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Hosted CRM Makes Good Sense
Posted by Commence on November 12, 2010 under CEO Corner | 
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Staying in touch with your customers has never been more important than it is in today’s business environment. The competition for every dollar of revenue has never been this fierce and the more the economy continues to stagger along, the harder it gets. If you want to be able to take care of your customers in an expeditious manner you need customer relationship management software that enables you to capture, track, manage and share vital information with the people and departments that need it to efficiently do their jobs.
The days of thinking you could manage all of your customers using a paper filing system are long gone, and in most cases you have far too many clients to even begin tracking in this archaic fashion. Today there are numerous choices when it comes to finding the right CRM software for your business. For the past few decades the most common solution was desktop based contact management software that was installed on your internal PCs and server. These programs did a good job of tracking basic customer information, but were limited in functionality and scalability. Many were also proprietary solutions that required updates each year in order to take advantage of new features or remain compatible with desktop operating systems. Customers that did not upgrade their software often found themselves in a very difficult and costly position as conversion to current versions of the software were expensive and simply not as easy as they had anticipated.
As with many other platforms, customer relationship management software has begun the move from internal servers to the cloud. This migration to cloud based computing offers several benefits and customers who have switched to an online CRM service are realizing a higher degree of value than they did with previous platforms. Perhaps the biggest benefit is simply the ability to access data anytime and from anywhere via an internet connection. In the past, employees using desktop CRM software often found themselves tethered to their desktop computer with access only to e-mail via their cell phone while away from the office.
The newer hosted CRM services have implemented mobile platform support for use with the latest smart phone or handheld devices. This makes it possible for your staff to access information on the go, providing sales people with the opportunity to immediately follow-up on new inquiries while your support team delights your customers with rapid customer service. Hosted CRM services also provide you with product updates and enhancements that are fully implemented for you and ensure that you remain current with the latest technology advances. This has proven to be an arduous task for IT managers maintaining in-house environments where the updates must be installed on in-house servers and desktop PCs.
Some company IT executives continue to debate the issue of desktop or on premise CRM software vs. online CRM claiming security concerns and runaway costs for hosted services each year, but industry reports indicate that web based CRM solutions are growing at a pace of more than double that of desktop software offerings. Companies are also finding that security concerns have been addressed and that due to the competitive landscape, online or web CRM offerings are now more affordable than ever. This makes the case for hosted CRM quite compelling.
If you are looking for a cost efficient way to improve sales execution and customer service and provide your staff with anytime, anywhere access to vital customer data using a PC, Apple Mac, or Mobile device, you should strongly consider an online CRM solution hosted by a reputable company. If this sounds like the winning formula for you, consider Commence CRM from Commence Corporation. The company has a twenty year track record for delivering comprehensive CRM software applications and high quality customer service.
