Any business today that wants to survive, much less thrive, needs to employ effective CRM software if its business deals with customers. It does not matter if your business is new or very established, you need to have customers to drive your business; and you need effective and efficient customer relationship management solutions to help you as it is impossible to please your customers all the time on your own.
A good CRM solution is able to adjust to your business style and requirements; it allows your business to grow and the system grows together with you.
You can consider xCRM or On-Premise solutions depending on your user size, access, deployment and required features to boost your business.
Cloud-Based CRM Software
A cloud-based CRM is a popular solution where you can have both the application and the data accessible on the web quickly. This is also a good choice if you are new to solutions; CRM solution allows you the simplicity of working a application to confirm the best features applicable to your business before you move on an on-premise solution.
On-premise CRM Solution
An on-promise CRM solution is a best value, low cost full-featured that can be tailor to fit your business requirements. With an in-house database on your business and customers, you get better control over your system with faster Web access.
Advantages of cloud-based over on-premise CRM
However, for a small or simple business, CRM solutions offer more advantages over on-premise solutions. The former gives you the peace of mind in migration to an on-premise solution later with its flexibility. There are little differences in the technical requirements and no data loss on your migration from your system to an on-premise system.
One of the advantages of cloud-based over on-premise solutions is the need to set up a firm IT infrastructure with in-house IT support and resources for an on-premise solution while cloud-based CRM solution requires only a simple IT infrastructure with little IT support and customization. Integration requirements for a solution are very basic unlike the on-premise CRM solution.
A new set up with on-premise solution may find it difficult to integrate the necessary security or controls on its simple and new processes and small quantum of data; since, a CRM system is the better choice as no specialized data structures are required until your business processes expand with your data.
Another advantage of the cloud-based CRM solution is that it caters for consistent IT operating expenses on a monthly basis or lower IT systems capital expenditure whereas the on-premise system requires a sizable budget to cover for the larger start-up capital investment and other costs to be paid upfront.