A few years later, some innovative software vendors had resolved the technology issues with multi-tenancy hosting and automated billing systems. These Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers are generating plenty of buzz and are experiencing rapidly-growing demand due to their lower cost models compared to traditional on-premise software vendors.
Gartner predicts that by 2010 up to 30% of CRM software will be delivered via the hosted model, up from 10% in 2007.
So, who are the SaaS CRM providers? Well, some popular hosted CRM systems available to UK small and medium sized businesses include:
- Salesforce.com. An early entrant in hosted CRM, salesforce.com boasts an impressive list of marketing, sales force automation, customer service and support, and analytics features with many add-on products available from AppExchange.
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM. An established on-premise CRM vendor with robust marketing, sales and service/support features, Microsoft offers its own hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (only in North America) and partner-hosted CRM through its network of partners like Increase CRM in the UK.
- NetSuite. An early entrant in hosted accounting software, NetSuite now includes a robust range of CRM and ecommerce functionality.
- Oracle CRM On Demand. Having acquired Siebel Systems in 2006, Oracle now offers a complete range of CRM functionality with an emphasis on call centre automation and analytics.
- SageCRM.com. UK-based Sage offers its Sage CRM product as an hosted service with an integrated suite of marketing, salesforce automation and customer service functionality.
- Rightnow Technologies. For many years Rightnow Technologies has been best known for their customer service software. Having made a transition to an on-demand business model, Rightnow still lead this niche despite their acquisition of Salesnet.
- Sugar CRM. Sugar CRM is best known as the leading open source CRM software vendor. Sugar offers free CRM software source code, but also offers paid-for professional, enterprise and hosted versions for fans of the LAMP stack.
The hosted CRM market also has plenty of new and niche vendors too. But I get the feeling that with rampant industry consolidation, most CRM buyers (hosted or on-premise) are increasingly looking for vendors with a financial stability and a published product roadmap that they can rely on.
9 comments:
Just a tip...You'll pay a little bit more for the brand names of course, and they are usually not as easy to customize and integrate with.
Hi Darin, you're right about paying little bit more for brand names. Open source SaaS providers and niche or new entrants are often significantly less than the names I've mentioned.
Is there a reason for this? Well, aside from new entrants 'buying' their way into a market by undercutting the established vendors, I think the established vendors also have higher costs.
And this is where I disagree with your second point. It's usually easier to customise or integrate a big name SaaS provider's CRM software because they have invested much, much more in R&D than a niche provider in their product's customisation and integration technology. Also, they'll have hundreds or thousands of customers who have integrated their SaaS CRM system with another system. Niche vendors usually don't have ease of customisation or integration because they never had the R&D budget, and they are unlikely to ever have the sizeable customer or partner base where someone has already performed the customisation or integration you have in mind.
Whoops, sage link is broken :)
Thanks Dean, well spotted. Should be working now.
Don't forget Really Simple Systems Hosted CRM, www.reallysimplesystems.com - we are the largest UK vendor of hosted CRM systems!
Good article, but you have forgot to mention 2 great all-in-one solutions like zoho and kazeli.
More and more SME's are also looking to implement not only CRM but also other key application areas into one business platform.
Some of those above mentioned like netsuite do this but a little known but emerging uk company IPS with their i-Tr@der product is set to make a real impact in the coming 12 months!
Not only CRM the product includes integrated email, accounts, file storage and a host of collaborative tools.
The system is being offered also free for the first year and only £60 from month 13. This is for under 10 user licence.
So there are lots of emerging ideas which will make this whole arena very interesting in the coming years.
I completely agree with Chris above, niche and new CRM vendors are differentiating by providing other applications. One such vendor is iKeeperOnline - they have CRM, Document Management, Business Process and Project Management all in one. Completely missing is email - I guess they leave that to outlook, as it is by far the most widely used.
Hi, I'm all for innovation and new development, but my experiences with these 'home grown' systems hasn't been good. Good functionality but little scope for customisation. Support varies wildly and getting access to your data, for downloading, integration or reports is practically impossible because of the custom formats.
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