Web based CRM

Web based CRM has slowly but steadily made inroads into the main CRM industry and I must admit it is time it established itself. To me a good CRM package should be able to deliver information across the entire enterprise. Another advantage of a web based CRM is the multitude of services it can offer. Voice enabled chat, automated tele-response; email, online and offline help provide an integrated CRM solution. I have a firm conviction that a customer would rather visit the enterprise website and access information than use any other vehicle.

The other aspect of a web based CRM is development and maintenance. Our focus should be on providing quality assistance to our customers and peripheral activities like developing and maintaining the CRM system should ideally be outsourced. Fortunately there are numerous vendors operating in this space. They offer setting up of systems, install software, running CRM operations, up gradation and continuous maintenance. The only point I would like to emphasize here that the contract with a vendor must be detailed covering the entire scope of work and technical specifications. With the right contract in place, we can ensure quality service to our customers.

The best part is that Web based CRM solutions are available as freeware. For complex solutions I would recommend partnering with professional CRM providers who have been proactive in this area. It certainly seems as if web based CRM solutions are the way ahead and you might as well embrace them now.

So, you want a hosted contact center?

A hosted contact center with a third party raises visions of dollar savings for most businesses. However, there are certain factors to keep in mind if you wish to benefit from efficiencies that arise from a hosted contact center.

Be sure to provide a dedicated line for your contact center traffic so that it does not have to compete with email and other applications for bandwidth. Bifurcate corporate traffic and contact center traffic, you may have to invest in a new WAN connection and router. Another alternative is to increase your network bandwidth so that contact center performance does not suffer because of corporate staff surfing the net and sending large email attachments. However, you need to be aware of peak loads that can increase latency in contact center communication.

Get an SLA from the vendor to cover various performance parameters such as latency and uptime. Spikes and valleys in latency can cause frustration to customers and prospects that may be on line at that time.

So, an SLA, an internal infrastructure, and your own security measures are some pre-requisites that you need to consider for a hosted contact center solution.

Advantages of web-based CRM for your SMB

Web-based CRM has come on very strongly as a viable alternative to on-premise CRM. This is great news for SMBs who earlier could not afford on-premise CRM because of its prohibitive costs.

Some of the advantages of a web-based CRM system for an SMB include:

• A tremendous cost saving as you pay only for what you use besides you are not required to maintain an IT team, you can also free precious real estate which would otherwise be used for placing servers and other hardware
  
• A great opportunity for SMBs to test the CRM waters before adding more functionalities and modules. SMBs can explore business ideas that they were earlier unable to execute because of poor information on sales and marketing opportunities
  
• Greater scope to close deals and resolve customer queries by the field staff that remains connected to the database via the internet
  
• Smooth and inexpensive integration of a lot of customer-data that hitherto had been lying in discrete databases
  
• Perhaps the biggest advantage of CRM for SMBs is that it gives them a platform to compete with businesses that operate on a larger scale with larger budgets