CRM is a key focus for most as they look for rapid business growth – especially in their difficult early years. In traditional IT environments, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often start out by implementing a solution that sits somewhere on the spectrum from simple contact manager software right through to full-featured CRM.
Where they begin on that spectrum depends on their size and the nature of their business. Unfortunately, getting started typically involves buying expensive software and hardware systems which are likely to also prove complex and costly to install, maintain and upgrade.
In contrast, switching to a cloud-based CRM solution enables SMEs to gain full access to a CRM solution, anytime and anywhere, that is fully customable to the small businesses needs.
The fact that cloud applications do not require complex IT infrastructures drives down upfront capital expenses and running costs – a key consideration for any small business – and even more so in today’s difficult economic times.
Starting up is fast and simple. You can easily import data from systems like Gmail, ACT! or Outlook and get going in practically no time. Cloud-based CRM is also easy to use. Interacting with the best of these systems is just like interacting with a consumer website. Critically too, you can adapt and customise the solution without the need for code.
It is reassuring to know you don’t have to be a software programmer to be able to tailor your CRM system to the precise requirements of your business. With just a few simple mouse clicks you can amend fields to suit your business needs.
You can change the names of tabs and create new ones that make sense for your organisation and the sector in which it works. In other words, you don’t have to change the way you do business to fit the application. Instead, you can change the application to fit you.
This ease of customisation is a key benefit for any SME as it helps save valuable time, conserve valuable resources and ultimately drive business productivity.
Cloud-based CRM also helps small businesses to avoid the need to handle time-consuming upgrades in-house. These are managed by the provider instead. Everything happens automatically so you can stay focused on your business.
In addition, this kind of approach is typically extremely secure. Small business CRM data and interactions can be kept safe with multiple levels of the industry’s best and most proven safeguards including firewalls, encryption, authentication, backup and recovery, intrusion detection and more.
