We are currently evaluating CRM choices, with a focus on sales but
with the intent of using these resources for overall improvements in
company operations. A contractor is in our office full time for the
next five months to complete the evaluation. But before he gets too
far into the process, I want to make sure we are shortlisting the
right options.
Currently on the list is Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com, and ACT! But
there are many other possibilities out there and we may be eliminating
the best candidates from consideration. (The three choices are in
place because we currently have (underutilized) ACT!, Salesforce.com
has marketed its web based application very effectively and Microsoft
is, well, Microsoft.)
Issues for us:
Initial cost (ideally) should be very low.
The CRM methodology should be either scalable or adaptable to a growing business
Our company operates over a wide North American geography, with purely
local products (regional construction newspapers) represented by reps
at some distance apart (often in teams of two or more, again, at
distance).
"Computer literacy" varies, but is generally not high. Most of our
representatives work from their own homes, again far from head office.
The 'raw material' including initial prospect data, etc., is often in
'rough' form, like faxes and other documents where manual keying is
necessary.
The challenge here is to narrow down a maximum of five specific
recommendations (with reasoning) for more detailed evaluation at our
end. We can then put the short list through rigorous review and make
an informed final decision. |
Request for Question Clarification by
easterangel-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 15:20 PST
Hi!
I was able to find articles providing product reviews and usability
tests of different CRM products. An example will be like the article
below:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1495997,00.asp
If this ok with you, I have some more products and more recent (ie 2004) reviews.
Would links to articles like these be acceptable as an answer?
Thanks!
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Clarification of Question by
marbuck-ga
on
31 Oct 2004 16:45 PST
To some extent, yes, but the biggest challenge will be for you to
isolate five specific recommendations based on the criteria in my
original question. (Simple listings of review pieces won't do it for
$100 (I could get that information within minutes myself!)
To provide this kind of recommendation will require you to either know
the topic and issues quite well, or to delve within the review
articles etc and establish the links to the criteria I provided. (If
I could -- the question is closed -- now I would remvoe the "maximum
of" and just state it at 5 recommendations. In other words, I don't
want an endless catalogue of choices but still want a minimum of two
alternatives to the three in our current short-list (and if one or all
of the short-list are 'no good' -- then additional choices to make up
the 5.)
The review articles, of course, provide background documentation and
justification for the recommendations and can therefore justifiably be
the basis for the answer.
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Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
03 Nov 2004 14:56 PST
marbuck-ga:
A few clarifying tidbits might help in defining the choice criteria here.
1. Do you need the CRM system to integrate with any existing systems
that are already in place, such as Order Management,
Accounting/Billing, and fulfillment systems?
2. What computing and connectivity resources are already in place with
your distributed sales force, ie. do you already have remote access
capabilities such as a VPN gateway?
3. What level of in-house support would there be post-launch, for
training and support of the system users (both remote and at HQ)?
4. How dynamic is your staffing level, do you have rapid turnover of reps?
5. Would you expect the reps to directly interface with the CRM system
themselves for both data entry and customer data mining, or will there
be in-house resources available at HQ to assist with this?
Thanks,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
marbuck-ga
on
03 Nov 2004 16:41 PST
These are excellent clarification requests. I will do my best to answer:
A few clarifying tidbits might help in defining the choice criteria here.
1. Do you need the CRM system to integrate with any existing systems
that are already in place, such as Order Management,
Accounting/Billing, and fulfillment systems?
This would of course be ideal, though I appreciate integration can be
a challenge. Currently we use the Publishing Business System(PBS)
order management system. PBS offers 'integrated' solutions but we
aren't totally happy with PBS and don't want to work too far off that
platform. I need to verify with our accounting officer our current
accounting system.
2. What computing and connectivity resources are already in place with
your distributed sales force, ie. do you already have remote access
capabilities such as a VPN gateway?
We have some remote access capabilities and VPN facilities.
3. What level of in-house support would there be post-launch, for
training and support of the system users (both remote and at HQ)?
Support is not overwhelming; we have someone on a five month contract
to develop and introduce the CRM system
4. How dynamic is your staffing level, do you have rapid turnover of reps?
there is a fair degree of stability in our staff although there can be
turnover from new employees who don't 'fit'.
5. Would you expect the reps to directly interface with the CRM system
themselves for both data entry and customer data mining, or will there
be in-house resources available at HQ to assist with this?
We'll have some in-house support though ideally the reps would be able
to do most of this themselves.
On the basis of the first comment posted to this question, our
in-house researcher has started exploring the open source option.
However, I am happy to leave the question open.
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