CRM Blog

CRM Cost

CRM cost is a two-fold topic. The first part deals with how much it costs to implement a CRM software system. The second part addresses which on-going business costs are reduced when implementing a CRM.

Cost-CRM cost reductions

• Activity Knowledge. There is no longer a question of how much activity took place with a client or with a territory.
• Manual Reporting. This point not only represents the hours spent each week develping a sales report for the manager. It also addresses the job satisfaction for the Sales Rep who is missing hours with his family while creating those manual reports. And lower employee turnover represents saved employee training requirements.
• Time lost searching for documents. The Delphi Group in boston reports that their research discovered that 30% of employee time is spent trying to locate “lost” documents. Shocking? Check your own organization and you might be surprised at your own results.
• Segmented Marketing. Rather than sending marketing materials to the wrong target audience, save your money and focus your marketing on the correct segment.
• Customer Service Portal. If you have a properly integrated CRM portal, you will be able to reduce staffing costs for customer service.
• Printing. With prooer document management, there is less need for everyone to have their own printed version of a specific contract or PDF.
• Consolidated Software Systems. When implemented wholistically, a CRM will replace the need for multiple spreadsheets as well as other systems.
• Lead Management. If your leads are being properly directed into the CRM and distributed to the appropriate employee, leads can be contacted quicker and more efficiently.



CRM Costs compared with our TCO Comparison tool

Click here to access and download our Free CRM TCO Calculator Tool.

With this tool, you will be able to identify the key TCO line items that are relevant for any CRM implementation. We have also included data for comparing CRM software systems such as Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Sage CRM, Sage SalesLogix and more. You will be able to view the 3 Year and 5 Year Total Cost of Ownership for both SaaS (Online/On-Demand) and Licensed (On-premise) pricing models.

TCO line items include:

1. Annual License/User price
2. Support
3. Hardware (incl. Server and Users)
4. Implementation
5. Staff
6. Network
7. Mobile
8. and much more.

Free Excel CRM Tool to Compare CRM Systems

Click here to access and download our Free Excel CRM Comparison Tool.

With this tool, you will be able to identify the key similarilites and differences between 9 of the top CRM systems, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sage SalesLogix, GoldMine, Sage ACT!, Pivotal and more.

Comparison Topics include:

1. Key CRM Features
2. Pricing (Licensing, etc..)
3. Available Modules (e.g. SFA, Marketing, Service, etc)
4. Feature Details (Sync, Call Center, Quoting, E-commerce, Lead Management, Security, Workflow, and much more.
5. Hardware and Network support (Microsoft, Linux, etc…)
6. Industry/NAICS

Salesforce and Microsoft CRM 2011 Review Webinar

Join us for our webinar series as we explore the points outlined below – and hope to provide you valuable insight about this top-rated CRM solution. We hope that our comparison with Salesforce.com will help you on in your CRM evaluation.

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What is SaaS CRM?

SaaS means Software-as-a-Service, and the trend in the market right now is clearly from the license model toward the SaaS hosting model. As this is not a traditional pricing model, this article aims at covering the key CRM pricing questions that you need to ask.

CRM Startup Costs

This is a nice area for vendors to cash in on. Certain vendors have charged over $50,000 to simply begin the online service.

Contract Extensions

Be sure to find out what the pricing model will look like when your current CRM SaaS contract expires. Certain vendors are well known for giving stunning price breaks on the initial 12-24 months – yet not extending that pricing. If you are promised a price extension, get it in writing before you move ahead.

Included Features

This is a difficult area to analyze. It can be helpful to create a grid in Excel and compare the various features that each CRM system is touting. Be detailed, so that you can make a true apples-to-apples comparison. Although it might seem that all CRM solutions have the same basic features, this is not really true from our experience. 

Future Features

Don’t just analyze the features you need now. Make sure your strategic staff has discussed and analyzed the direction of your company. And make sure to bring up these points with your CRM vendor.

ERP Integration

Although everyone says that integration is possible, make sure to really define what “integration” means. Is it a view into the tables? Or rather an import? Does it include workflow or automation?

Synchronization

Does the CRM allow for offline synchronization. i.e. Are my users able to work in the CRM system while on an airplane flight? What are the extra costs involved with offline CRM sync?

Does the CRM allow for mobile integration? What mobile solutions are able to sync with the CRM? iPhone? Blackberry? Android? Windows Mobile 7? What are the extra costs involved with this mobile integration?

Storage

One of the most hidden costs in any CRM implementation is Storage pricing.  Do yourself a favor and clarify the storage costs for (a) for the database size as well as (b) attachments. Secondly, find out if those prices are on  per database or rather a per user basis. This is particularly crucial when examining Salesforce.com.

Data Extraction/Migration

PWill it cost me anything to move my data away from this CRM system in the future. Certain CRM systems will not allow this for the introductory pricing package. Therefore, unless you first upgrade for a year (per user), you don’t have access to your data. Be careful, or this one may come back to haunt you.

Bonus 1: Free Excel CRM Price Calculator. This tool will compare On-Premise as well as Online CRM Pricing.

Click here to access and download our Free CRM TCO Price Calculator.

With this tool, you will be able to identify the key Pricing line items that are relevant for any CRM implementation. We have also included data for contrasting CRM software systems such as Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Sage CRM, Sage SalesLogix and more. You will be able to view the 3 Year and 5 Year Total Cost of Ownership for both SaaS (Online/On-Demand) and Licensed (On-premise) pricing models.

TCO line items include:

1. Implementation
2. Annual License/User price
3. Network
4. Support
5. Mobile
6. Hardware (incl. Server and Users)
7. Staffing
8. and much more.

Bonus 2: Free Excel Tool to Compare CRM Solutions

Click here to access and download our Free Excel CRM Comparison Tool.

With this tool, you will be able to identify the key similarilites and differences between 9 of the top CRM systems, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sage SalesLogix, GoldMine, Sage ACT!, Pivotal and more.

Comparison Topics include:

1. Pricing (Licensing, etc..)
2. Key CRM Features
3. Industry/NAICS
4. Hardware and Network support (Microsoft, Linux, etc…)
5. Available Modules (e.g. SFA, Marketing, Service, etc)
6. Feature Details (Sync, Call Center, Quoting, E-commerce, Lead Management, Security, Workflow, and much more.

National CRM Consulting and Training

With locations throughout the United States, Accent Gold Solutions is able to provide CRM training, consulting and implementation service whereever you are. Please contact us to find out the best way to get your CRM project underway. Remember, step 1 is to figure out what your business requirements are, and step 2 is to select the proper CRM system for your individual needs.

Being certified in various CRM systems such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sage SalesLogix CRM, Sage ACT!, SAP CRM and more, we are confident we can advise you as to the proper CRM software to fit your business.

Whether you are looking for a CRM implementation in Denver, Colorado or Des Moines, Iowa, we can get your CRM solution designed, implemented and trained so that your users will love it and use it. We define our success by your CRM adoption rate. So call us to get started!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Pricing Webinars

Join us for our webinar series as we explore the points outlined below – and hope to provide you valuable insight about this top-rated CRM solution. We hope that our comparison with Salesforce.com will help you on in your CRM evaluation. We will be hosting this series every Wednesday at 11:00 am December – February.

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CRM for Free

Fascinating article by Aberdeen Group on comparing freeware CRM software vs paid CRM. We all want to (and sometimes need to) start out with inexpensive software.

But there comes a time when that may come back to haunt us. When is the right time to switch from free CRM to paid CRM? According to Aberdeen Group, it might be sooner than you think.

Free CRM Online-How valuable is your (wasted) time?

To read the entire CRM White Paper, ==>click here<==

Freeware CRM Software-Article Topics include:

1. Managing Customer Relationships: The Choice between what’s Cheap and what Works.
2. The importance of taming Information Overload
3. Manual Methods for Organizing Outreach
4. Freemium: The Good, The Bad, and the Costly
5. Case Study of American Health Insurance in California
6. Support and Training
7. Who owns the  data?
8. Contact Management: Working with you, not against you.
9. Case Study: Hawaii commercial Real Estate

Key Takeaways from this article are as follows:

1. Weigh your current business needs against future growth
2. Empower sales to sell
3. Be clear on who owns the data
4. Free is only free if you don’t value your own time

Now that you’ve read about it, do you now need a CRM Marketing demo? Just contact us for more info or pricing data. We would love to answer your questions and get you going in the right direction!

Free CRM Software Download

If you are in need of a Free CRM Software Download, head on over to SugarCRM and download their free Community Edition. It has all the essentials and most of the bells and whistles you might need for a CRM starter implementation.

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Microsoft CRM vs Salesforce.com: Consider this?

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 out, the race between Microsoft CRM and Salesforce became a lot closer. If you are considering the investment into Salesforce CRM and you haven’t looked at Microsoft CRM, first consider the below. If you are a business that utilizes Microsoft Office applications, including Microsoft Outlook, choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 over Salesforce.com is a probably the way to go.

Here are the key differentiators that make Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 the better investment:

1) Value Matters

• Microsoft CRM 2011 Online – $34/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• Salesforce Professional – $65/user/mo. (Very LIMITED functionality)
• Salesforce Enterprise – $125/user/mo. (Salesforce most popular, and the only version that Compares to MS CRM 2011)
• Salesforce Unlimited – $250/user/mo.

2) Hidden Costs – aka, the Salesforce Tax

• Microsoft CRM 2011 Online – $44/user/mo. – one version, includes everything
• Salesforce – Data Storage (5GB) – $1,000/year
• Salesforce – Mobile $50/user/mo.
• Salesforce– Knowledge Base – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – Customer Portal – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – Partner Portal – extra $/user/mo.
• Salesforce – They have no SLA available. Microsoft CRM 2011 has a 99.9% uptime, financially backed SLA.

3) Office Experience

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a true Microsoft Outlook application, not just a plugin
• Salesforce is repealing Outlook features; for example, users can’t manage opportunities and leads anymore
• Salesforce doesn’t have a concept of a fluid user interface

4) Dashboards

• Microsoft CRM 2011 inherits security and data privileges…Salesforce does not.
• Microsoft CRM 2011 allows charts, lists, iFrames to be displayed…Salesforce only reports
• Microsoft CRM 2011 dashboard data is real time…Salesforce has a lag of 30-60 minutes
• Microsoft CRM 2011 allows for unlimited data refreshes. Salesforce limits refreshes

  

5) Inline Analytics

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers Inline Analytics…Salesforce does not have a parallel offering
• Salesforce users must leave their task or process…open reports or dashboards..and hope that they don’t get distracted

6) One-Click Drill Down

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers One-Click drill down…Salesfoce does not have a parallel offering
• Salesforce users can click on a static image of a chart to pull up the full report. From the full report they can drill down…7-15 clicks vs. 4 clicks with Microsoft CRM 2011

7) User Interface Customizations

• Microsoft CRM 2011 offers a new drag and drop capability for end users that is easy to user
• Salesforce offers User Interface personalization…but users can’t revert changes
• Salesforce personalization features are for power users and administrators only

Need to decrease the number of users? Salesforce does not allow the number of user subscriptions purchased to be decreased during the subscription term.

Now this does not mean that Salesforce is not a good solution but consider the above we do believe that Microsoft CRM 2011 is a much better investment, at a much lower cost for pretty much the same functionality.

Microsoft CRM 2011 Review Webinars

Join us for our webinar series as we explore the points outlined below – and hope to provide you valuable insight about this top-rated CRM solution. We hope that our comparison with Salesforce.com will help you on in your CRM evaluation. We will be hosting this series every Wednesday at 11:00 am December – February.

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Microsoft CRM 2011 pricing and TCO – Is it worth it?

JOIN OUR WEBINAR SERIES as we examine Microsoft CRM 2011 on Total Cost of Ownership - Is Microsoft CRM worth it? 

According to Gartner, Microsoft is one of three front runners when it comes to CRM systems but with this pricing they will have the lowest Total Cost of Ownership. If Are you concerned about the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of CRM then join our in-depth TCO assessment of MS CRM 2011 as we explore the pricing and costs involved.

We have done an detailed TCO analysis of Microsoft CRM 2011, and we are thrilled to reveal our results in our live webinars on December 22, 2010 and repeated on January 26, 2011.

Are you interested in doing more with less? If so, then an obvious question comes up – Can you justify the costs for a CRM solution? Web based CRM has tremendous benefits of course, if it’s really leveraged, but what are some factors that might it worth the investment?

Join us for this webinar as we explore the below topics why we believe Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 online was designed to ensure maximal efficiency with limited budget.

• Quick implementation
• Affordable adjustment and customization
• User adoption
• Scalability
• Automate business processes

Our staff of Microsoft CRM certified consultants has examined Microsoft’s newest CRM release. And so far it seems to be living up to the expectations.

Webinar Series (each Wednesday at 11am PST)

Accent Gold is excited to be hosting a webinar series over the next two months underlining the much talked about new release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Please register below.

The next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, officially named Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, is being eagerly awaited by business partners and end-users alike. It will offer a whole range of more than 500 new features, changes, additions, add-ons and enhancements that promise to strengthen Microsoft CRM’s position as a frontrunner in the CRM market.

Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, said “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011…offers new levels of user productivity and collaboration that meet their specific business needs with a low total cost of ownership…this new release raises the bar in the CRM market.”

At Accent Gold, we are curious as to whether Microsoft CRM 2011 will gain significant market share? We have invested quite a bit of time with the MS CRM 2011 beta release and believe the following features will strongly affect the marketplace:

• -New Dashboards with near business intelligence level functionality
• -Integration with Outlook: A next-generation native Microsoft CRM for Outlook client
• -Usability: Microsoft Office contextual CRM Ribbon for Office navigation and user experience
• -User personalization and Role-tailored design
• -Flexible deployment options: Cloud-based as well as On-Premise deployment
• -Reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

Join us for our webinar series as we explore the above points and hope to provide you valuable insight about this much anticipated CRM solution. We hope that our MS CRM review will help you on in your CRM evaluation. We will be hosting this series every Wednesday at 11:00 am December – February.

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