CRM Software solutions are a fundamental portion of the sales, marketing and customer service of most organisations. Today, CRM Software dwells far further than these functions to manage all business requirements. This has been termed by the people at Microsof company as xRM – (x) anything Relationship Management. Choosing which solution is right for your company is not easy and often companies compare different CRM offerings. Two of the major CRM software applications on the market are Microsof company نرم افزار CRM Mechanics CRM and Salesforce.
There was a time using these two CRM software applications the selection was more non colored documents. You either looked at software implemented in-house (Microsoft Mechanics CRM) v the software-as-a-service model (Salesforce).
Now that Microsof company has moved into the fog up with their software as a service model and Salesforce now has a development platform with its “Force” offering your options are now blurred.
Salesforce was founded in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Salesforce calls itself “the enterprise cloud-computing company”. Sales Cloud™ and Service Cloud™ are Salesforce’s applications for sales and customer service. Their approach to the fog up precessing deployment model has led to them developing the force. com fog up platform enabling developers and users to build business applications on top of the Salesforce offering.
Microsof company Mechanics CRM, created by Microsof company product team with vast resources was pre-loaded with a long-term vision that will allow Customers to use CRM with multiple Microsof company products and choose deployment options to meet organisational needs.
IT specialist Springboard found Foreign and New Zealand was already the most mature market for SaaS applications in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to BRW Mag the market is tipped to grow 45% a year in Australia and New Zealand from $UA 1. 7 thousand in 2008 to $US7. 7 thousand by 2012. The mag also referred to customer relationship management software as the most popular SaaS application (35 percent) and that “companies in Australia are using SaaS because it’s cheaper, rather than because it’s better to use. Only 9 percent mentioned “ease of use” as the reason for choosing SaaS.
Choice and Flexibility
With a multitenant CRM solution, Microsof company Mechanics CRM offers any number of deployment options, depending on your needs. On-demand, on-premise, and partner-hosted models are around for Microsof company Dynamic CRM. If your deployment requirements change so too can your CRM software deployment options as each deployment option is created for a passing fancy modern construction and data model. For example, you can take your configurations and data visible by Microsof company and move to In-House as well as to a Microsof company Partner web based CRM software visible model. Salesforce platform offers SaaS by the Fog up and you don’t own the software and configurations. If you want to change to an in-house solution you need to move to another CRM application. You need to factor the cost of getting your data out of Salesforce. Depending on the level of subscription you acquire for Salesforce there have been reports of your data being held hostage. This is, depending on your level of subscription you need to upgrade your subscription in order to move important computer data.
Cost
Salesforce claims to cost significantly less but Microsof company Mechanics CRM contends that the comparison is not for like services. A-la-carte pricing that is additional to potential price nature hikes at contract revival time can significantly affect the complete cost of Salesforce. When assessing comparable online products between the two opponents, Microsof company Mechanics CRM Online is available for less than 50% of the Salesforce fee. The latest pricing in the country indicates that “Microsoft CRM [Online] runs $44-59 per user per month, compared to $125 for Salesforce” Professional Edition.
Entry price for Salesforce is cheaper but if you want more functionality you obviously have to pay more. With Microsof company CRM you have access to the total system from the moment you first purchase. Your purchase decision should never be based on solely on price as its only one component in the decision making process. Those that buy first time around on price usually call back 6-24 months later asking for help. From personal experience decision makers who purchase solely on price first time around re-purchase the second time around on service. To compare in-house versus visible pricing you need to calculate over a 3-5 year period and not just 1 year.
Ownership of Data
Salesforce, as a software-as-a-service provider, does not own the data collected by its customers. Instead, its data organisations are outsourced to Equinix, an authorized company in the country and Singapore. With Microsof company CRM for in-house, and partner visible options, customers have full control over the security and physical location of their data. You can swap and take important computer data between these options. Microsof company CRM Online visible by Microsof company will be released in Australia late 2010 and the data will be visible in Singapore. Again, you can realize your desire to move from visible to in-house but the online model will have some polices around customisation code. In order for Salesforce customers to get development platform capabilities they must buy the unlimited version.
User friendly
Microsof company Mechanics CRM is designed for easy user adoption for its similarity and compatibility with Microsof company Office and Outlook. Simply put, it is designed to minimize the importance for training, reduce application switching, and produce high productivity. With the launch of Microsof company CRM 5 or 2011 its release name), Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 the GUI (interface) between the three product suites becomes very similar in look and feel. This provides users with an easy to learn experience and greater chance of user uptake.
Salesforce graphic software is modern and may be easy to use for most users. The integration to Microsof company Outlook and Office is reported as much less strong as Mechanics CRM especially for MS Shine in life and Outlook. Those using Google Mail will find Salesforce to their liking.
Both Salesforce and Mechanics CRM have similar web template modules including sales staff automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, document management, contract management, product list management and reports. Although each module for each product has its strengths and flaws side-by-side you need to evaluate each application module against your business requirements (and not user likeability).
Often an organisation short lists three CRM applications to be presented to its users. Evaluation should not be based heavily (if at all) on the users liking the look and feel of the graphic software. The users of an organisation tend to agree on one CRM application as by nature we feel most comfortable with what we already know. If you ask a salesman who has been using a paper diary for 30 years, what is better? A paper based or CRM system the answer is always paper! Over the years I have witnessed three different systems put in front of users at different organisations and there is never a clear winner for the CRM application chosen.
At present, Salesforce has a lot of easy to use business add-on products for its core offerings built on its force. com platform. Microsof company has a host of ISV Partners who have built add-on products to Microsof company CRM but it’s not as easy to find these add-on’s spread out across the globe on various websites. Microsof company has just launched Pinpoint that allows you to search globally for Partner software solutions. Also, Microsof company CRM Mechanics Online does not supply same access to write custom code in a sandbox because Microsof company did not want outside code in a application, but with Microsof company Blue, ISVs can execute their own code.