Why buy a server?
For years CRM Online organizations have been marketing their solution as a “cost effective” way to get into an enterprise application. Usually, the only way their argument works is if an organization had extremely high IT costs. Most SMB organizations do a good job controlling IT costs, so the primary cost benefit touted by Hosted CRM vendors does not necessarily hold up to the key analytical eye of the CFO.
For many SMB organizations, Hosted applications such as CRM solved non-economic issues. Companies did not have to be concerned about connectivity, server up-time, a distributed workforce, ease of start-up, etc. Organizations that based their purchase decision on one (or more) of the aforementioned reasons, found Hosted CRM the way to go.
As a consulting organization that has spent the last 10 years selling and implementing On-Premise CRM, Core Solutions takes a different approach to framing the CRM purchase decision. We know that most organizations already have the infrastructure to support a CRM implementation, and that the substantial costs savings achieved by bringing the solution On-Premise would usually outweigh the ease-of-implementation argument.
What Has Changed?
Microsoft has aggressively changed the landscape as it relates to Hosted CRM. The new Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is a full-featured product that can go toe-to-toe with any product on the market. But the real game changer is the price. At $34.95 a month per user*, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 alters the On-Premise/On-Line argument. Now, the annual cost per user is approximately 1/3 the software purchase price, as opposed to competitive offerings that have annual costs per user approximately equal to the first year purchase price.
Clearly, there are still valid reasons to bring software On-Premise. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 can be deployed either way. But if you’re on the fence, or are thinking that a Hosted CRM application is worth a try, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 you can start hosted and move to On-Premise without the loss of data or the need for data conversion. If you’re a current On-Premise customer and want to move to Hosted, no problem, your data can similarly be moved without conversion from On-Premise to Hosted.
To learn more about On-Premise vs. Hosted options, contact . We’ll be happy to help you decide which is right for you.
* Promotional pricing expires June 30, 2011. Non-promotional price is $44.00/user per month.
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Most of the CRM software packages are in the cloud these days, think of Salesforce, Microsoft, Efficy, superoffice, etc. All these software systems are web-based, which is basically the down-to-earth term for cloud software.