10 Questions To Ask Before Buying CRM
We hear the same thing from so many customers when they start their research into CRM software. “We want a CRM solution, but we don’t know exactly what we’re looking for.” Many people know they need CRM, but they don’t know which product is right for them or why.
We’ve always told people that most CRM products are fairly similar, but they all have individual nuances that tailor fit them to a business’s specific need. Finding CRM software is easy. Finding the right CRM software is difficult, but will pay you back with huge dividends.
That’s why Softwarefit has created a list of 10 questions you should ask before taking the next step in CRM selection. These questions will help eliminate software that doesn’t fit your specific requirements and point you in the direction of software that suits your needs.
If finding the right CRM is something you are seriously interested in, this whitepaper is a great place for you to start.
Here are a few examples of questions that should be asked:
Do you want your CRM system to be hosted or on premise?
Interested in an on-premise solution? If yes, you should think about why you’re considering an on-premise software. Some people think it will cost less if they host it themselves on site, which isn’t necessarily true, and dependent on the software. Often times, it takes several years for on-premise solutions to “pay for themselves” after licensing, server fees, and yearly maintenance fees are accounted for. Some businesses have sensitive data and worry about security issues on the cloud. If you want to host your CRM software, make sure the reason makes sense.
What Department is driving the CRM search?
It’s important to know why you need your CRM software. Is the push for new software coming from your IT department, sales team, marketing team, or customer service department? Each department has very specific needs out of a CRM solution. If the push for new CRM software comes from your marketing team, then it’s important your CRM solution has great Marketing Automation integration. If it comes from your customer service department, then ticketing, field service, and case escalation is vital. Make sure you know which department is spearheading this purchase so you know what features are the most valuable to you.
To read a list of all the questions to consider before buying CRM download our white paper here.
Check out our Oracle On-demand vs. Salesforce CRM Comparison. Recently, the two companies have been going back and forth with one another about which product is better. We introduce the drama, and then encourage you to download our white paper.
What does Oracle On-demand have to say about Salesforce CRM?
Oracle On-demand announced plans to push into the $72 billion cloud-computing market in January of this year. Oracle president Mark Hurd gave more detail on the plan that Oracle first unveiled on January 15. Hurd spoke on how Oracle is trying to own a slice of the “infrastructure-as-a-service” (IaaS) market.
Cloud computing is a vast and ever growing market, involving software apps, storage, computing power, and other resources. The infrastructure part of cloud software usually involves providing the basic computing resources on which customers can run operating systems and software of their choosing.
Oracle’s proposed scheme is uniquely to the way most companies approach IaaS.
Oracle will install their high-end hardware, which they call engineered systems, loaded with Oracle software in a customer’s data center. The customer doesn’t share those systems with others—a differentiator from most cloud setups. It pays a monthly fee to rent them. This is often called a private cloud—but involving hardware, not just software. This is completely different from the current model most cloud CRM solutions provide, like Salesforce and SugarCRM.
It’s a bold new plan for Oracle and arguably a pretty smart one.
So what does Salesforce have to say vs. Oracle On-demand?
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff says Oracle doesn’t ‘get’ the cloud – Hurd responded that he didn’t really care what Benioff thought. The two companies have a history of heated debates – especially amidst their vocal CEOs. However, Benioff was right in some ways. Oracle can’t offer their software in the same way Salesforce.com can.
At a time when most enterprises are starting to experiment with cloud computing, Oracle is jumping in at the right moment. Most companies are intrigued by cloud computing but don’t quite trust their most important data and databases on it.
Pricing is another huge factor for companies considering CRM. In the debate between Oracle vs Salesforce what might attract some is that they won’t have to come up with thousands of dollars up front for Oracle on Demand.
Both Oracle and Salesforce offer powerful solutions for CRM software, we often have clients asking us about their differences… so we decided to make a comparison chart.
Oracle vs Salesforce | Complete Comparison Chart
We review the top CRM software solutions in the business and compare prices, features and options. The most sought after piece of information is always “How much is this going to cost us?”, we answer this question and more. Below is a snippet of the whitepaper.
White paper preview (download below):
Price is a huge factor in most decisions made around software selection. If you are looking for a CRM you probably want to know… how much does it cost? CRM users are slowly realizing how much of a loaded question that really is. Softwarefit is here to help. Download this white paper and find out once and for all how much CRM software really costs. We take a look at 12 of the best CRM platforms today and tell you:
- Cost per user
- Cost per software edition
- Storage costs/additional storage fees
- Cloud and on-site costs
- License and server fees
- Minimum amount of users
- First year cost for 5 users per year
We have condensed all this information into two concise graphs. No more confusion and no more reading between the lines. Compare prices of the best CRM software on the market today. Price shouldn’t be the only thing you base your CRM solution on but it is important to know so you can better evaluate your choices. If you would like to speak to someone directly about finding CRM for your company don’t hesitate to email us at info@softwarefit.com or call us 800.349.6829. Download our chart by clicking the link below.
Price Comparison – Top 12 CRMs
HubSpot vs Marketo Comparison Guide
Find out the different between HubSpot and Marketo by downloading our versus guide. HubSpot and Marketo, along with Eloqua and Pardot, are two of the bestselling marketing automation products on the market today – and for great reason. Both solutions offer features that other marketing automation software does not, they have established and proven track records and both are intuitive enough for new users to quickly master the software.
As companies become increasingly aware of the benefits behind marketing automation software; the demand for information on them rises. In response to this craving for marketing automation knowledge, Softwarefit has created a comprehensive chart with feature for feature and price comparison between these two software titans.
For more marketing automation white papers, check out our comparison of HubSpot vs. Pardot.
Features compared:
HubSpot vs Marketo
- Price
- Integration features
- File hosting
- Software limitation
- Support and training
- Mobile access
If you are trying to efficiently create more leads and a better ROI, then marketing automation software is a must have in today’s business world. If you want to all there is about two of the best marketing automation products on the market, then download our comparison chart now.
