those that my clients choose most: Terasoft CRM , RegionSoft CRM , Client Communicator (aka KliK) and FreshOffice .
All these systems are distinguished by great functionality, technical forethought and good potential for market leadership with a hundred players. At the same time, all of them are not without flaws, which will also be of interest to users who are faced with the decision to implement CRM in their company.
')
Cloud or desktop: the war of temptations
So, let's talk about the desktop and the cloud - not enemies, but nearby, equally promising and powerful technologies.
If you buy CRM on-premise, you should understand that you are buying a license - the software belongs to your company and even if the developer decides to stop development and support, you will not incur critical risks and will continue to use the software installed on your terminals. In addition, desktop CRM is data security and independence of Internet connection speed . And this is not the last argument - in the regions there are very often companies with slow Internet and forced traffic restrictions.
However, when buying desktop software, you should understand that it is necessary to maintain the server, either on your own or on an outsource . In addition, different CRMs require different servers: if you choose CRM on a lightweight and fast Firebird DBMS (for example, RegionSoft CRM ), then almost any server that does not require investments can handle it, but MsSQL is heavy and slow Clicking CRM ) will make certain demands on the hardware, otherwise you will not avoid serious progress and offensive program failures. In this regard, before the start of the implementation of CRM is to calculate the additional costs of infrastructure.
If your company has IT infrastructure deployed in the slightest degree, then buying a CRM / ERP using a SaaS model is not economically viable, primarily because the price-functionality ratio in the cloud is unbalanced: with a fairly serious price, you get only a minimal set of basic functions. In addition, a lot depends on the scope of the business . For example, in health care or insurance, data leakage can cause incredible problems. Desktop CRM protects your data from external leaks, as well as from the human factor - if the client database cannot be opened from each gadget, you get additional confidence in data integrity.
However, the cloud (SaaS) has its advantages, the most important of which is accessibility from a browser from various devices and platforms . Such accessibility, in addition to risks, provides efficiency, speed of processing tasks and the usual browser-based interface. The cloud relieves you of responsibility for the server part, facilitates infrastructure management, it is formally easier to upgrade versions. But you carry many risks, one of which is a security risk . Take, for example, data backup - you will never be completely sure that it was completed successfully and on time. Moreover, the same Client Base has serious limitations on data backup: “a daily backup of your information is stored for 1 month, that is, you can restore data for any day from the last thirty”. And this is not the desire of a specific developer to disclaim responsibility - this is an objective limitation of cloud technology.
Turning to the cloud developer, you actually give your data to a third party, and use the license itself as a service (for example, like any service of a cellular operator). Cloud CRM is quite expensive, extremely difficult to configure for a specific business, difficult to integrate with desktop services (for example, 1C, Navision). Installing and configuring cloud-based CRM is often not free as an example; however, vendors compensate for this omission with further subscription payments.
It is known that cloud services are developing in the direction of universality: they embed accounting, editors, expand planning and project management, offer entire corporate portals (Bitrix24, for example). However, now we are talking about CRM as a serious business tool, and not about a separate module of the cloud system with a client card and transaction. In addition, cloud CRM has no integrity, the SaaS system also needs a lot of additional software to work.
Refinements of cloud services to the needs of a particular business are expensive and often simply impossible, with on-premise in this regard the possibilities are much wider: any of the listed desktop CRM is being finalized upon request. In addition, desktop vendors keep up with current requirements and are already actively creating mobile versions, using network technologies, expanding functionality (which costs one click interface), working on usability and web interfaces.
I myself used cloud services, admired their colorful interfaces and beautiful "fiche". But after several implementations, another concern emerged - the market is overflowing with cloud solutions . All vendors tend to have time to bite off their piece of cloud pie. Such staggering growth rates overheat the market, making hastily assembled applications of lower quality. As international financial experience shows, sooner or later, a market consisting of hundreds of small participants turns into a market with several major players. Now is the time when the risk is high to put on the wrong horse and choose CRM, from which the vendor can refuse to support, having made the decision to restructure its business. As a result of players leaving the market, there will inevitably increase the shaft of issues related to disconnections, hosting, security, backup and transfer to the user of all his data for migration to another service.
Issue price
Buying CRM is a wise investment in the development of sales and management, rather than a tribute to fashion. And I will explain why. The introduction of CRM makes it possible, first of all, to save staff time and “lead” customers, manage them, and with the automation system it is much easier than collecting data from separate tables, notes, notebooks. However, in addition to a number of important factors of an internal nature, it is important to understand the price characteristics of the acquisition of a product.
For example, take our "experimental" CRM and compare their prices, as well as pricing policies. At first glance, the cloud, for the most part, is cheaper, but you should not forget that this is the price per year, besides, the functionality of the systems is incomparably poorer than desktop competitors. Also, when buying it is necessary to take into account the competitive license for software or not. These words have already been mentioned in one of the reviews, but a detailed explanation was not followed. A competitive license (by connection) is a license that allows one and the same number of different users to be in CRM (for example, while three salespeople are in the fields, three other employees can log in under their own accounts and work in the program). Competitive license for CRM seems to me the most fair price decision because of the very essence of CRM, intended for employees who often have to leave the workplace.
Another interesting model of purchase - rent . Recently, some vendors are going to offer their software for rent (for example, RegionSoft or Clic ) - you can refuse to use the system at any time and spend less money. Rent gives you the opportunity to decide whether you need this particular software and "feel" it within your company's business model.
A couple of words following the open source controversy
In the comments to the post about desktop CRM, a powerful campaign was launched to promote open source solutions as a panacea and the best way to build your IT infrastructure in sales and marketing. At first glance, the way it is - you take the source software and “finish” everything you like with a file.
However, not everything is so simple: it takes time, intelligent programmers, managers who are aware of their needs ... and money. Money to pay those very intelligent programmers. For example, in a large (non-metropolitan) city of Central Russia, the work of a high-quality programmer costs about 35-40,000 rubles, the freelancer’s work on the task of “finishing” is about the same. Work on an open source solution with adaptation to the needs of the business takes, by experience, at least six months. That is, the project will ultimately rise to at least 210,000 rubles, which is the cost of 20-25 licenses of a good desktop CRM, which will be administered by your full-time admin or a sensible administrator among the managers. In addition, you will have to constantly contact programmers and correct bugs, add new functions, deal with crashes, solve problems with databases.
Here is the opinion of Kevin Dobbs, managing consulting company (in the SaaS sphere) Montclair Advances: “Open source solutions are part of their paid competitors. In fact, some of them are free. <...> But even though bugs can be fixed quickly, open source solutions are rough around the edges. ” Indeed, custom solutions built on open source are often not so thin and developed as desktop CRM, the developers of which have absorbed the best user experience, fixed numerous bugs, implemented and implemented as refinement functions and customer requirements for improvement.
To get a working version of the open source solution, sometimes it takes a huge amount of time (and often money) to set up the service, adjust it to the needs of all internal customers. In such solutions, there is often no depth of functionality, there is always a lack of fields, forms, and integration with third-party services. A business going for the implementation of open source CRM must understand all the risks, otherwise the problems of implementation and the time for rework instead of the expected effect can lead to a minimizing of the project, or, even worse, to losses.
The choice of CRM is a serious stage in the development of any company. This process is associated with the business model of the organization, the position of management and employees, vendor policy. The decision to introduce software that automates many processes is a step towards a new round of development. Approaching this step carefully and deliberately, you will receive a qualitatively new level of relationship with your customers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/210320/
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