Cloud CRM Vendors – Not For Beginners

Posted by Commence on July 1, 2011 under CEO Corner | Read the First Comment

The hype about cloud computing is all around us from television commercials, to businesses to college campuses and for good reason. Cloud computing has shown to provide exceptional value to businesses both large and small enabling them to scale their business and computer resources quickly with minimal upfront investment. In the Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) sector, CRM software providers are including “cloud computing” in their marketing materials and product presentations, but there are some false claims about some of the vendor’s cloud environments and multi-tenant architectures. This is because cloud computing is evolving and there is little consistency with regard to its definition or its meaning among consumers.

Cloud computing is all about providing shared configurable computer resources such as servers, applications, storage and other computer related services. Similar to application software hosting, cloud computing is a service, but with several very important differences. Cloud computing enables a customer to scale their computing requirements upward and downward often without vendor intervention, share virtual resources in a multi-tenant environment, access data anytime and anywhere via a PC, tablet or mobile device and pay only for the computer processing and resources utilized. Unlike a hosting service tied to a specific server or servers, with cloud computing the access to computer resources can in effect be limitless.

Providing application software that performs properly in a cloud computing environment is not for the faint hearted. It starts with the selection of a world class cloud computing service, offered by several companies including RackSpace and Amazon.com as examples. This is coupled with CRM software that has been designed for a multi-tenant architecture and can perform well under high transaction volumes. Many CRM vendors have struggled with delivering reliable and scalable software solutions in a hosted environment and simply do not have the experience to migrate their solutions to the cloud. As a result many customers have experienced poor performance and downtime. The way to avoid this is to select an established proven CRM software provider that has the experience and track record for delivering their customer management software in the cloud.

Companies like Commence Corporation have been delivering software as a service or (SaaS) based solutions for several years. Commence began as a hosting service and has evolved into a true cloud based computing offering that offers the scalability, resource pooling, reliability and performance you would expect from a top rated CRM software provider.

For more information about Commence CRM and the Commence cloud services, call one of our experts at 1-877-266-6362 or visit the company’s web site at www.commence.com.

Image Credit: by Bpgriner at en.wikipedia source Wikimedia Creative Commons

Commence Corporation to Offer Cloud Computing Option

Posted by Commence on October 13, 2009 under Commence News | Read the First Comment

Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions designed specifically for small- to mid-size businesses, today announced details of the new cloud computing edition of its award-winning CRM software. The new offering, planned for January 2010, will initially be deployed for the Amazon Web Service’s Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) environment.

Amazon EC2 is a Web service that provides resizable computing capacity for the “cloud,” enabling users to increase or decrease capacity needed for applications within minutes. In the EC2 environment, Commence’s popular CRM software will be run on secure, shared servers; customers will not need a data center, additional office space, or a technology team. The service will be offered under a subscription model, enabling customers to pay only for the functionality they desire.

“We are excited to leverage Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing environment and take advantage of the increased scalability, high availability, reliability and disaster recovery options that it offers, ” commented Todd Pape, chief technology officer at Commence. “This approach enables us to offer a world-class solution to our customers at a fraction of the cost of implementation on their own. In addition, the service leverages Amazon’s global cloud data centers enabling Commence to further extend our service within Europe.”

Commence provides a central CRM database for capturing, managing and sharing vital customer information, while customers retain ownership of data and business processes. It can be tailored to fit different industries and business requirements and, with the cloud technology, there are no restrictions on customizability. Its adaptable, modular design allows users to select applications from a comprehensive suite of business CRM functions, including contact management, lead management, activity management, sales force automation, marketing and campaign management, quoting, project management and customer service.