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The Advantages of a Custom CRM Solution
- August 14, 2019
- Posted by: Admin
- Category: Blogs, Business Intelligence, CRM, Workflow Automation
The growth in the global CRM market continues to accelerate. According to techspective, the global CRM market is now worth ~ $40B USD and is expected to surpass $80B USD by 2025. Despite this phenomenal growth, the CRM market is still dominated by off-the-shelf solutions that are “cookie-cutter” in design and that provide little to no options for customization.
These non-customized CRM solutions can significantly inhibit an enterprise’s ability to maximize the advantages of CRM adoption and to realize a robust ROI. As a result, companies are increasingly opting for digital CRM solutions that are customized to meet the unique needs of the enterprise.
What is driving the increased demand for custom CRM solutions? What are some of the inherent advantages of a custom CRM solution when compared to a typical off-the-shelf product?
Off-the-Shelf CRM Solutions – the Limitations
Static CRM solutions are inflexible and self-limiting. Enterprises saddled with these cookie-cutter solutions increasingly report a consistent listing of issues that limit business growth. These include….
- A lack of real-time visibility into shifting customer trends and demands
- Delayed reaction to coordination of internal resources to meet changing business conditions
- Lost business opportunities due to lack of flexible, and real-time, opportunity lifecycle management
- Reporting and dashboarding capabilities that are slow, static, and disconnected
- Poor quote-to-cash performance that degrades financial performance
- A CRM investment that delivers poor ROI and that cannot grow with the enterprise
All of the above can combine to limit the enterprise’s ability to fully capitalize on its hard-won business opportunities and, over time, limit its ability to create new opportunities.
A Customized CRM – What is it?
What is a “customized CRM”? Simply put, it is a holistic CRM solution that has been specifically tailored for the individual enterprise. The provider of a truly customized CRM solution will deliver a solution that has been designed to meet the specific—and unique—demands and objectives of the enterprise. A tailored CRM solution will address the enterprise’s sales and operational requirements as well as its customer experience objectives.
Unlike standard off-the-shelf CRM providers, a provider of enterprise-grade custom CRM solutions will employ a comprehensive project discovery and requirements gathering process. This is an integral process that provides the foundation for the development of a custom solution that will provide the enterprise with long term flexibility and scalability.
A customized digital CRM solution can provide distinct competitive advantages; including:
Dynamic, Flexible, Powerful, Real-Time Management and Engagement
A customized, technology-fueled, CRM solution provides the enterprise with the means with which to dynamically engage with customers in ways that build customer loyalty, generate market growth, and drive strong financial performance. Distinct advantages include:
- Real-time sales opportunity tracking. Helps eliminate lost opportunities due to slow or inadequate reaction.
- Customized, AI and IoT-fueled, data analytics. A customized CRM solution can be designed to deliver real-time insights. Allows the enterprise to anticipate, and then satisfy, the needs of the customer.
- Customizable Dashboards and Reports. Widget-based, customized, dashboards and reports that provide real-time data and actionable insights.
- Sales process automation. Intelligent Workflow-based automation and control of critical sales processes. Increases overall operational efficiency.
- Outstanding ROI. A custom CRM solution typically delivers superior ROI when compared to off-the-shelf CRM products.
Enterprises today spend considerable time, money, and effort in the development of customer relationships. For many enterprises, the continued use of CRM solutions that are rigid and outdated can prove to be impediments to business growth. When considering investment in a new CRM solution any enterprise will be well served by full consideration of a CRM solution that can be fully customized to meet its long-range requirements.
Client Says
We are implementing Plasma Ag Solutions across our network of locations. Plasma Ag provides several capabilities that stand out for our users such as Programs, Rebate management, and Inventory tracking. It is quite difficult to track margin information on crop protection products in our industry so our Owner Operators love the transparency the system provides. We utilize the system to professionalize our support to the network and it has become a bit success with all of them.
Several hundreds of our retail locations and joint ventures use Plasma Ag solutions as a part of their core operations. Plasma solutions provide very useful tools and deep insights to users – including tracking customer transactions and financial information. Their applications are tightly integrated with CRM, ERP, Accounting, and our other mission critical IT infrastructure and third-party systems. The dashboards provide rich analysis and insights that helps us adjust to the changing markets.
Plasma Ag solutions have been a tremendous asset to our operations. They offer powerful capabilities such as managing Retail programs, Products, Programs, local discounts, and wraps. Ability to track inventory at physical locations, calculating true and average costs, rebates and accruals on user-friendly and simple interfaces has helped us and our retail customers adopt Plasma Ag solutions quickly.
Our software, system and processes used to be an old struggling engine. Plasma team solved all that. With exceptional training and planning, their consultative executive team down to their support team executed the deployment with first-class speed and professionalism. Their platform not only removed all the pain points in my division, but also created a ripple effect benefiting my entire company.
It has been my experience that Plasma has the technical expertise, commitment, and work-ethic to deliver best-in-class solutions that allow business owners to fully realize business strategies and objectives. They work in a highly professional manner to ensure that the clients’ requirements and recommendations are fully realized. I would highly recommend Plasma for any web enablement initiative that you may be considering.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us as our online business partner. I don’t even consider our work with them outsourcing because Plasma management takes the time to truly understand our business and is able to direct its technology resources for the most efficient and quality output possible. I don’t think you can say that about many companies in their space.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us with our online requirements. I would recommend them to any company looking to better manage their online presence.
It has been my pleasure to work with the Plasma Team since August 2008. We have completed three major builds and multiple smaller projects in this time. I heartily recommend Plasma Comp to anyone needing a workable, practical and effective system solution. Plasma’s Q&A process was extremely thorough. They quickly understood what was needed and then worked the process with pointed and penetrating questions to ensure they had the entire picture of the finished product.
I think Plasma has come a long way in embracing our philosophy of becoming more agile, both leading and following in this area when necessary. The teams have been very open to change and have a great attitude. I have no complaints!
Plasma is a great vendor to work with. They took us from an email-based process to a fully designed, web-based workflow. They have dramatically changed how our devices are certified to be used on our network and they will save you time as well! One of the many processes in our current environment has saved us so much time; from four months down to a few days!
