Top CRM Solutions for your business
A CRM system is a web application that businesses use to organize information about their customers and leads. But a CRM system isn’t just a list of contacts. It contains customers’ details and history of their transactions with an organization, along with information about those customers’ place or status in the sales process.
Many CRM systems can hook into financial and accounting systems to help organizations track earnings and costs. They can also provide analytics that enable a business to better predict a customer’s future needs. Creating and maintaining relationships with customers can be a challenge. But it’s also essential for a business’ survival and growth. To maintain those relationships, a CRM system is a must. And CRM is one area in which open source shines brightly.
Top CRM systems based on Market Share
In this section our motive is to give you an idea of what the current market trend favors when it comes to CRM solutions. A majority of Corporates and Business that have a large customer data volume utilize proprietary CRM solutions. Such CRM solutions don’t come cheap but offer a lot of functionality that their open source counterparts don’t. Here are the Top CRM solutions in terms of Market share.
Oracle’s CRM products include Oracle Siebel CRM, Oracle CRM on Demand, Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle Contact Center Anywhere (CCA). The company retains over 5,000 global CRM customers, nearly 5 millions users and approximately 130 million self service users. Siebel Systems was the undisputed dominant CRM software vendor, peaking at 45% market share in 2002. Since being acquired by Oracle in 2005, the product has continued its assertive push however with stiff competition from arch rival SAP, and multiple ways to measure market share, both Oracle and SAP claim top CRM software industry position. Most analysts give Oracle a slight edge, however, it largely comes down to what variables are used and benchmarks are counted.
The SAP CRM solution is a fully integrated customer relationship management (CRM) software manufactured by SAP AG that targets business software requirements of midsize and large organizations for nearly all industries and sectors.
SAP’s CRM application includes several integrated modules that support key customer facing functional areas including: SAP CRM Sales (sales force automation), SAP CRM Marketing, SAP CRM Service, SAP CRM Interaction Center, SAP CRM Web Channel (which includes E-Commerce, E-Marketing and E-Service) and SAP CRM Partner Channel Management.
Similar to competitor Oracle, SAP has released a SaaS CRM product, called SAP Sales on Demand. However, this online solution is far more designed to extend the on-premise products than transition SAPs install base to the cloud.
Salesforce.com has become a leading provider of customer management software applications with the maximum market share, delivered via the software-as-a-service or cloud computing model. The company’s flagship solution is a customer relationship management (CRM) system designed for businesses of all sizes and industries worldwide.
Salesforce also provides a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution called Force.com and manages a portfolio of integrated third party systems in an online ecosystem it calls AppExchange. Salesforce.com markets its CRM and enterprise software solutions to businesses on a subscription basis, primarily through a direct sales model but also indirectly through a business partner channel.
Microsoft is the number second CRM market share leader. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has become the second highest growth customer relationship management software solution (behind only Salesforce.com).
Microsoft CRM is unique in an increasingly crowded CRM software marketplace as the same code set can be implemented on-premise or used in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) remote delivery model. Also, customers have the option to subscribe to Dynamics CRM directly from Microsoft or may choose from a plethora of specialized Microsoft partners.
The company’s most recent release now allows SaaS customers and business partners to install sever-side code in the Microsoft cloud and data centers. Microsoft’s CRM offering will also continue to advance in combination with Azure, its high profile public cloud. Additional unique Microsoft CRM product strengths include seamless integration with MS Outlook, Office & SharePoint; highly configurable role-based workflows; business intelligence (BI) and analytics; a suite of strong technology tools for software integration and customization; and the lowest Total Cost of Ownership among the top 5 CRM solutions.
Top Open Source CRM Solutions
SugarCRM is arguably the most well-known and most popular open source CRM system. It’s also the basis for several other CRMs including SuiteCRM and Vtiger.
SugarCRM performs just about every function a business might need, including customer, lead, and contract management; reporting and analytics; mobile support; and a suite of marketing tools.
SugarCRM is available in two versions: a hosted version and a Community edition.
The hosted version is a paid version, and is available in three packages . Users can also download the Community edition and install it on their own servers.
The Community edition lacks a number of the features of the hosted version, but is definitely useful for smaller businesses.
While Vtiger is based on SugarCRM, it’s not a feature-for-feature clone. It has all of the core functions found in SugarCRM, but is missing some collaboration, task management, and third-party integration features out of the box.
It’s a good choice for small or medium-sized businesses. Like the Community edition of SugarCRM, Vtiger packs the features smaller organizations need and it’s extensible via add-ons.
Users can download Vtiger and install it on their own servers, or use the hosted version. The latter costs $12 per user per month, and is available for a test drive
Two aspects of CiviCRM set it apart from other CRM tools: it’s aimed at non-profits, and it’s designed to work with Drupal, Joomla!, or WordPress—which means that non-profits can integrate it with their existing websites or content management systems fairly seamlessly.
Everything about this CiviCRM revolves around its non-profit focus. Not only can it help track contacts and donors, but it can also help keep tabs on contributions, dofundraising, and plan and monitor campaigns.
A demo version is available, and the entire tool is available for download. A number of third parties offer hosted versions of CiviCRM.
What happens when you combine CRM and put in a few gaming elements? You get Zurmo. Not only does it pack the features that organizations expect from a CRM system—like contact management, deal tracking, mobile capabilities, and reporting—it also rewards people for using the system.
According to its developers, Zurmo “uses game mechanics to reward an individual’s usage of the system and promote best practice behaviour.” This encourages users to explore Zurmo: the more areas they explore and use, the more rewards (like badges and coins to purchase rewards) they earn.
Zurmo offers an online demo, as well as a free trial of the hosted version. The source code is also available.
Online Tools to choose your best CRM
There are plently of tools available online that help you choose the CRM which is most suitable to your needs. They can be a really good starting point if you are finding yourself in unknown waters.
- https://www.choosemycrm.co.uk/
- http://crm-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
Conclusion
Choosing a Customer Relationship Management system for your business is a daunting task. With every vendor jumping on the buzzword bandwagon, how can you choose a CRM with Confidence? As it turns out there is no smoke and mirrors. Narrow it down to the top 5 who take the time to understand your needs, have experience with many different customers, and that has a history if innovation in partnership with the customer. From there, get a demo of the offerings, and beware of Vaporware from many vendors. Finally, make sure you make a long wish list, separating wants from needs, in the short and long term after you have seen what is out there. Cloud CRM has been dominating business growth for over a decade, and you would be surprised at what amazing things can be done quickly and at low risk.
