Recent trends have shown a major inclination towards SaaS-based services over traditional on-premise services. The concept of on demand CRM came into being nearly a decade ago but could not flourish due to limited internet coverage. The advent of cloud computing and mobile internet revolution is proving to be a win-win for CRM providers, users and developers. A report says “SaaS deployments of CRM will reach a maximum of 80% to 85% by 2025” which is said to have risen over 50% now in 2015.
The new generation of CRM practices is closely associated with some of the rapidly growing fields in Information Technology viz. Social Media, Data Analytics and many more. Hence there is no reason to believe that CRM platforms running on SaaS is going to die any time in the future.
SaaS-CRM & Social Media
Today, CRM and Social Media work on mutual-ism, constantly benefiting from one another. The increasing engagement with customers, accelerating expectations of responsiveness and many other new age requirements has driven companies to adopt SaaS-based CRM.
- Social Media channels generate huge volumes of user generated contents created by numerous users around the globe. It is close to impossible to store such huge chunks of data into Legacy CRM systems “locally”. The SaaS model makes it possible to store the data in the cloud accessible though social media front-ends.
- SOA and Cloud Computing helps reduce considerable amount of time and also help making the system cost tremendously effective when it comes to facilitating plug-n-play modules. Unlike traditional CRM‘s only this has the capability to cope with the rapidly evolving Social Media Space.
Click here to read how content marketing along with CRM integration helped generate over $7,800 per month for us. Most of the digital marketing companies either miss out on aspect of integrating the back-end for meaningful result or end up buying costly services.
SaaS-CRM & Analytics
Introducing and integrating Analytics has completely changed the face of Customer Relationship Management. It has helped accelerate business agility & innovation, shaping future business outcomes, gaining a 360-view of business insights and much more.
CRM Analytics when introduced into the cloud makes it a beast. It can be used for in numerous analysis –
- Profitability Analysis
- Customer segmentation grouping
- Personalization
- Event monitoring
- Predictive modeling
Benefits of SaaS-CRM analytic leads to improved and productive customer relations with respect to sales and service. It also effective improves supply chain management and hence lower costs and more competitive pricing.
Is on demand CRM good for you
In order to figure out the answer for this question, you must reflect on the following points. Essentially these are the parameters you need to consider before making the decision.
- System administration – Do you have existing OS admin who have the capability to monitor and troubleshoot your CRM server? You may very well have the required expertise in-house, however, if you are looking at outsourcing, it could mean a lot of investment. On demand applications take this load off your shoulder.
- Mobile Field Sales Staff – If your field staff is mobile, you might as well go for on demand CRM. If not, you run into problem of getting it exposed via the web by using static IP or other something similar. Moreover in this case your security considerations would increase.
- Integration Aspect – Most of the on demand CRM solution have matured integration features. This may be a plus if you are looking at leveraging integration of CRM with other applications in your landscape.
SAAS Advantages
SaaS is here to remain the commanding cloud model of the future. Smart businesses that are looking to focus more time and energy on their core objectives rather than burrowing in the IT weeds should evaluate whether the benefits are in line with their own corporate goals.
With the advantages, SaaS remains a model for technology to drive and deliver innovation in businesses. In the enterprise, SaaS is also going strong. Salesforce is the de-facto CRM package and a host of numerous providers.
1. Cost
Earlier, companies would require to buy, build, and maintain IT infrastructures to support application deployment. With SaaS, the only framework needed is internet connectivity. Rather than paying a colossal licensing fee, companies pay on a subscription basis, similar to a monthly magazine subscription.
2. Flexibility and speed
The multi-tenacious model of SaaS generally allows organisations to scale rapidly without incurring additional infrastructure or staffing costs. As a technology user/buyer, one can easily try out a few subscription seats on the platform. Service providers can readily support customers and respond to changing market requirements faster than with on-premise softwares.
While this is important in and of itself, it is further pertinent for volatile markets and industries. What’s more, SaaS solutions can be provisioned with great speed, often with simply a browser and an internet connection from a wide range of desktop and mobile devices.
3. Integration
Implementing a SaaS solution can occur without disrupting daily businesses and without necessitating a rip-and-replace exercise for a legacy IT system. It integrates with your existing investments, rather than displacing them. In fact, many SaaS products come with ready-made tools to integrate with popular packages.
Conclusion
Major CRM providers have already converted & launched their SaaS-based CRM platforms. It’s a matter of time when all the legacy CRM’s get converted into the cloud. This would not only change the face of Customer Relationship Management but also will save companies money in the long run.